Living a Second Life

I really cannot believe how much I feel that I am dramatically changing from a digital immigrant to a digital native. I am truly becoming digitally savvy and this is only the beginning. Blogs, wikis, twitter, cloud computing, augmented reality and the list goes on. It amazes me that after only a few short weeks, I am beginning to comfortably use these programs when planning school activities, lessons and units.  Just when I thought there could not be any more amazing programs that I could use within the classroom, I came across Second Life. In reference to my group’s professional development we decided that we wanted to focus on SOSE as the curriculum area and thought about addressing the SOSE KLA through an inquiry-based learning approach. Second Life seems to be a technology that would assist in the teaching and learning in social studies.

What is Second Life? Well it is a, “a three-dimensional virtual community” (Kayne, 2011, p.1), allowing individual members to create their own character, which are referred to as an avatar. These characters can, “walk, fly or teleport through the Second Life Metaverse - meeting, interacting, learning, travelling, playing, building and exploring” (Rankin, 2011, p.1). 

So, we have this really engaging program but how can we use it as an educational tool? At this current point in time a lot of research is going into the role Second Life can play in the classroom. A case study found that, “Second Life activities improved students learning experience, furthermore, students who participated in the Second Life activities in the case study showed higher learning motivation and better performance” (James, 2009, p.3). Four levels of classroom use of, “Second Life can be used to help in implementing the technology into the classroom” (Duke, 2011, p.1), these include:

• Presentation Tool: This could be used in a lecture or an explanation to provide students with 3D models.
• Guided experience: “Engage Second Life in the classroom following specific steps and activities defined by the teacher” (Duke, 2011, p.1).
• Self Directed Assistance: Once students begin feeling confident, “teachers can define a more open ended series of activities for students to engage” (Duke, 2011, p.1).
• Student Generated Content: This is the top level which could involve the students, reaching the point of generating content within Second Life, transitioning from consumers to producers of content” (Duke, 2011, p.1). This is not an easy step and would probably not be reached in a primary school setting.

I find Second Life has the potential to be such an engaging, interactive program that students will find interesting. If implemented in the classroom correctly it has the potential to do wonderful things!

I found an amazing slideshow that provides teachers with 11 ways to use Second Life in their classroom...



Reference List Duke, C. (2011). Levels of classroom use of second life. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from http://www.cmduke.com/2011/01/26/levels-of-classroom-use-of-second-life/ James, B. (2009). Extending the classroom through second life. Journal of Information             Systems Education: 82(4), 1-20. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from              http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4041/is_200907/ai_n32128815/ Kayne, R. (2011). What is second life? Retrieved April 6, 2011, from  http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-second-life.htm Rankin, B. (2011). What is second life? Retrieved April 6, 2011, from http://askbobrankin.com/what_is_second_life.html