Our Wave:

Second Life Poll:

Links to Sites in Second Life:

Virtual Ability Island

Link to UH Classroom

Link to ISTE Island

Sandlot

Sim Teach Wiki with links to 20 great education sites

Second Life Education Resources

New Media Consortium

Second Pages

Centers for Disease Control

Wow, only one more week of class and we’re done! Our group has been working hard to complete our mock-up Hawaiian Hale (house) and learning quite a bit about building an instructional unit in Second Life in the process. Not to mention, we’ve become quite comfortable collaborating both in-world and in the real-world. I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed this class – especially the group project that we’re currently working on, and I think it’s because of the dynamics that Second Life affords. I mean, I get to work on a project with two other classmates, one who I know well in the real-world (Markieparkie) and one who I know better in-world (Konaview) than in the real world. Wait, let me think about that one for a minute. Anyway, as I process this a bit more one thing I do know is that I have enjoyed working with both, equally. Okay, here’s what I’m thinking…I would have to say that I know my relationship with both Markieparkie and Konaview are real. It’s just that we happen to be using a virtual environment (Second Life) for class and to collaborate. And this is where the lines start to get blurred for me.

I define in-world and real-world as places – both are real, but different. There are things we can do in-world that we can’t do in the real-world, and there are things we can do in the real-world that we can’t do in-world. How does this shape the relationships we establish – both in-world and in the real-world? Does it matter if we only get to meet someone through their avatar in-world, but don’t get to meet them physically in the real-world? Can we establish deep lasting friendships in-world? Could in-world friendships be even stronger than real-world friendships? If you said no, then I would have to ask, “Aren’t they both real?” I think we’re already at a place where people live in both worlds, have friends in both worlds – basically they invest themselves in both worlds.

I wonder if we’ll ever see a shift where people begin spending more time in-world than in the real world? Okay, I know we can’t physically remove ourselves from the real-world, but we can emotionally. So, I conclude that in-world and real-world are both real places where we can invest ourselves emotionally and with our time, two real and tangible things. So what’s virtual?

Okay, one last thought before I call it a night. Second Life is a virtual world, right? But it does exist, right? So let me ask again, what is virtual? I know, some of you have all these questions answered already, but for me, I need to ponder on these things.

This week was spent getting to know more about building and owning/renting land in Second Life. I finally found a book that I liked at Borders and have been reading about the pros and cons of land ownership, what to look out for, and the differences in where and what you buy. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet, so I’ll hold off on buying anything just yet. Okay, so I went to our classroom space in Sakamaki Hall and started to build our hale. Building is fun, but also very time consuming.

So my thoughts for this week center around building. Some of the questions that I’ve been wrestling with are what should our goals be for building in Second Life? Actually, before we even begin building, what should we be thinking about when designing learning environments in Second Life? Are we going to try and design around the real world or are we going to really look at the potential that virtual worlds like Second Life offer and build based on that? What “that” is, I really don’t know at this point, but it does excite me to think that we have the potential to invent new ways of learning. I think I might have mentioned that before in one of my previous posts, but it’s an area that I’m definitely interested in exploring further. So far, one goal of our project is to create something familiar for our target audience – a hale, a local setting for local teachers. In this case, I think parallels to the real world is a good thing; however, I think the real potential for transformation will can only be realized when we begin creating new types of learning environments. That’s where we should be setting our sights. You heard the saying, “Doing new things in new ways.” That’s what I’m after. To me, this will determine whether or not virtual worlds like Second Life add real value to education. The environment is there. It’s really up to us to make transformation a reality.