Colleagues,
You probably know that Second Life is a free web site that allows people all over the world to choose (and if they wish, to design) an avatar and that they can then use to live a life online that allows them to learn, purchase, develop an alternate identity (perhaps one they have always wanted), interact with others using that identity, dress in that identity, and jump and fly. (At first I though flying from Second Life island to island was juvenile, but later read that adults with physical disabilities feel liberated in their second identity, and love to jump and fly.) Colleges and universities have built whole campuses on Second Life where students can go, sit in beautiful online lecture halls or refreshing outdoor online amphitheaters, watch lectures, write or talk in real time using a headset with teachers and other students, and much more. A big problem, for adult learners, however, is that Second Life can be a confusing, not easy to navigate, and sometimes an unsavory place.
I would like to see an online environment that has many or all of the interactive features of Second Life but that is easy for adult learners, especially beginning level English language learners or those with low literacy or technology skills, to use, and that allows a teacher to create an online learning environment for her students and to restrict who may enter it, just like a brick and mortar classroom.
Have you seen anything like that? If so, please let me know -- here -- or by email. Thanks.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
Comments
Hi David,
There is an area of Second Life that has been funded by educators, and it's my understanding that it has an area where ELL's can interact relatively safely. The link is: http://edunation-islands.wikispaces.com/
Jennifer Latzgo
Thanks Jennifer. I wonder if there are archived video recordings of any of the classes on Edunation Islands or if they allow educators to visit/sample the environments.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
Jennifer, David, and all:
I clicked on the link for for EduNation and it seems that EduNation III was where users new to Second Life would go. It also seems you need to have something installed on your computer to join/enter the site; I couldn't root around and explore the site as that was not the case for me. I wonder where the ELLs section might be? It also seems that you would need a high level of computer literacy, not to mention high English skills, to to both get into this site and to benefit from it.
That said, it looks like it would be fun.
Jennifer, have you been able to explore the ELL part of the site?
Miriam
No, Miriam, not yet. I was taking online classes this spring and summer and signed up for Second Life but I didn't have time to investigate it. Hopefully, this fall I'll have more time to try it out.
David, thanks for bringing this up, I remember using Second Life in grad school. It would be interesting to see if any Adult Ed teachers are using Second Life to collaborate with others.
Jo
Thanks, Jo. I too wonder if any adult ed teachers use Second Life. I have discovered that Second Life has private regions, so if an adult education program created an adult basic education private Second Life region, presumably they would have the authority to approve "residents" (i.e., students, teachers and others) there. I also noticed that a few years ago Second Life discontinued its separate teen Second Life and now integrates teens into the regular Second Life with appropriate restrictions depending on their age, so it would appear that there might be ways, if Second Life co-operated, to restrict adult learners' access to other parts of Second Life. The purpose in doing so would be to make it easy to use the adult basic education region. Any adult, of course, could register as a regular Second Life user and then have complete access to everything.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com