Katherine+Crawford

Week 8 and 9 Updates:



Week 7 Updates:



This is the intro that I put together this weekend...FEEDBACK!!!

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Ready to Start a Second Life

The innovation that I am interested in studying right now is Second Life. Second Life is a virtual online world where people interact using avatars. Educators are interested in using Second Life as a site to host online discussions, classrooms and educational material. There are many university islands that are already established on Second Life and a lot of learning is already taking place virtually. As a drama teacher, I think that Second Life is the perfect environment for students who love to express themselves. I can see plays taking place in Second Life with audiences literally all over the world bearing witness to our art. The advantages are limitless and I think drama especially will be very successful in this environment! I selected Second Life because it was the one that was most complicated and I knew the least about it. I really enjoy expanding my horizon when it comes to going to school and I viewed Second Life as a challenge. I have already logged twelve hours online participating in Second Life. The first option that I passed up was Google Wave and although this is a great application, it is quite basic and there was not much to learn because it was really spelled out its directions quite clearly. I needed something that I would really have to think and plan on how I was going to integrate it into my program. The second application that I was not as interested in is Voicethread. Last year, I wrote a lesson around Voicethread, I really enjoyed teaching it but this time around, I wanted something fresh. I knew ever since I read about Second Life on the conference website that it was going to be my choice. The hardest part was overcoming the unknown but maybe after another week of explorations I will find myself right at home in my “Second Life”.

The study that I used to support my decision discusses some of the benefits of Second Life in the education world. The first benefit is building and sharing and in Second Life these are two very important concepts. Students are going to engage in Second Life because it allows them to access the tools that they use for learning and create and build new items and share them with others. This leads us to the second reason, which is collaboration. In an environment like Second Life, collaboration is second nature and therefore it is easier to foster these connections between students. It is very important to have a classroom that encourages and supports collaboration. The last and most important reason that Second Life is beneficial to distance education and will diffuse quickly is the social aspect of Second Life; no matter what type of person you are this type of social interaction is easy to participate in. Social interaction is key for us to thrive and with this added component, Second Life will continue to foster the best working environment.

Reference Livingstone D. & Kemp J. ( 2006). //Proceedings of the second life education workshop at the second life community convention.// Retrieved from [|http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22Second+Life%22+in+teaching&btnG=Sea rch&hl=en&as_sdt=80000000]