Second Life

Several years ago, GTCC hired DI, our instructor for this course, to come and teach us about Second Life. Quickly, you learn that DI is very passionate about this topic. In two hours, he taught us to create our avatars, move around, interact with others and create basic shapes in a sandbox.

I believe that Second Life or at least the concept of this virtual world has a lot of promise for education. It gives us a new way to interact and create together that we lacked online. Anything can exist in this space. It's only limited by the imaginations of the users. It's free! It's visual.

I do have some concerns about Second Life as an instructional tool at this time for community college students (where I teach). Second Life is free, which is great, but it's usage requires a healthy computer with a strong Internet connection. At GTCC, 80% of our students have a computer at home with 70% of them using broadband to access the Internet. We don't have any idea of the quality of their personal computers. We do not have 100% saturation of home computers.

Also, using Second Life takes some training. You have to learn how to create your avatar, move around, create, etc. PLUS you have to learn the culture. There are thousands of tutorials out there ready to teach you, but it's a time investment. Most faculty members are not going to want to give up 4-5 hours of instructional time to teach a student how to use an instructional tool. Second Life will need to simplify its approach and shorten the learning curve to gain more acceptance in the educational markets. A 8-year-old can learn a new video game in less than 15 minutes. A 18-year-old is not going to understand why s/he has to spend hours learning how to use a tool.