Hello Barry,

These are both terrific resources for those interested in exploring  
Second Life.  The children's SL animated video on child soldiers is  
very well done, I think, and very powerful. It could be used in some  
adult education writing classes, although for some adult students  
(e.g. from Liberia, Sierra Leone and other countries that have  
exploted children as soldiers) it could also bring up difficult  
material from their own experiences that they might want to be  
excused from seeing and writing about.

Thanks for pointing these out.

David

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net


On Sep 5, 2007, at 6:32 PM, Bakin, Barry wrote:


> I just came across a blog (thanks to a mention on Classroom 2.0) by  

> an educator (Kevin Jarrett) exploring with second life http:// 

> www.storyofmysecondlife.com/ that can certainly be of benefit to  

> those wondering about whether or not to experiment with Second  

> Life. Make sure you check out the video about the educational uses  

> of Second Life that he links to on the page. (It's a youTube video  

> so it will probably be blocked if you're accessing this message  

> from a school).

>

> There's also a link to a video made by kids in Second Life that is  

> quite amazing. The video the kids made is at http://youtube.com/ 

> watch?v=nK54WRu0jW4 It's also a youTube video so it will probably  

> be blocked but it's worth watching from another location. The  

> subject matter is horrific and moving (one child soldier's  

> experience from abduction to rescue) but even disregarding the  

> topic, it's a positive example of how virtual worlds can be used in  

> education.

>

> I'm far from convinced yet that the positives of using Second Life  

> as an educational tool so outweigh the negatives (for me) that I'm  

> ready to invest the time and effort needed to implement doing so  

> with my students, but this video certainly adds weight to the  

> positive side of the equation.

>

> Barry Bakin

> ESL Teacher Adviser

> Division of Adult and Career Education

> Los Angeles Unified School District

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