Learning in a different life: Pre-service education students using an online virtual world

Second Life is an online virtual world that is three dimensional and uses rich graphics to allow the user to be engaged in this environment. There has been a significant increase in people using this virtual world and of those conducting research in it in the recent past. This research study analyses a project where pre-service education students accessed Second Life as part of a fourth year elective course. The students had not used this virtual world prior to being introduced to it in class. They completed a problem based learning experience in Second Life that allowed the students to explore the virtual world as well as develop an activity that could be taught to a high school class. This study used case study methodology within a qualitative research framework. Although it was only a small pilot study, results suggest that the students learned how to navigate around Second Life and were open to this new technology. Half the students reported that they would use this technology or similar technologies in the future

Second Life in the Classroom: Interacting with the Modern College Student

How do we engage our students to actively learn? That is a question that educators are asking more and more often. New techniques and philosophies are constantly being developed and tried in the classroom yet we still come back to the same observations. Students are generally unprepared for college level studies and often seem unwilling to put in the required effort needed to succeed. Perhaps one reason students seem disengaged is because they may not see the value of what they are learning. The connections between their studies and how they will benefit them later in life may not be clear. To this end I explore the use of Second Life in the classroom and how it can be used to clarify the links between what students learn and how these lessons can help them in their future. In this paper I explore the nature of education in Second Life and how it might best be employed based on lessons learned from using it in the classroom over the past six years

Proceedings of the Second Life Education Workshop at the Second Life Community Convention

Proceedings of the First Second Life Education Workshop, Part of the 2006 Second Life Community Convention, August 18th-20th 2006, Fort Mason Centre, San Francisco, Ca