Here is a brief introduction to Second Life and it’s existing uses in education. Info found on http://www.virtualenvironments.info
Second Life is a 3D world with fully customizable avatars and a built-in scripting and building language. Users imagine and create all sorts of objects, including educational simulations and real-world products for sale. More
Educational uses of Second Life
Second Life has been hailed by many for its educational potential. Many colleges and universities have purchased islands within Second Life and have built virtual campuses inside. To date, over 74 schools have already built virtual campuses. Others have built informal learning exhibits, or proof-of-concept educational simulations (e.g. the Heart Murmur Simulation). There is a listserve for educators who wish to use Second Life for formal education.
Second Life has been used for distance learning, museum-style exhibits, corporate training, broadcasting information, or simply as an interactive supplement to traditional classroom environments.
Virtual classes and virtual classrooms are becoming more commonplace, as an increasing number of schools will hold online classes within Second Life. As simulations and designed experiences, virtual worlds seem to be useful for experiential, exploratory learning and for teaching various content areas like business (e.g. virtual real estate, intellectual property), economics, art design and architecture, science, among other topics.
A lot of resources are available for using Second Life for education -
- The SimTeach Wiki is Linden Lab’s official resource for educators in Second Life.
- A PDF handout of the basics of using Second Life in the classroom, found at 101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom (created for the 2005 Games, Learning, and Society Conference)
- A list of SimTeach’s Top 20 Educational Locations in Second Life, including virtual campuses, science simulations, tutorials, and other places of interest to educators.
- A useful collection of SL scripts for teaching and research, including a chat logger, notecard giver, physics simulations, presentations, sound tools, etc.
- This video provides many examples of current Science Learning Opportunities within Second Life, including real-time visualizations, hands-on genomics simulations, ARC Research Center’s 3-D anatomy exhibits, and New Media Consortium’s clinical simulation modules.
- See SimTeach’s for a list of all Second Life virtual campuses.
Next steps are to visit some of the virtual campuses inworld to find out more.
