Task #9 - Virtual Worlds

Time for a confession!  This is an aspect of Web 2.0 that I have serious doubts about and as a result, I was reluctant to being this week's tasks.  Doing my best to put my preconceptions aside, I embarked on my SecondLife orientation.  I learnt how to go forward and back, about interactive objects, chatting with other avatars, creating my own avatar look, and all the different 'worlds' I could choose to be apart of - but I still find myself pondering the question, "What is wrong with interacting with real people is the real world?"  Given the number of people who access these alternative realities, I extended my search to try and find out what the attraction is.  This is what I have learnt:

According to Joe Sanchez - "Virtual worlds are connecting people in a disconnected society".  Question - can these connections be considered real?

In the words of Dan Brown - "We are in the midst of a very real revolution.  If institutional education refuses to adapt to the landscape of the informational age, it will die, and it should die!...Information has been liberated...Any educational institution based solely on providing students with facts is not preparing students for the real world."  A very impassioned speech from a Gen Y student, disillusioned with the education system yet presenting a number of very valid points and an informative insight into the views of today's university students.

Apparently, according to Marc Prensky, I am a 'digital immigrant' who is teaching 'digital natives'.  Like all immigrants while I can and do adapt to my environment, to some degree I will always retain the 'accent' of my past experiences with and without technology.  This makes some sense.  Perhaps I can be honest enough as to say, perhaps this is at the source of my 'questioning' nature when it comes to technology and its implications for the classroom.

Yet I also learnt that these alternative worlds can provide the opportunity for students to:

• Role play in any number of situations and time periods including Ancient Rome, Shakespeare's plays (SecondLife) or even using virtual world technologies to assist pre-graduate teachers to improve their professional decision making skills (Matthew Campbell - School of Education, Australian Catholic University).
• Undertake scavenger hunts to locate and collate information about a given topic
• Take guided tours of sites otherwise unavailable to students to explore such as the Cysteine Chapel or inside a Dell Computer (SecondLife)
• Participate in simulations which enable them to view different perspectives, walk in someone else's shoes.
• Create professional networks through which they can collaborate, co-create and share information
• Participate in tutorials and lecturers, even complete the content of a course at their own pace
• Interact with people from around the world, the language translator contained with SecondLife a definite plus in this regard

All amazing things, agreed, but definitely limited by the 18+ user policy.  Was appalled to learn of the seeder and downright disturbing side of SecondLife. Granted their is a TeenWorld, however, adult input into this site is forbidden with the expectation of SecondLife employees.  This led to me to wonder what might be available to a younger crowd, that also had the same 'educational' possibilities.  I was surprised to find a number of site do exist and even grants in Victoria of up to $2000 for teacher to participate in some of these virtual world simulations (Quest Atlantis) with their students.  I even found a project in Queensland - The Games in Learning Project (2008).  It did, however, contain the following disclaimer:

"Education Queensland and the games in Learning Project are not recommending that

Virtual Worlds be used in the classroom or with students at this point in time. 

We are currently conducting a full audit on virtual worlds and their potential for learning

and will provide advice to schools once this is completed."

 

Needless to say, I could find no further 'advice'.

So where does that leave me, given that I started with my digital immigrant accented view of the whole 'virtual world' thing?  STAY TUNED...the jury is still out for this Primary School Teacher!

And then there was ExitReality!  The Vimeo video link with the creators of ExitReality (great to see it is an Australian initiative) certainly was interesting but I think they explained its appeal best in describing their intended demographic as "social network users who like to decorate their space."  Granted it looks good and its ability to interface with MySpace is great but...the honest truth...who has the time to "pimp out their pages".  Great appeal perhaps to the digital native but I for one am still coming to terms with the impact of technology on my workload.

No don't get me wrong, I am a techno-convert and consider myself to be quite an assimilated immigrant but the reality of working in this changing educational environment (caught somewhere between between the institutionalised 'chalk and talk' environments of the past and the potential freedom and limitless learning opportunities of the future) is that more and more is being bolted on, nothing is being removed or replaced.  The result of which is an environment in which educators such as myself are excited by the potential of the technology but who often feel overwhelmed by the reality of making it work, not to mention the time and effort it takes to learn and acquire these new skills whilst keeping on top of the endless piles of traditional marking, profiling and accountability as dictated to us by 'those above'. 

 

The answer? 

 

Time? 

I'm open to the thoughts and ideas of others - preferably before I drown!!