Monday, July 23, 2007

Developing doubts about Second Life

"Sitting in a virtual lecture hall is hardly revolutionary, even if you do it wearing wings or a cat costume....

"For K-12 educators especially, Second Life constrains any educator/student relationship because of the age regulations....

"Some people are going to be taken with the fun of flying around or visiting virtual museums, but many more are going to be put off by the “bleeding edge” aspect of constant freezes, crashes, high bandwidth demands, and the difficulty of simply moving your avatar around....

"Second Life is primarily a platform for adults to explore their sexual identity." - Sylvia Martinez on Generation YES Blog

"I would only add that the real pedagogical potential that I sense is in the ability to build, navigate, and manipulate simulations." (Howard Rheingold, in response to the above blog post.)

My comment:

This post hits home with me, especially since I have been once of those who has been trumpeting the potentially revolutionary nature of SL. It is definitely true that the main advantage of SL for educators is the collegiality, and overcoming a sense of isolation. I also “second” the point that for ANYone to rediscover the fun of learning is potentially transformative (for them, if not for the larger system).

I will just add that there are people working on the age separation issue (through one of the ELVEN Institute’s working groups, contact me–Dewey Jung–in SL for details), but the obstacles to turning SL into a true educational environment (where learning rather than sexual identity is the primary outcome) are enormous.