I honestly cannot think of one single reason why I would use Second Life in my language program. The environment is the most advanced version of many other online interaction programs that I have used in the past, mostly for fun and communicating with tons of people at the same time. Public chat rooms are probably the earliest ones I recall. The design is very appealing because of the endless multimedia resources, and the personal avatars(inspired in so many other online gaming environments) allow you to create a pretty original character to PLAY with. I have nothing against using games for learning, but...what I believe that Second Life is more than a game for the majority of its users. Someone in my class said the other day that Second Life is for those who don't have a life. I agree. And for that matter I prefer to teach to the living.
Seriously, there is not a single feature on SL that I could say well, this can be useful because it saves time, or is a faster alternative to learning or even...can it be used as an intercultural communication tool. Don't get me wrong, as a game is very fun...but I refuse to sit in front of my computer to gather my students from around the...classroom in ANOTHER virtual classroom. Even if we could create a virtual environment to have an international class with students interacting in real time from across the globe, how different is that from voice/webcam chat? The difference is that you are not really being yourself, you are pretending to be someone else. I also think that Second Life offers a great chance to those with lots of time in their hands...or just nothing else to do. I personally think that in order to learn a language, or just any other skill...you first) need to know yourself, and second) you need to be yourself to the others...otherwise what kind of communication are offering?
I apologize for the harsh tone on this post, but I think I'm not the only one who thinks that SL should not be taken seriously for educational purposes.
I leave you with two of my favorites youtube videos on SL.
Go on, comment.
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10 comments:
I was not very impressed by second life, either -- I think some of the other tools we've already seen in class could be a lot easier to incorporate into the classroom and a lot more effective, too.
Virtual worlds such as Second Life offer tremendous opportunities for practicing a foreign language. There are many places in Second Life to find native speakers of the language you are learning. You can find a list of these places at avatarlanguages.com/freepractice. This is something that is radically new with virtual worlds. Although messengers such as Skype allow us to communicate with others around the world, we cannot use them to easily find people to practice with. Virtual worlds also allow us to practice in an environment without feeling embarrassed by making mistakes – for some learners this is very important.
One of the interesting questions that virtual worlds raise with education – is how best to use them. Clearly replicating real world methods in a virtual world is not taking advantage of what virtual worlds have to offer. The educational community is still developing methods that are best suited to virtual worlds. You will have the opportunity to see many more approaches to virtual worlds at the SLanguages (www.slanguages.net) conference next month. I hope to see you there!
I totally agree that Second Life will have no place in my classroom (and I am going to teach French, so I will have less access to native speakers). It doesn't seem to be an effective use of time or resources. The avatar (which btw did Second Life pay him to troll blogs that speak poorly about Second Life?) seems to think Second Life is the only way to get virtual communication, which we have learned is not true. Oh, and I thought your harsh tone was warrented..mine is even worse.
Javi, I love the you tube videos! Those are hilarious, especially the first one. It really does show how NOT authentic second life is.
I also agree that I have yet to see how Second Life is better than the already proven methods for teaching FL that we have studied.
I will echo my classmates' sentiments and say that I think SL is an aimless wondering in a virtual environment. I don't personally know anyone that uses SL (at least not that I know of). So, I would be curious to ask a SL user why they use it and see what they have to say about its potential for a langauge classroom. It just seems so pointless to me.
I agree with you 100%. When we tried SL in class, it wouldn't even work at first because it wasn't compatible with the computers. Then when we were able to get it to work, we had trouble completing the tutorials. And it seems like it's too easy to go off task and fool around. So it might be a fun game, but its educational value is quite suspect, IMHO.
Javier,
I think your post was absolutely on the mark, and I loved the title. It was very clever. The videos were also really funny. I think that you should not feel alone in your contempt for Second Life. I also found the connection very difficult to make, and I honestly found myself wondering why it is that we were even messing around in there. Of course, it was fun as a group of people acting silly, but in a classroom? I think it's a very controversial topic, and I think you're justified in your ire. Great post!
First I'd like to say that the 1st youtube video is hillarious!
I guess I'm a tad bit more open to the potential of SL but only with more research and def more structure. I dont believe it can be a "free-4-all" type learning game in the classroom.
But I do agree with you that it can be very time consuming and that there are much better tools available to use in the classroom like voicechat, etc.
Being a game it def. reaches the students interest level, but like you said I feel like it is kind of just that - a game, and not a teaching device.
Maybe with more research and like I said, def. more structure to activities used on SL, the potential could change.
The You Tube videos are so funny! Last week when we were introduced to Second Life, all I did was walk into walls with my avatar. I have yet to discover any meaningful ways to use Second Life in a language classroom.
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