Second Life, an online immersive virtual environment, is a very exciting way to interact with others at a distance. The way that it was used in this class was for participants to develop a web 2.0 project and present the project on a given day. The experience was absolutely amazing. Dr. Mark did an amazing job creating and organizing the alcoves in Second Life. This is the first time I ever really saw educational value for Second Life and I have been attempting to discover more about it for quite some time. I opted to present blogging in my alcove. Several avatars stopped by and had great discussions with me on the material posted there. Some people were even from foreign countries which I found to be very exciting. It allowed me to gain perspectives that otherwise I may not have been exposed to.
Utilizing Second Life provided me with a greater opportunity to interact with my classmates than any other experience in an online class so far. I really enjoyed the discussions that took place in Second Life. I was provided with very helpful tips and information from my classmates through this.
I have been brainstorming ways of utilizing this type of environment at the primary or secondary level. I feel like this type of learning environment would go far to increase the engagement level of students and further encourages their involvement in class discussions and other various class activities. My concern is that Second Life as it stands would not be appropriate at this educational level due to the lack of monitoring and openness of this O.L.I.V.E. I questioned Dr. Mark about this and he mentioned that there is a teen version of Second Life so my plan is to further investigate that. However, I have heard Marc Prensky state that if we could somehow duplicate what the gaming industry does for gamers in education that we would see increases. My thought is that is this environment could be duplicated by and educational marketer then perhaps we could fully integrate. If an educational software would develop a product that mirrors Second Life but brings the needed securities to the table then we could really take it to another level.
I really enjoyed my Second Life experience. I wish to learn much more and am very hopeful that the University of Southern Mississippi will include a more in-depth class on the creation and development of Second Life. I know that Dr. Mark would do an amazing job in facilitating this class and I feel that as a student I will get incredible value from it.