Hi,
I have been using virtual worlds in college classrooms for the past four years. To date, I have used Everquest, Everquest II, World of Warcraft, and Second Life, with varying degrees of success. In all of these instances, the benefits outweighed the disadvantages. A paper on my preliminary findings was published in the JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, and is available online at: http://www.ifets.info/journals/9_3/14.pdf. You might also want to check out the first-rate work of Constance Steinkuehler, Lisa Galarneau, and James Gee, as well as the discussion group for Second Life Educators.
There is clearly a significant amount of hype surrounding virtual worlds such as Second Life. Challenging such hype is both useful and important. However, in reading through this thread, it seems that most of the critics have not really used Google to search for information about the wide range of thoughtful experiments with virtual worlds as a teaching tool.
It would be ridiculous to suggest that Second Life is a panacea for all educational woes, and I'm not aware of a single educator who makes this claim. It seems equally unreasonable -- not to mention close-minded and unimaginative -- to suggest that Second Life is completely useless as an adjunt to time-test methods of instruction.
I encourage anyone who is monitoring this thread to take a closer look at the thoughtful and self-reflective work that is being conducted on this topic by educators around the world, and am happy to field questions -- either via e-mail or in this forum -- about my own experiences with virtual worlds in the classroom.
Professor Aaron Delwiche
Department of Communication
Trinity University
adelwich@trinity.edu
Slashdot Mirror
Hi, I have been using virtual worlds in college classrooms for the past four years. To date, I have used Everquest, Everquest II, World of Warcraft, and Second Life, with varying degrees of success. In all of these instances, the benefits outweighed the disadvantages. A paper on my preliminary findings was published in the JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, and is available online at: http://www.ifets.info/journals/9_3/14.pdf. You might also want to check out the first-rate work of Constance Steinkuehler, Lisa Galarneau, and James Gee, as well as the discussion group for Second Life Educators.
s .html. Previous examples with SL and other virtual worlds are posted at http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/games/students.htm l, http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/mmo/students.html and http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/worlds/students.ht ml
This semester, my students are using Second Life effectively in a course teaching concepts associated with new media, interactive marketing, and public relations. Check out the student's work at: http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/metaverse/student
There is clearly a significant amount of hype surrounding virtual worlds such as Second Life. Challenging such hype is both useful and important. However, in reading through this thread, it seems that most of the critics have not really used Google to search for information about the wide range of thoughtful experiments with virtual worlds as a teaching tool.
It would be ridiculous to suggest that Second Life is a panacea for all educational woes, and I'm not aware of a single educator who makes this claim. It seems equally unreasonable -- not to mention close-minded and unimaginative -- to suggest that Second Life is completely useless as an adjunt to time-test methods of instruction.
I encourage anyone who is monitoring this thread to take a closer look at the thoughtful and self-reflective work that is being conducted on this topic by educators around the world, and am happy to field questions -- either via e-mail or in this forum -- about my own experiences with virtual worlds in the classroom.
Professor Aaron Delwiche
Department of Communication
Trinity University
adelwich@trinity.edu