Re: [school-discuss] Massive Multiplayer Worlds as Classrooms

[Shane Coyle <shane@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday 15 November 2006 20:18, Bill Kendrick wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 14, 2006 at 07:49:31PM -0700, Jamey Osborne wrote:
> > As a platform for education, the possibilities offered by virtual
> > worlds are enormous. The possibilities for collaboration are equally
> > rich and I encourage other educators to take a look at virtual worlds
> > with open eyes.
>
> I'm one of those old-school gamer geeks (Atari 2600, Nintendo NES, etc.)
> who doesn't yet 'get' Second Life.
>
> I keep seeing articles about big business using SL as a means for holding
> 'virtual meetings', but still don't understand how something like SL helps
> with that, or what people get out of it.
>
> I haven't yet looked at the blog link you posted, but wondered if you could
> summarize:  how exactly do students and teachers benefit from a 3D virtual
> environment such as SL?
>
> I could imagine a tool kind of like this could be cool for teaching physics
> or astronomy or something, but then the MMPORPG aspect of it just seems
> gimmicky, and I would probably end up saying:  "just give me a dedicated
> learning tool for this." :^)
>
> -bill!

I, too, am not a 'gamer' (except for Tiger Woods on PS2 - I RULE, but anyhow) 
but the virtual worlds seem to allow students a richer interactive 
environment than traditional distance-learning websites, which is more 
engaging and less inhibitive.  Also, SL seems to stand out in terms of its 
features that allow for content creation and interaction with the 
environment, there is a whole industry that has popped up of folks who create 
and sell SL objects (although today there was an article about a 'copybot' 
that is threatening to destroy that economy).

In my opinion, in the end, it is all about the teachers and their 
content/curriculum, but ideas such as these can allow for inclusion of 
students from all socioeconomic and geographic regions.  Imagine classes 
comprised of students from all around the world, simultaneously, 
collaborating in a rich virtual environment.  I am not sure we are there yet, 
but this has potential in certain areas.

All this, and I've never played SL, just been hearing alot about it.
-- 
Shane Coyle
www.edu-nix.org
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