Having a Second Life in Teaching
The more I explore the virtual communities of blogs, wikis, Del.icio.us, Flickr, and other social networking resources, the more I become convinced that university-level teaching can be greatly enhanced by using these technologies with students. In part that’s because so many of our students come to us already conversant in these technologies. In fact, most of them have developed their learning habits and learning preferences by sharing, exploring, and collaborating in such environments. They’re used to the immediacy and connectedness of social networking. If their brick-and-mortar university environments do not reflect these learning opportunities, will they be as involved in learning as they should be? We may not know the answer to that for a few more years as students may (or may not) begin making their enrollment decisions based on the kinds of learning opportunities available at their target institutions, and that’s probably fodder for a future blog entry.
Social networking is an interesting and engaging concept, but much of it is still text-based and–chat rooms not withstanding–asynchronous. When I write a blog entry, I have to wait until someone reads it and (hopefully) comments on it. When I update my Del.icio.us bookmarks, it takes a while for my subscribers to discover and investigate them. What if I could interact virtually in real time with folks from all over?
As it turns out, it’s not only possible but it’s a wildly popular pastime in which more than 7 million people worldwide participate on a daily basis–sometimes obsessively so. It’s called Second Life–an on-line 3D virtual world where you assume an identity, choose an avatar (your virtual representative), explore, and interact with other avatars in real time. I recently acquired an avatar (named Elwood Vella) and have begun shuffling around to see what happens. So far, I’ve actually been avoiding other “people” that I run across until I feel a bit more comfortable with the environment. Instead, I enter various locations and read the help files. (I’m not much more interesting than that in real life, either…)
The interesting thing about Second Life, however, is that I did not arrive at it through the “normal” social channels. I arrived at it because I was reading the e-Learning and Instructional Support web site from Oakland University. This fascinating site is a guide to learning activities through Second Life. It seems that many universities have devoted considerable time and effort to develop “virtual campuses” where students (or potential students) can explore, take classes, chat with other students, watch videos, and generally go to school through their Second Life avatar. Many videos of these sites–from institutions like Ohio University and Texas State (click here for a complete list)–are available that will give you the experience of what it’s like to visit a virtual campus. You can also find out how to obtain a free Second Life account.
While walking around in a virtual environment may not be your cup of tea, I’d argue that educators should become familiar with them at the very minimum to get a sense of the kinds of experiences that our students may be having, and further to see the possibilities that virtual classrooms and campuses may have for our own students and institutions.
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