Filed under: education, second life | Tags: facebook, generation c, learner centred, video
Via Tony Karrer’s eLearning Technology blog
As I said on Facebook, where I posted this video to my profile, it is rather Americacentric, but a very good and concise overview of some of the educational uses of Second Life.
I do have to say, however, that I am not someone who jumps onto Second Life, because apart from the fact that I have not had an opportunity to explore it, I am wary of one thing: addiction. I am convinced that a virtual reality such as Second Life (which even advertises that one can be in the virtual world what one cannot be or does not manage to be in reality) has highly addictive potential. I am waiting for the research on effects of Second Life, including its use in education/Higher Education.
Still, the educational possibilities are fascinating, and there is no doubt in my mind that Virtual Learning Environments will be like Second Life instead of text based.
After an online hiatus due to moving house (still no internet) and time off work for moving, I am back with a video by Lee Lefever of Common Craft. As the RSC NewsFeed explained: “In under 4 minutes, he describes the concept of using a WIKI to communicate and co-ordinate group activities.”
What are Wikis? Video “in plain English”
Lee describes the reason for making this video “We made this video because wiki web sites are easy to use, but hard to describe.”
In a blog entry from 29th July 07 Phil Bradley answered the “Web 2.0 questions I’m most often asked“. It is a brilliant entry and I highly recommend it. Phil’s Blog is about “Internet searching, web design, search engine developments and anything that will interest librarians!” and one to keep on one’s RSS feed.
I came across Phil’s blog via the IRN Newsletter and its latest edition.
Boxcast #6 – JISC Legal Information Service
This episode talks about the brilliant and free JISC Legal service, which is available to UK FE and HE institutions.
Eduardo Peirano (Onlinesapiens blog) alerted me on the College 2.0 network on Ning that “the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies is building a Top 100 Favorites List of Tools used for personal working and learning or for creating and delivering learning solutions.” I submitted my own, why don’t you , to help build a comprehensive list?
This interesting BBC news reports about a University in the UK that has not only expressed concerns about students using Facebook, the increasingly popular Social (and Professional) Networking site, but that has emailed their students to warn them away from using Facebook to make comments about their lecturers.
BBC news video: University’s Facebook Worry
This is fascinating in several ways, the one that I find most striking is that the University seems to have lost touch with technological developments, changes in networking and online behaviour, and their student generation. Of course, it also highlights that:
- Freedom of speech will always be used and sometimes abused
- If there is no platform to voice criticism then people will find/make one
- It is time to embed Web 2.0 into University life, inside and out
- Universities should embrace the opportunities instead of trying to police the challenges.
Easier said than done, I do realise that, but I firmly believe the teenagers of today will NOT study, learn, communicate, interact, collaborate, think, create, etc anymore like those of us do, born before the 1980s.
