Environments such as Second Life can both stimulate and educate, experts say
Primary Topic Channel: Gaming
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Online gaming can help students develop many of the skills they'll be required to use upon leaving school, such as critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity, agreed educators who spoke during an April 16 webinar on gaming in education.
Sharnell Jackson, the chief eLearning officer for Chicago Public Schools and the webinar's moderator, noted that gaming and simulations are highly interactive, allow for instant feedback, immerse students in collaborative environments, and allow for rapid decision-making. The webinar was sponsored by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).
Studies of the brain have pointed to data suggesting that repeated exposure to video games reinforces the ability to create mental maps, inductive discovery such as formulating hypotheses, and the ability to focus on several things at once and respond faster to unexpected stimuli.
Many education groups, such as ISTE and the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) have active communities in Second Life, a program that immerses users into a virtual world, said Claudia L'Amoreaux, a community developer and educator for Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life.
"I call Second Life an engine for creativity," she said. "Today's teens are creating their own content, uploading photos to Flickr and videos to YouTube, and in Second Life they're making their own games and stepping into them--you could call Second Life a participatory game platform."
This virtual world allows users to create their own virtual avatars, thus defining their own characters, she added.
L'Amoreaux cited a team of students in an internship program studying museum creatorship, who partnered with others for a Second Life activity that involved a recreation of the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht), an anti-Jewish pogrom in 1938 Nazi Germany. As participants, the students assumed the roles of reporters, exploring the events for themselves.
"It helps kids get involved in things and use their own interests and explore a part of something they're interested in," she said.
Stan Trevena, the director of information and technology services in California's Modesto City Schools, is at the end of a year-long pilot between four of his district's high school classes and high school students in a private English-learning school in Kyoto, Japan.
One of the first activities involved live interviews between each pair of students--one from the U.S. and one from Japan. The next day, all of the students met online in their Second Life island and, based on the information that they learned from their partner the day before, had to interview avatars on the island until they found their partner.
The program also involved cultural and history lessons. Halloween is a curiosity for Japanese students, Trevena said, so the U.S. students sponsored a Halloween event with a haunted house.
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Alternative realities
I would also add in response to the criticism of putting students into "alternative realities" in school: Isn't school itself an alternative reality? A rationale for the existence of schools is that they are supposed to be places that foster learning more effectively than say, the home or workplace. Ironically, it's clear that schools often aren't really very effective sites for learning - and virtual realities might be better.
Posted By: erhayes, 2008-04-29 3:04 PM
Alternate Realities
I appreciate the reticence educators feel towards acquiescing to students’ immersion in the world of gaming, but the argument against “other realities” does not sufficiently stand up to criticism. As educators we invest much of our time in mentoring students’ exploration of “other realities” and deem it justifiable because they inform our own. We attempt to recreate for our students the sights, sounds, and smells of the trenches of World War I to experience the horror of war. We mentally trace the outline of handprints in Chauvet caves to ponder whether they represent prehistoric art or 30,000 year old grafitti. We guide students through Picasso’s vision of 20th Century reality in Guernica and the harmony and balance of the Enlightenment through Mozart’s Magic Flute. We hope our students, immersed in the world of Othello, will come to understand the motivations of the Moor and Iago alike and, sitting on the front porch with Atticus, they will experience his gentle parenting and views on the dignity of humanity. It seems we are in the business of engaging students in alternate realities, past, present, and imagined, and that our objection lies not in the trading of “mimesis for reality” itself, but in the quality of the exchange. While the gaming world of Grand Theft Auto has yet to prove its artistic merit to stand alongside The Canterbury Tales, it is perhaps premature to dismiss the medium for its potential to extend our students’ encounters with the human experience beyond their own.
Posted By: dianefrench, 2008-04-29 9:56 AM
Ironic or just silly?
Is it just me? Does anyone else see irony in the fact that 90% of the comments on an article announcing the discovery of the Holy Grail of teaching/learning -- that is, rationalizing that computer game playing somehow increases critical thinking and facility with f2f (look it up) communication -- are about whether there is or is not (and if not, why not?) a "printer-friendly" function on the site? Folks, it is not about the technology! How many of you have been to Second Life to discover if the reports about gang problems (I'm not kidding!) are now rife there? Second Life seems to be mimicking reality in a somewhat negative way -- please note its "true believer" spokesperson works for Linden Labs -- but it is still mimesis, simulacra. It is not real! Is that the lens through which students should now be looking at the world? Form without substance? It is great for teaching Top Gun pilots for the Navy. But high school students who already have traded mimesis for reality (according to this article: by age 21, the average youth has watched 20,000 hours of television and played 10,000 hours of video games) away from school should not be able to leave this life for another one while at school. And that is just the beginning of encouraging teenagers -- or younger, heaven forbid -- to create alternate realities for themselves. Don't forget, that is what Grand Theft Auto does, too. Ask your staff psychologist (if you have one).
Posted By: prjacoby, 2008-04-29 3:47 AM
Where is the printer friendly version icon?
Posted By: acoulson, 2008-04-28 3:48 PM
Accessing the Printer Friendly Version
Difficult to access the print friendly version. Very frustrating.
Posted By: emendelow, 2008-04-24 9:18 PM
Print Friendly Version
Thank you for the comments, your request has been heard and the print friendly version now displays the full article on one page.
Posted By: vince, 2008-04-24 9:27 AM
how about a printing feature
that prints all three pages at once?
Posted By: fmigliorelli, 2008-04-23 4:57 PM
oh wait.....
i see those features hidden under an ad.......
Posted By: fmigliorelli, 2008-04-23 4:55 PM
a printing feature and email ability
to send articles to other people, would be a nice addition.
Posted By: fmigliorelli, 2008-04-23 4:55 PM
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Balanced Views
Second Life. "mimicking reality in a somewhat negative way" Agreed. My first thought about Second Life was ... is there a way to make money on Second Life? Invest in the land... return on investment? "it is perhaps premature to dismiss the medium for its potential to extend our students’ encounters with the human experience beyond their own. " Agreed. Simulation is one of the best tools for learning. But, perhaps in a more controlled environment from Second Life? "Form without substance? It is great for teaching Top Gun pilots for the Navy. " My comment: when the Navy or the Air Force (or any of the Armed Forces) use simulation, one can bet their students learn it through a very focused simulation medium, not by opening up an entire world. Our young people NEED more focus. 20,000 hours of UNFOCUSED television viewing is ridiculous, denying all proof that the best way to educate is NOT always through free form. Free form is for later in life, after the foundations have been built. We have too many students reaching college age who cannot read or write!
Posted By: freewherewildhorsesrun, 2008-05-01 11:58 AM