Second Life is a disruptive technology because it completely
interrupts the way that things were done before. Second Life is a virtual world that has the
potential to change the way we teach and would cause a shift from a traditional
way to teach to a differentiated way to address student learning. Second Life displaced a physical classroom
for a virtual learning environment and has created more of student centered
approach to teaching where the teacher acts as a facilitator and the student
becomes the leader of their own learning, because Second Life has not been
fully adopted by educators, it may be a several years before another technology
replaces it. If used appropriately,
Second Life has the potential to create a virtual environment that promotes worldwide
collaboration and problem solving. It
can provide the opportunity for individuals to test scenarios in order to
create solutions to real world problems.
For more information about Second Life, check out this blog.
I agree with you about Second Life having the ability to fit a differentiated classroom. I believe students would enjoy the virtual world that they are able to control. However, I do not see this technology being fully adopted in a k-12 classroom.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that although I am pursuing my degree in educational technology, there are aspects of the field that make me a little nervous. I have seen technology do two things, one, it has opened us to a world that we could not have imagined and exposed us to things that were impossible before. The second thing technology has done is the same as the first. Children are being exposed to things that they should not be exposed to and people are hiding behind a screen name to say and do unimaginable things. I think the reason why educators are so nervous to adopt such technologies is because we always have to have the best interest at heart.
DeleteTechnology should be used as a vehicle to move students to another level of thinking and to be engage. It must provide a need to help develop critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteBrittany,
ReplyDeleteI agree that we are currently at a point in time in which the teacher become a facilitator and the student becomes the leader of their learning. However, I believe the primary reason for this phenomenon is that second life learning is still emerging. I believe once it becomes emerged and a new generation of educators enter the teaching profession, second life education will then return to the traditional format of teacher-led instruction.
John
I agree that Second Life has the potential to change how educators teach their classes. However, I am afraid that I would not know who the person is that is really behind the avatar? At the same time, ISTE has demonstrated how Second Life could be used to conduct online conferencing at the 2008 ISTE conference.
ReplyDelete