Application of Second Life
Second Life in a nutshell is a virtual reality world; where users of Second Life, known as ‘Residents,’ are able to communicate to one another’s avatar to socialise or partake in the many applications or groups within the Second Life world. Within the CS3010 lab where we were able to join the Second Life world to explore and gauge an overall feel for this particular virtual reality. Second Life to a beginner like me seemed to be a glorified Sims game, however whilst continuing my experience and exploration with Second Life I have become aware of some of the advantages and assistances it provides to some people. Online communities to support and facilitate the arts, religion, corporate work, science and education which is what I will elaborate further on.
Through my own experience as well as research it appears that the education within the Second Life world is rather substantial and thorough. The sheer detail of some of the online campuses within Second Life is astonishing, with developers of the campuses providing a carbon copy of some university students’ campuses, with unique aspects of one’s campus, such as a constantly faulty printer or broken door, being implemented to provide a sense of realism for the user with the addition of a personalised avatars to be an accurate portrait of student to contribute to the realism. The distinct advantages I found of the Second Life education community is as follows; firstly the problematic matter of distance for some students is somewhat resolved as the students in remote areas are able to participate in a global networked virtual classroom, where they are able to ask fellow students and/or the lecturer questions to help assist their studies with instant feedback, which would not be usually available to students using a virtual learning environment such as u-Link, where a response to a question may range from hours to days or never in some cases. Another advantage of the second life education community is the support and confidence it provides students with learning difficulties. Students with learning difficulties may be required to undertake extra tuition or are perhaps removed from mainstream education. In either case a fall in confidence will likely be experienced, thus students with learning difficulties within the Second Life education community are able to work at a pace that is suited to them; either one to one with a teacher or with a group of students with similar difficulties to facilitate both collaborative learning as well as to build confidence that they are not alone and can be educated. In both advantages the key feature is the social aspect that Second Life provides, as the majority of students I know feel that collaborative learning is the most beneficial method to learn, as students are able to engage and share ideas and solutions to problems that they may not have known if they were learning by themselves, as well know that they are not alone if they do not understand something.
However, with young or vulnerable learners caution must be exercised as adult content is an issue with Second Life, thus everything must be assured that these learners are not subjected to such content. ‘Early research indicates however that a level of caution is required to ensure that young learners and other people are not inadvertently interacting with ‘islands’ in the Second Life environment which include unsavoury and unacceptable practices of an adult nature. In response to this, the educational community has developed the ability to purchase private restricted islands which are suitable locations for young learners…adults are not allowed to set foot on the mainland.’
References
McCrindle, R. J., & Adams, A. A. (2008). Pandora's Box. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
I agree with the fact that second life is definitely a useful virtual environment in which students can communicate to discuss and solve problems. Second life is easily accessible and easy to use once users have signed up. It is a also a good social tool in which different environments and people are available to communicate with. Like you mentioned adult content must have been an issue as some youngsters may just join in order to use abusive language towards strangers or people they dislike and also try and annoy female users. Private restricted islands are a good idea but im sure if someone really wanted, they could find a way to intrude for example by making a new profile.
ReplyDeleteI personally think the education side of Second Life is certainly an interesting one. I agree, that for remote learners, this is a great platform for learning. The social aspect is also an important one. With the ability of private islands, and realistic looking campuses Second Life can certainly prove useful in the education space.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, I’m glad you both agree that Second Life is useful for educational purposes. In response to Karan Khela, who showed some worries regarding other people using the network for malicious purposes, I think this is very true, and is a predominant worry in all social/virtual environments.
ReplyDeleteIf you look back at the early stages of Facebook or Bebo etc, the creators had to adapt to various problems and evolve accordingly. If you look at the fact that, with the current updated version of Facebook, there are now options when reporting something on someone’s profile. This actually wasn’t the case before; it was simply a button to report.
Second Life does take measure to combat malicious and unacceptable behaviour on their network. (See the link I have posted below regarding guidelines made by the virtual environment in view of young users.) As it isn’t as widely known as Facebook, I believe we don’t fully acknowledge how it is progressing to become a safer environment.
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Teen_Safety_Guidelines