Many people enjoy using computer programs in which they can pretend to be something or someone other than themselves. In this blog assignment you will read two brief articles about Second Life. In the first article you will read about use of Second Life in education. Many universities use Second Life as an educational tool, either supplementing real-life classes or sometimes conducting entire distance-learning courses in the virtual Internet world. The second article contains one person’s opinion about the virtual world. Go to the links and read the articles. Write a reflective comment about the articles and about Second Life.
What is your opinion about the use of Second Life? What is good about it? Is there anything that is potentially bad about it? Is it appropriate for use in education? Give an example of how it might be used at our school. Have you ever tried Second Life? If so, what did you do? How did you feel about it?
16 comments:
ASECOND LIFE REVIEW:
In my opinion second life is a good thing, but not for education. I don’t see how you can learn through a computer game. I believe that it is a good “fun” class activity but second life would not be something that I would want to do to study or learn. And any way, the internet in Jordan is VERY slow to that compared to the U.S. so it would take ages for people in Jordan to download it, and it would go slow and the graphics are BAD! The good things about second life would be that you can access it on any computer with a reasonable speeded internet. Many people could meet with the teacher or students to ask questions (or you could just call).
Second life may be used in our school for digital media, it may show us how digital media works, how to create stuff on Second Life and other interesting things about Second life and Digital Arts- Media. But there are not that many more subjects that could use second life in their curriculum.
By Bavo Stevens
The internet has become an invention that we use carefree. A simple switch and you are connected with almost everybody in the world. The internet is an ever evolving concept and Second Life is proof of its next stage in evolution.
Second Life is the internet’s next stage in evolution because it makes it easier for people to connect with each other. Second Life is an interactive form of the internet, a place you can meet new people, as if you are walking down the street in suburbia. It’s interactive, safe from the torments of daily life, and it’s a fictional utopia. Most people can re-image themselves in this world; become people they thought they could never be in the real world.
However, I believe that some people are going to become too reliable to Second Life. I believe that it can be a wonderful educational tool, a wonderful game, but that people will really try to escape reality. It may seem controversial to think so, but if people can only envision their life in a video game, how can they live with the ‘truths’ of our daily lives. Second Life is only another product of the technologies we have become dependent on. The internet will become bigger, the internet worlds will most likely become bigger, but I think that we should learn to understand our own world before we go creating realistic copies of our own.
Second Life is for students to learn, for people to meet, but not a place to open embassies and make business. The internet and Second Life is just becoming another part of the enormous business tycoon that we encounter everyday. Second Life is a good thing as long as we don't become to dependent on it.
A REVIEW OF "SECOND LIFE"
Second Life is good as a game but it might not get through as a learning center for students of all ages; yes, it does allow you to have rooms and to learn in a different way but it is not as useful as coming to school everyday and having a fun teacher teach you fun things. It would be a good class activity for a review week for example, or maybe it would be a good way to discuss topics outside of school and do group work. A few things that could be bad or potentially bad are; it would be easy to cheat, you could just leave the "classroom" and go somewhere where you and your friend share work, it would take up too much time and would end up being your life. I don't think that a computer program like this is good for education because it will just take time away from a students studies, it would be fun, but not useful.
Our school could be used for most of our courses, except for maybe PE and any maths. The teacher could use it much like a classroom, explaining and asking questions while the student would be sitting (in real life) with a text book in front of them at the corresponding pages. I have never tried Second Life but i might try it out.
I think that it would be a really fun way to learn but not a useful one to be used often.
Hytham
A whole new world full of second chances and unlimited possibilities sounds amazing. I would love to create an avatar in Second Life. The idea of building your own surroundings and controlling the atmosphere is intriguing. When I get swamped in the real world, it would be nice to escape to a place free of worries.
I love the idea of classes taught in the Second Life. Of course, I would want classes in the actual classroom as well. I think the Second Life lessons would be a great supplement to the class. Things that are not easy to explain in the real world, such as certain categories in science, could be further explained in the virtual world.
Despite all the wonderful aspects of the Second Life, one needs to remember that it isn't real. You should not focus all your time in this world. It is ok to visit it once and a while, but focusing on your life in the real world is more important.
