Second Life

We all looked at Second Life this week in our articles and in our hand-on class time. I learned a lot about possible uses for this program in the FL classroom to create authentic communication, but I still have not been convinced that better types of authentic communication don't exist.

I think that if a class is able to get past all of the technology barriers and to actually enter SL, all of the graphics and movement tasks could tend to be very distracting for students. Also, the ability to change the avatars appearence could become more interesting than trying to communicate. While, Dr. Lomicka did suggest using this appearence changing feature as a focus for a lesson, I think that might be one of the best uses of SL I have heard mentioned.

Overall, I think that unless a class is specifically designated as FL and technology, that SL is best to be kept outside of the classroom. There are other ways of getting students to communicate that have been studied and proven to work. I tend to support the tried and true technologies such as web chats. Maybe if the students need visuals they could use webcams, exchange pictures or even try to draw them.

HOWEVER, So that I complete my blog objectives for the week...

If I were to use SL in my classroom, I would use it for the purpose of having students communicate with native speakers. From what I understand, anything that can happen in real life can happen in second life. So, I might have students do specific tasks like going to the grocery store in Barcelona (which I think exists on SL) or looking at apartments to rent.

I would hopefully collaborate with a class in Barcelona, so that the other teacher and myself could make the tasks really structured and limit off-task activity. Also, this would limit interaction with STRANGERS, because strangers might be dangerous.