Module 4: Second Life – Lynne Butkiewicz http://educ7108-2.blogspot.com/
Thornburg identifies disruptive technology as new technology that has similar functionality appears out of nowhere and is superior to the old technology by doing things different and more efficiently. Second Life is a disruptive technology because it has the potential to do things differently than before as in “face to face” classes. We are starting to see some interactive games being replaced by Second Life.
How is Second Life a disruptive technology?
Second Life is clearly a new way to do things and it has displaced some software that was similar as in the Sim City products where you build things in a 3D atmosphere. Second Life players are very excited about this new playing field.
What technology or innovation did it displace?
I believe that it will somewhat replace Nintendo games. I believe that there are some online games that have been replaced by Second Life.
How many years do you think Second Life has left before another emerging technology or disruptive technology replaces it?
I believe with the rapid changes in technology yearly that Second Life may be replaced by a similar technology within the next 5 years. Recently as I explored Second Life on different computers I had problems because I didn’t have the proper graphics card necessary. After talking to a teacher that is experimenting with Second Life for his science classroom indicated that it he found it requires high end hardware and he has had some connectivity problems. She also indicated that the system is a little reluctant to set the students lose without supervision.
What are the social benefits of Second Life, and what might be the social implications of virtual worlds in your industry?
I believe that the social benefits of Second Life can be used to teach students what to do within a given social scenario. How they should or could react to a social dilemma. I feel that the use of Second Life would be great in educational simulations. Antonacci states that, “Students engaged in educational games and simulations are interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem solving.” Antonacci states that, “This approach to learning is much more consistent with constructivist learning, where knowledge is constructed by the learners as they are actively problem solving in an authentic context, than with traditional instruction.”
While searching the web for information on Second Life I came across an annotated bibliography of Second Life educational resources at http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mpepper/slbib
Referneces
Antonacci, D. & Modaress, N. Second life: The educational possibilities of a massively multiplayer virtual world (MMVW). Kansas Technology Leadership Conference. Topeka, Kansas. 7Retrieved from http://www2.kumc.edu/ir/tlt/SLEDUCAUSESW2005/SLPresentationOutline.htm
Huff, C., Pater, J., Dowling. S., & DiSalvo, S. (2007). Exploring the potential and pitfalls of second life for k-12 classrooms. Retrieved from http://www.iadis.net/dl/final_uploads/200714R077.pdf
Thornburg, D. (2009). Evolutionary technology Vodcast: In Laureate Education, Inc. Emerging and future technology.
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/WRC0541.pdf
Responded to Angela Finley http://finleyspondering.blogspot.com/
Jeannine Miller http://emergingfuturetech.blogspot.com/
Lynee,
ReplyDeleteWhen you mention teaching the students how to act in social situations are you referring to actually having social skills training within Second Life? What do you think some fall outs could be by implementing Second Life simulations in K-12 Education? Thanks!
Lynne,
ReplyDeleteThis is another great post! One article that I read this week, "After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds" (http://chronicle.com/article/After-Frustrations-in-Second/64137/) provided reasons why educators are looking for alternatives to Second Life. Two of the alternatives included in the article are Open Cobalt and OpenSimulator. Both of these came about because of issues with Second Life including the ability to restrict access to non-enrolled students. When you have a chance, check out this article.
Lynne, do you think there are any technology barriers to the emergence of SL? I signed up for a Sloan-C course on SL two years ago and in SL crashed my computer. I've been hesitant to try it since. I wonder if slow internet access is holding back this technology. I couldn't find any solid data on SL demographics, but a survey showed that less than 40% of users were from the US (http://slsurvey.wordpress.com/survey-result/demography/).
ReplyDeleteJeannine,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. I am thinking about using Second Life for teaching swocial skills to the students. I am not very familar with Second Life. If we can manipulate the advatar to do and say what we want it could help with bullying. As with any software there are always problems or fall outs. I think that there will be fall out but done appropriately it should be ok~
Angela,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comments. I'll have to check out that link thanks.
Jodie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. There are deffinetly technology barriers that will emerge as we work with technology. Not having the internet up when you need it. We are experiencing alot of flood in stewart county where I live and servers are down than they are up. I think one must always have another backup plan for those type of problems. I think that there should be requirements that are clearlty posted to let potential users know what is needed to run their software. I'll check out your link.