The Potential of a Second Life

Despite the excited predictions of some commentators, it is not inevitable that education will rapidly transfer to the virtual.  To achieve a move on this scale still requires us to address how to manage best our virtual identities, improve our digital and cultural literacies, understand more fully the links between immersion, empathy, and learning, and develop design skills that can be used productively to exploit virtual spaces. (Warburton)

I left the readings about Second Life (SL) this week feeling very much like there is exciting work to be done.  It seems quite apparent from these readings, previous course readings and discussion about community in online learning, and my own personal knowledge of what works in education that multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) are the future of online education. 

There seems to be agreement in the education community that there are pedagogically sound reasons for investing in a MUVE similar to SL, if not SL itself.  Warburton cites the following reasons:

• extended or rich interactions
• visualisation and contextualisation
• exposure to authentic content and culture
• individual and collective identity play
• immersion
• simulation
• community presence
• content production
  

Where the articles seem to fall off the bandwagon is in the viability of using SL in the classroom now.  There are many reasons for why SL may prove more of a burden than a blessing currently: technical savvy of teachers and students; difficulty establishing social relationships in a foreign culture; the need to incorporate a 2D platform in addition to SL to convey basic information; length of time to build and participate in SL; cost; and the ability to cross platforms with avatar and content. (Warburton)

Keeping all of this in mind, however, I still left the week's lesson feeling the need to discover everything I can about SL and similar systems.  It is hard to read Petrakou's article or watch a video presentation like the one shared by Phillips and Robertson without becoming excited about what a MUVE can do for students.  Being able to hold conversations and make connections with students across the world or fly into a cell to get an up-close look at its parts are scenarios too tempting for educators to ignore.

I believe this is why the last lines of Warburton's article sound a lot like a call to action.  Education is a slow-moving system, and if educators want to be able to take charge of the potential in MUVEs, we are going to be the ones that have to best manage our virtual identities and cultivate our digital literacies and design skills.  Our students will not be able to benefit from these technologies until we teach ourselves to be comfortable with them and work through their barriers.