I believe Second Life is definitely what it is described to be—A second life—And this can be interpreted as both a positive and a negative thing. If Second Life is used in moderation as “an escape,” I believe it can benefit people in the sense that they would be more likely to discover who they really are, what they really enjoy, and who they really want to be, and in turn find it easier to make personal decisions such as deciding on a university major or selecting a career. I also believe that virtually becoming the people we’ve always wanted to be helps build self-confidence and may even motivate us to change ourselves for ourselves rather than for society’s needs. If, however, Second Life is used as obsessively, people may become anti-social and divert themselves away from society, which may eventually lead to negative thoughts such as suicide or crime. Crime is also a factor to consider when using Second Life since criminal networks, such as drug networks, terrorist groups, or pedophile stalkers can easily be set up where people can act extremely deceptive. Second Life probably isn’t the best tool for use in education with lectures and such, but as mentioned in the article, it would probably help students feel more comfortable during discussions or group activities. I tried signing up with Second Life for teenagers a few weeks ago but couldn’t fully register after I found out I was required to verify my age through a credit card (A bit ironic since most teenagers don’t own one…), therefore I have never actually used it but have heard of it. However, I’ve used a similar website called www.habbohotel.com where people can build their own rooms, buy “habbo credit,” own pets, furniture, rare items, food, and even distribute “habbo jobs.” I used it mostly to communicate with people from other parts of the world but also to experience what it would actually be like to own a house and have a job.
When I read the article about Second Life, I have to say it scared me. I used to hear crazy ideas about how our whole lives will be taken over by technology, that idea scared me. But now when I read this article, I finally realized that it's true, crazy as it sounds. The second article's author sounded very delusional to me. She really believed that she could escape reality by using this program. Her article scared me most, I was hoping nobody actually had that mentality where they think they could be saved from their own lives by cyberspace. I can totally see us all sitting mindlessly on our PCs not having to move anymore. According to the articles, you could even get an education there. What else would you want. You can make a business there, you can meet people there, and you can even practice mass destruction there. The only problem is .. What about reality. Are you really ready to abandon your real life to pursue a life in virtual utopia? Might as well turn into mindless freaks already, why wait for technology to give us the opportunity.
I honestly can't think of anything that's good about Second Life. Maybe the only fact that it's a form of escapism that almost everybody nowadays is after. I guess it would be a good thing for a mediocre obese accountant to see what it's like to be a successful good looking business man. Also, it is a helpful tool in the educational aspect. It would facilitate the process of having the students actually apply what they learn, or learn it better visually. What's potentially bad about Second Life is what I've mentioned before, the fatality of its addiction. You would become so addicted to your second life that you would totally forget reality. Second Life would be like a mirage that you'd chase for a very long time. I think it would be a good idea to use it at school but the only problem is that students might not limit themselves to its educational purpose only. They would start personalizing it making the program consume a lot of their time. I've never tried Second Life, it would be interesting to know what it's like though.
Second Life can be understood as both a positive and a negative thing. Second Life is used as something to entertain and do occasionally, I think it can help people discover new things about themselves and can look into what their future may look like. Poise and inspiration can also come from seeing what you want to be rather than being affected by today’s universal norms.
Second Life can also hurt people who use the program as more than just a game. Games like Second Life have been proven to lead to anti-sociality and stay isolated at home, leading to the increasing numbers in loners. These programs can cause people to hate their lives and be jealous of their virtual life, causing them to become suicidal or just cognitive.
In my opinion, Second Life would not be productive in a classroom because, but it may help comfort the students. It could be used at our school to try out careers to help seniors choose a major and can also help with health class to show students how people really would react to bad things, to divorce, to kids, etc. I have never used Second Life but I played a PC game called The Sims which also lets you live a second life on the computer taking on occupations and building a home and family. My experience with it was purely entertainment so I’m not sure it would be fit for education but it was enjoyable to see how my life can end up.
Second Life I believe is a good thing to have but not for every day use. Some people may just like to pretend to have a cyberspace life, while a few others who will start to believe that their Second life is their real one. People like to exscape from their own reality, because it's either way to difficult or they don't want any part with their own lives and will be stuck in their internet lives. I would like to use this Second life but not for a permanent assignment. It's better to do things in real life so that you can get exercise and you can interact with your peers in real life.
