Hirschfeld: Learning through Second Life
Versatile social networking site also used as classroom
Social Web site Second Life has a variety of uses. It is a place of escapism, self-promotion, and now education.
By Matt Hirschfeld (Contact)
Monday, August 13th, 2007
Learning in an online class is not always the most rewarding experience. Long hours of sitting in front of a computer screen filling out endless multiple choice questions and lack of student/teacher contact can be intimidating. Now, imagine sitting on a cloud as a three-dimensional person and having your instructor (decked out with a fox head with paws to match) teach the lesson, all while the scene on your computer screen looks as if you were in an actual classroom. This is known as Second Life.
Second Life is a three-dimensional world that people can reach through the Internet, in which you create as an avatar (three-dimensional representation of your identify). The world you are in can be used in a variety of ways, including socializing, networking and teaching and has, to date, more than 8.3 million users. Stacey Fox, technical director for film studies at KU, has taught a class in Second Life.
“Second Life is where the creators create their own world,” Fox said.
Fox taught a New Media in Cyber Culture class at KU in Second Life. The program downloaded is free, and the students had the opportunity to create their avatar. Fox said the students would put hours into choosing the right name, physical characteristics, clothing and accessories of their avatar.
The first physical characteristic students wanted to change, Fox said, was their skin color. Most others wanted to change their weight, height and even gender.
“Why is it so important?” Fox asked. “The name that a student picks can tell a lot about a person, but how they choose to look can vary widely.” The fact that it took so much time for the students to pick the “perfect virtual identity” worked well with the particular class Fox was teaching because it was a class emphasizing culture.
One concern that arises about teaching class in Second Life is the learning quality of the medium in which the students are being taught. When comparing learning in Second Life to learning in a classroom, Fox said she thought Second Life was better overall.
Students were more respectful, she said, as compared with the unspoken etiquette that is found in most all classrooms. Students also can socialize more easily than in a classroom.
“Once a student’s class is out at 12:00 p.m., for example,” she said, “they leave the classroom and continue on with their everyday life. With Second Life, that same student would have easier access to socializing with the other students in the same class for learning purposes.”
The number of students who could be educated through Second Life is also an advantage. Students from across the United States would all meet on, for example, Cloud Station number 256 for class and all be tuning in to the same lecture at the same time.
If a teacher were to teach of class of 500 students, he or she would most likely be overwhelmed, Fox said. But if 250 of those students are in front of the teacher in the classroom and the other 250 are being lectured through Second Life, the pressure decreases dramatically.
“If the class has a good teacher and good applications, the teaching will some across,” Fox said. “The learning is still going to be accomplished regardless of the medium.”
Second Life is becoming more and more integrated into society as a result of heightened awareness. Many students as a result are looking into the prospect of taking a class in Second Life.
Jason Werth, Olathe junior at KU, said Second Life could be a more interactive way for students to take an online class as compared with a more traditional, self-motivated online class. He said students could become more involved.
“More students who before could not make it to an actual classroom because of physical ailments would also have the opportunity to take a class in a more classroom-oriented environment,” Werth said.
Kristin Buehler, Parkview senior at KU, said that Second Life seems more like an excuse to not go to a classroom and learn than anything else. It relies entirely too much on the Internet, she said.
“The whole idea gives people an excuse to not deal with reality,” she said. “You cannot experience what you could in a classroom while sitting in front of a computer glaring at the screen.”
Still, with its adversity and technical problems Second Life occasionally faces, Fox remains a great advocate of the program. She hopes sometime in the near future universities would even have their own servers the help make Second Life more accessible and efficient for students.
Second Life is already being integrated into many public high schools, and Fox hopes that this trend will help future college students rely on Second Life as a learning tool for classes in their future.
“Students will and continue to be intuitive technology users,” Fox said. “It’s not about when virtual learning will happen. It is happening.”
Hirschfeld is an Augusta junior in journalism.
Discussion
All comments are moderated by Kansan.com staff. For our full user policy, click here.
Share your 2¢
Requires free registration.