CI438 Blog #3

This reference actually comes from a wikispaces site but I found it while searching the Bloglines resources.  This is, by far, the most useful, informative and practical resource related to Second Life I have found so far: http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/page/diff/educationaluses?v=5289255  The wikispace is entitled “Educational Uses of Second Life”.  It’s well-organized and gives excellent examples of how this emerging tool can be applied to an average educational setting.  The categories index of the site is awesome!  This feature allows the user to quick link from the introductory material to the educational examples.  The distance and flexible education section currently provides two examples, one for mock trials and one for a course in Second Life from Ball State.  This resource is of the quality and caliber of a well-reviewed resource in Wikipedia.  This resource also mentions Infoisland of which the central Illinois library alliance is a part.

My personal experience with Second Life has been that my office computers were not powerful enough to run the program, first.  Second, I had trouble orienting myself to walking, flying or doing whatever it took to move about the environment.  However, I don’t think this is a fad.  This wikispace has made Second Life content more accessible to my brain even if I can’t technically access it with my computer!  At this point in online learning we have course delivery systems such as WebCT, Blackboard and IVC.  We also have places on the web where we can free download and use learning objects and open courseware  such as what is found at a site like merlot.org.  I think what Second Life is promising to be is a convergence of delivery systems and content — the one stop shopping approach that we strive for in so many other processes and experiences in life!  As I consider my use of Blackboard right now I setup a site by creating an organized menu of buttons and links.  I can create and link content but it’s somewhat limited in function, basically text, audio and video.  Second Life brings the 3D aspect and movement into the scene.  So, the future could mean that rather than having to plug the content into the delivery system the delivery and content systems are one in the same!

It can’t be long before Second Life is made more efficient and accessible by the everyday computer. Or, maybe Second Life will be a predecessor and the system that comes next will have little or no overhead?  Either way, it’s an exciting time to be hearing and experiencing (as much as we can) educational uses of emerging technologies!