My 2 cents - it would be really fun for students who are already online
gamers or used to an avatar environment, and pretty hard for those who are
new to it. But I haven't tried it with learners. Has anyone?

Also, I guess you would have to hook up with an organization that has land
so you would have a place to meet. Not hard, but takes some looking
around. How would others handle this? You definitely don't want to build
your own environment!

Marian Thacher
OTAN
www.otan.us

The Technology and Literacy Discussion List <technology at nifl.gov> on
Friday, August 24, 2007 at 6:24 AM -0800 wrote:

>Our freshman seminar is structuring its class as "Survivor," with tribes,

>tribal councils, challenges, and the like. We're using a wiki for group

>collaboration. Would "Second Life" work for that kind of environment?

>Bonnie Odiorne, Ph.D. adjunct professor, director, writing center

>Post University, Waterbury, CT

>

>Marian Thacher <mthacher at otan.us> wrote:

>

>  

>Right, Barry, Second Life is like Real Life in that way - you have to

>figure out your own mission - no small task sometimes!

>

>But if you were meeting your students in a particular area, and giving

>them an assignment, having a discussion, sending them on a quest or

>whatever, that would be their learning experience. You would be supplying

>the mission.

>

>Marian Thacher

>OTAN

>

>The Technology and Literacy Discussion List <[ mailto:technology at nifl.gov

>]technology at nifl.gov> on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at 5:18 AM -0800

>wrote:

>To Barry from another Barry,

>

>I think second life has merit to it, I think it is a lot like the game

>World of Warcraft, AKA WOW. A major difference I have noticed in my

>minimal time on the system is that there is no set purpose for an avatar

>to continue, as an example, in WOW after you decide who you will be,

>what you will wear, etc you are given a mission.  As opposed to Second

>Life where I built my avatar and then essentially walked around, lost.

>

>If you were able to give your students directions to you virtually that

>may work.

>

>Do I have this wrong?  Is a player given a sense of purpose and an idea

>of what they need to do to continue playing?

>

>Barry Burkett,

>Frankfort, KY 

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: [ mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov

>]technology-bounces at nifl.gov [[ mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov

>]mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov]

>On Behalf Of Bakin, Barry

>Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 6:59 PM

>To: The Technology and Literacy Discussion List

>Subject: [Technology 1211] Re: Prosessional Development Design

>&Developmentfor the 21st Century

>

>I don't know if it's been mentioned in this forum or not but there's an

>interesting discussion taking place at Sylvia Martinez' blog on her

>experiences with using SL as an educator.  It's worth looking at for

>some of the issues that she raises. You can read through her original

>posting as the responses at

>[

>http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2007/07/21/second-thoughts-on-second-li

>]http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2007/07/21/second-thoughts-on-second-li

>fe/  Again, as David notes, my position is not one of saying one should

>use or not use Second Life but rather what would it take to get to the

>point that educators would want to invest their time to make this

>technology tool practical for the students they work with.  Speaking as

>one who is extremely pleased to get something as basic as an email

>message from a student, it would take some doing to expect my students

>to be creating avatars and visiting educational sites on SL on their

>own.  I'm not convinced yet that my time is well-spent on encouraging

>that endeavor.  

>

>Barry Bakin

>Pacoima Skills Center

>Division of Adult and Career Education,

>Los Angeles Unified School District

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: [ mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov

>]technology-bounces at nifl.gov [[ mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov

>]mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov]

>On Behalf Of David J. Rosen

>Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 11:31 AM

>To: The Technology and Literacy Discussion List

>Subject: [Technology 1210] Re: Prosessional Development Design &

>Developmentfor the 21st Century

>

>

>Hello Mark, and others,

>

>Thanks for your thoughts on the use of Second Life (SL) for adult

>literacy education. I hope you will share some of your group's research

>on "under what conditions and for what purposes 3DVR might be more

>appropriate or effective than other tools/environments for learning" and

>what you see as some of the opportunities and limitations of using

>Second Life. I would like to learn more about what  "we need to advocate

>*for* educators *to* vendors like Linden Labs, so they build in more

>education-appropriate features." What features on SL do you think are

>worthwhile? What other features should we be advocating for?

>----------------------------------------------------

>National Institute for Literacy

>Technology and Literacy mailing list

>[ mailto:Technology at nifl.gov ]Technology at nifl.gov

>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to

>[ http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/technology

>]http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/technology

>Email delivered to [ mailto:barry.burkett at franklin.kyschools.us

>]barry.burkett at franklin.kyschools.us

>

>

>----------------------------------------------------

>National Institute for Literacy

>Technology and Literacy mailing list

>[ mailto:Technology at nifl.gov ]Technology at nifl.gov

>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to [

>http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/technology

>]http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/technology

>Email delivered to [ mailto:mthacher at otan.us ]mthacher at otan.us

>

>----------------------------------------------------

>National Institute for Literacy

>Technology and Literacy mailing list

>Technology at nifl.gov

>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to

>http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/technology

>Email delivered to bonniesophia at sbcglobal.net

>

>----------------------------------------------------

>National Institute for Literacy

>Technology and Literacy mailing list

>Technology at nifl.gov

>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to

>http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/technology

>Email delivered to mthacher at otan.us



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/technology/attachments/20070824/cc56be8b/attachment.html