"Second life is ideally suited for (at least) two kinds of learning activities - empathy-based learning and encounter learning. Second Life is inherently a random-access, exploratory environment. That offers a third "E" to this list of educational modes that are natural to Second Life:
- Empathy
- Encounter
- Exploration
* Rules (Logic, conceptual/factual structure)
* Play (Learning activity, processing)
* Culture"
(LaChapelle, 2007) (blog RE presentation by Sarah "Intellagirl" Robbins)
An article in the New York Times Education Life section was particularly illuminating. (Hafner, 2010)
What will happen if learning is free? Colleges and Universities still hold the key to the certification or degree - for that you still have to pay(for now).
In the past I have worked with Blackboard and WebCT in college classes. For my rural high school students and teachers I worked with USDLC, a distance learning group since 1985. They first broadcast to 51 schools in Texas and were thrilled to get their own Educational access channel through DirecTV. As they developed web based curriculum they created a professional development portal for teachers in 2005, video on demand 2007, their own YouTube channel in 2008, podcasting in 2009 and now are boasting Star Island in 2L. I think our future for education presentation lies in this blended technology. Frankly the affordability of the high school and college campus culture is on the line. Finances will be the key that presses us to this new educational access. The F2F personal classroom might not be supplanted but may be supplemented with this blended technology to provide access to expertise and varied learning modalities. The ubiquity of mobile connectedness provides a venue that is exploding now. The more people have cell phones in Africa than anywhere else because they didn't have to overcome an old technology (land lines). WiFi and mobile phone connectedness is the next level of adaptation.
I also question whether we are developing a new mode of learning beyond the multiple intelligences that requires the interactive social engagement exemplified by online gaming. If so this blended technology may save public education which is long due for a that is not based in theories formed in the Industrial Revolution. I am not placing a value judgment here. Just that evolution happens and the ECAR conclusion that "e-learning (so far) is about convenience not learning." (Sonwalkar, 2005) has that one caveat - time. I remember the generational theories and look at today's Z generation and think things are changing.
I went onto Second Life and enjoyed my experience there. I can see how the lovely fantasy can entice gamers. I also see the ease at which one can enter into a realistic environment to practice nursing skills or build collaborative engineering models. Very intriguing.
"Play, an important contributor to human development, maturation, and learning, is a mandatory ingredient of serious games."(Derryberry, 2007)
Derryberry, Anne. Serious Games: Online Games for Learning.Adobe Games, 2007. April 19, 2010. (ref:www.imserious.net )http://www.adobe.com/resources/elearning/pdfs/serious_games_wp.pdf
Hafner, Katie. An Open Mind. New York Times : Education Life.April 8, 2010.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/education/edlife/18open-t.html?ref=edlife
LaChapelle, Neil. (The Cooperators General Insurance Company) Hired Ed's Blog: Some Foundations for Second Life Pedagogy. EDUCAUSE. July 18, 2007.
Sonwalkar, Nishikant. Adaptive learning Technologies: One-Size-Fits-All to Individualization. EDUCAUSE: Volume 2005, Issue 7, March 29,2005. Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE.