Week 11: Second Life

Second Life is an online virtual world with regions or islands set up buy businesses, organizations, and private individuals. It is extremely interactive and offers new ways to collaborate and share ideas.

Being new to Second Life, I found myself utterly lost trying to find resources with educational relevance. After a long and frustrating journey searching Second Life for educational uses, I found the ISTE Island. This island offered links to resources and places to attend virtual workshops. As I explored more search features in the program I found numerous university websites including the Educational Technology location on the Boise State Island. I also located several virtual tours such as: the Alamo and Crab Fishing in Alaska. I found these to be very interesting and informative.

There were several negatives I found with Second Life. First, I was disappointed with the lack of users I encountered while using Second Life and believe that it may have been the times when I was on. I also found it very difficult to find relavent locations. However I do believe more experience would help this tremendously. But the biggest negative aspect is the amount of adult content. It seems that there is little or no censorship in Second Life.

I believe that Second Life does have uses in education. It provides a unique and interactive experience for distance education by allowing people to "see" each other. As I wandered through islands in Second Life, I sat in on a discussion and listened to students collaborate on educational policies. It also provides a vivid experience by allowing students to have virtual field trips instead of viewing only pictures and videos.