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Chester (Yao Teck)

Reflections on Second Life (Han Kiong)

With Second Life being similar to games like The Sims, I have naturally regarded and classified Second Life as a game. A search on google whether Second Life is a game yielded results with some saying that Second Life is a game and others strictly classifying it as a 3D-online virtual world. For me, Second Life has elements that both resemble and those that set it apart frm games. However, what is most important about Second Life is that it enables one to assume the role of avatars and do stuffs that may not be possible in real life as well as creation of worlds that are mimics real-life environments.

The prevalence of digital technologies has resulted in students being now labelled as digital natives and this meant that they could well be interested and involved in Second Life. There will be implications for education. Second Life could well be a platform where educational learning could take place. The increasing use of Second Life by many educational institutions provide evidence for its practicality for teaching and learning.

The video introduces some ways in which Second Life can be used in the teaching of many subjects ranging from history, literature and science. Teachers can get students to be responsible for their own learning and thus do away with direct lecturing and bring about student centric and meaningful learning. Students can travel long distances within the virtual world and get to go to places where they could never travel to in the real world. The video also talks about students being visual and audio learners and Second Life caters to learning needs of these students.

While it may seem that the advantages are plentiful, we will have to consider the limitations and potential dangers of Second Life as well. Second Life may expose students to adult content which they are not ready for at such a tender age. Fortunately, restrictions placed on access to such materials have effectively averted potential risks and averse effects. Furthermore, as students spend more time assuming roles of avatar, they may get addicted and may eventually get disengaged from the real world. Their interpersonal relationships may suffer making them unable to adapt to real life.

When it comes to implementation of Second Life in schools, teachers may be unprepared to integrate them in their classrooms as it may involve some technological knowledge on how to set up and operate Second Life. This will then bring about relevance to the lesson as teachers may be more focused on the technology and less on the subject content. As for me, I am reluctant to integrate Second Life in my lessons as I feel that my lack of know-hows of Second Life will outweigh the benefits that it will have on enhancing learning in students.

ICT reflection

Second life provides a good platform for learning. In this video, it focused more on training and simulations. SL allows trainees to try again and again. It is very interactive and in the video,it provides evidence that SL can promote teamwork and leadership building. SL is good for distant learning where trainees do not need to be physically there. SL can also promote soft sills and hard skills since role playing can be done as a form of learning.

From what I have seen and heard, I think SL has the opportunity to be a good platform for educational learning. Students are able to be present in the virtual world and gain knowledge from it.

However, I am doubtful over many things. Some of it I find disturbing.I am looking from the psychological aspect of the child's development. Firstly, the world is virtual. The virtual you could be different from the real you. What if the students suffer from split personality? They feel more confident in the real world but they are unsure about themselves in the real world. Secondly, I have never heard about Second life until now. The thing is, from my experience, none of my students ever mentioned SL. I have heard them talking about facebook, friendster, blog, twitter but I have never heard of them being excited over SL. Therefore, if I were to introduce to them SL and they started to get addicted to it and started to meet the strangers online, will I be responsible for it then?

Also, there are many technological barrier to this. I am no IT expert. So it will take alot of time and effort to come up with lesson plans that involve SL. Is it worth it? So I think I shall not pursue SL. I shall pursue other alternatives to traditional teaching for example blogs, youtube and many many more. And I hope the students will benefit from it.

Reflection on Second Life (SL)

I feel SL is rather uninteresting and dead. From my first and only experience till now, I feel that why would anyone be fascinated by living in a virtual world?

But when we were told by Dr Tan that people actually uses it to satisfy the needs they cannot satidfy in the real world, I do feel that there is indeed a purpose to the existence of SL.

Looking at the video, student nurses will have simulations that are programmed to answer a very wide variety of questions that can be posted by the student nurses. This serves as a good practice for the nurses to learn how to question effectively and efficiently. This may also allow them to anticipate any kind of real life situation that may happen. Sl actually serve as a simulation practice platform for the student nurses before they face the world.

With my current level of how interesting and however helpful SL can be, my perception of it is still bases on my 30 minutes of flying and trying to interact with others through typing.

However SL has its own limitations. The biggest limitation I believe would be the lack of face to face interaction. This may eventually cost humans to lose the skill and confidence to interact face to face. That, I feel is catastrophic. Another worry may be the over-reliance of SL where humans will tend to use SL as a form of escape from reality. These over-reliance may create situations where they are too engross into SL, that they cannot detach themselves from the world.