After reading the Second Life Article
I think using Second Life as an educational tool is a very good idea. First of all, in the first article, it is said that you can learn much more from moving around then just sitting down and listening to lectures. Students like to move around and see the actual things. Also, it is 3-D, so you can see an object from all directions. For example, it is written in the text, "This is a new way to interact with me and each other," Jean-Claude Bradley, chemistry professor and e-learning coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University, says. "I can show them molecules in three dimensions. We can walk around the molecule and discuss it." Another example from the text is, “Sanchez says his students enjoyed learning about leadership by building avatars to look like a personal role model, such as Mother Teresa, and conducting small group conversations between the avatars in the personae of the characters.” My last example from the text is, “After the Virginia Tech shootings, he took his students to a memorial that had been built in Second Life. When they arrived, conversations became hushed, he says. "They felt like they were in a sacred place."” From Second Life, you can learn how to use the computer easier. “Sue Kern, 52, a student at Lehigh Carbon Community College, says Second Life "taught me a lot about the computer."”
My second reason for thinking that Second Life is a good idea is because it can help in relationships between people and become friends. In the second article, it is stated that the Second Life has given many people opportunities to make a new life. Some people succeeds in this world when they didn’t in the real world. You have no restrictions to do anything here(except for murdering or stealing). People can just go up to people and start talking, which is very hard to do in the real world.
The disadvantage to Second Life is that people can be addicted to this program and start thinking that the world inside the computer is a real world. Moreover, in the passage of the second article, it says that there can be terrorism talks of where to bomb or hackers talking about how to put viruses in the program.
In our school, we can use this program in most of the classes, such as science, history, health, and etc. In science, we can all access in there where the teacher has set a room with 3-D pictures of science things such as the galaxy, the Earth, cells and all kinds of stuffs like that. In history classes, the teacher can put a 3-D video clip of an ancient civilization to see how the Egyptians built the pyramids. It can take time for teachers to create these "rooms", but aren’t teachers supposed to teach the kids in the easiest and the most efficient way? There are many ways you can use this program in class.
Well, I’ve never tried Second Life because I usually chat with others on MSN or on Gmail. But if I have the chance, I would probably do it.
In my opinion Second Life doesn’t seem like the type of cyber-space game that would help my education. The game seems more as if it were to be made as a work training game. For an example a woman became a businesswoman in the game and in real life she was also a businesswoman. The game seemed to be teaching her how to make a business. So the game really seems like a good game to train you for a job, but nor for an education. The only bad things about the game are that the graphics seem bad and that you would need high-speed Internet for it. The other bad thing about the game is that there are some people that go on the game just to practice terrorism.
I have never tried Second Life, but I believe I will when I want to practice for a job.
By Sasha 9th grade
In my opinion Second Life doesn’t seem like the type of cyber-space game that would help my education. The game seems more as if it were to be made as a work training game. For an example a woman became a businesswoman in the game and in real life she was also a businesswoman. The game seemed to be teaching her how to make a business. So the game really seems like a good game to train you for a job, but nor for an education. The only bad things about the game are that the graphics seem bad and that you would need high-speed Internet for it. The other bad thing about the game is that there are some people that go on the game just to practice terrorism.
I have never tried Second Life, but I believe I will when I want to practice for a job.
By Sasha 9th grade
I think that it is a very interesting concept about this Second life Article. It is a good tool but however I think that I could just get peoples hopes up wishing for a better life. And with terrorists etc… online it is still hard to get away from things that you might want to. I don’t think that the Second life would be very useful to Jordan because we are a very non technically advanced country. Downloading such a big File. I don’t however think that this is a reasonable thing to have done because it could also ruin your life because you are playing with actual people.
I think second life is cool that its like a second life in a game but, I also think that i should olny be for fun not for edication although it doent look that fun a has sim like graphics over all it looks like a pretty good game but it looks like a good way to communicate with other people and make online friends but it would not be a good idea to use it for school puposes
If u wanted to use it at school it might olny be good for olny one class and that would be digital media becused its filled with computers and is about computers but whe play the game when you could just talk. It also might distract others by talking to there friends or other people and thats why second life would not be a good idea to use in school.
after I read this article it reminded me of the sims ,but online. this game would be useful for school but it could also be distractive becuase people might start talking to other people, cheating, ect. Making this game bad for educational uses. The graphics are also bad and the game does not look that fun.
If we were to use this program at acs school we would most likly use it for digital media becuase the class room has many computers allowing every one to play and we would be able to study the graphics and animation helping us in the class. It would also make the class a lot more interisting not that it already isn't.
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