Have others been using the Second Life program? Either in their classes or at least been exposed to it? Boy, for me, what a learning curve! I am sure my grandson, age 13, would LOVE all his classes to be taught this way. He is a video/game person. Me, I am a bit old fashioned. Heck, I do not even own a Blackberry, IPod, or IPhone. Does that make me a Luddite?
No, of course not, I pick and choose my technologies. I believe many people have become slaves to their technological equipment. How many people ignore their phone ringing (or text message) during a lunch with friends? In my opinion, it is just wrong to sit and have a conversation with a person on the other end of the phone, and not the one(s) you are with.
So, back to Second Life. I created my Avatar. I have been through a couple of training sessions. I even bought the book “Second Life for Dummies”. My problem with this technology comes down simply to TIME. As it is now, I have newer versions of the software I teach (Adobe Suite) to learn for fall/spring semesters. This involves new books and creating new assignments. All of this is not paid time, but expected of us as teachers.
Adding Second Life to a class would be more than I could handle right now. Just trying to find my way around the program is quite taxing. I will continue to find some time to understand how Second Life works and how it could benefit my classes, but doubt I will incorporating it anytime soon. (sorry Cheryl)
I would appreciate comments about what others are doing with this technology. If not this one, something else?
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Cheryl Comstock and others at CCCOnline are on the front line of using this technology. There will be a workshop at the upcoming conference. SL is fascinating and loaded with potential for teaching. I cannot wait to see where it goes.
ReplyDelete- Dave Trott
Mary,
ReplyDeleteI tried to learn more about SL in a couple of occasions. I don't want to say I gave up for good, but it was not as intuitive or as fast as I thought it would be, so I was discouraged at the time.
Carol, SL is tough for me to learn as well. So far, it is a big learning curve. Also, it is easier if you have all the media tools on your computer (I do not have them as I do not play video games). We will just have to see what happens with this technology.
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