Second Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA&feature=related

During the 'hands-on experience' with Second Life in my last session, I seriously don't see much relevance of Second Life in my teaching.

The video which I have put up has showcased few ways which I can adopt for teaching. Well, true enough, they are applicable. But I just wondering, if I am going to teach a certain Science topic e.g.Periodic Table, is it already available? Or do I need to hire someone to create the programme for me? I am an IT idiot.

Furthermore, I start questioning myself. How would the future be like when everyone seems to be stuck in front of the computers? I believe Second Life can be rather addictive just like some games available online e.g. Maple story. I have friends who stayed at home all day long just to make sure that they progress to the higher levels.

In school, we are already promoting ICT-based learning. Either in school or at home, students have to use computers for their tasks. Isn't it draining for their eyes and health. Yes, i don't play games. I don't find it interesting to move about in the virtual world too. I am more interested in real-life experience, I don't believe in day-dreaming.

If educational system is going towards very IT-based form of learning, we probably need to think of how could actually bring about adverse effects on the learners. The schools probably need to provide some training to educate students about the proper usage of Internet, how to protect their eyes and their sitting gestures. Ever since I entered NIE, I have to stare at the computers for long hours. I probably need to have a eye-checking session soon.

I can really imagine almost everyone wearing spectacles if our educational system gets very ICT-based!

Reflections on 2nd Life

This is my first time experiencing second life. It's very interesting when we get to change the appearance and clothings of our avatar. It was even more fun when we were given a treasure hunt to find some items. Having said that, I don't think I will be starting a second life anytime soon unless I am required to do so. This is because I would rather experience the real world than explore a virtual world. There is so much more meaning to doing the real thing than just moving my fingers over the keyboard. If ever one day I am done exploring the real world then I will turn to 2nd life to start my 2nd life.



This person in the video is Joe Sanchez from University of Texas. He explains some of the advantages of using 2nd life as an educational tool to replace mundane meetings, lectures and frontal teaching.

He suggests that there is more interaction between the students and the lecturer in the virtual world. More people can speak up and express their views. Students can learn at home using their laptop which is convenient and relaxing for them.

I agree with him to a certain extent. It is true that in an environment with classmates, student's feel more reluctant to speak up for fear of embarassing themselves. Now that they are behind their laptop screens, they can express themselves with relative ease. This might help them in their learning.

However learning from laptops means that they might have multiple windows open at the same time. So they might be listening to rock music, watching a movie, playing a game, all at the same time while "listening" to the lecture. Also, what makes learning fun sometimes is the classroom environment: seeing the teacher's expression when he is telling a joke, feeling the enthusiasm of the class for an interesting topic. These are very different sensations when experienced over the internet.

Are we moving to the stage where everyone is poised to have an alter ego in a virtual world? Would you know my real emotions, for example, when I am typing this blog? Its already quite difficult to read a person's thought face-to-face, whatmore over the internet. For now I cherish what little face-to-face meetings we have and hope when virtual teaching comes, I will be mentally prepared for it.

Chester's 2nd Life

Frankly, i wasn't all too impressed with Second Life (SL) when i got my 1st hands on experience at the mxl. What i didn't know is that universities exist in SL! Why go for lectures when we can do it in SL? You can even fly to your virtual lecture venue. Nonetheless, i feel that SL does have its limitations (based on my half an hour hands on session that is).


In order to interact, most of us type. In a class of 40, there might be too many words on the screen. Even if we use a microphone, our message cannot be delivered effectively because there is a lack of body language (or rather natural body language), which accounts for 70% of communication.

In SL, we can see and hear, but cannot we touch and smell. Disaster for chemistry teachers like us? How are we going to show students that an alkali is soapy and ammonia gas is pungent?

Having said that, i'm not trying to say SL is useless for education. I feel that while SL cannot be the primary source of education, it can serve as a complementary tool. For example, we could conduct e-learning using SL. We could also use SL as a tool to bring students to places. Planning a trip to Marina Barrage? Perhaps we can have a marina barrage in SL to let students have a feel of what is the place like before the actual trip. Or we can take students to the effel tower without actually travelling to paris.

That's all for now. I probably have to sign up for SL to appreciate more of its advantages and disadvantages.