This video tutorial is very interesting and also very confusing at the same time. I don't know if it was just me, but it took me awhile to understand the meaning to this video and exactly what they were talking about. Second Life, from what I understood from the video, is a software that is basically a virtual message world. It contains avatars, of yourself, and you can communicate with others in the system. But the point of the video was to explain a few issues that are being fixed to make Second Life easier to use; such problems include keyboard functions, language barriers, and information processing.
The most significant takeaway form this video is just how amazingly detailed this software is! I have never, until now, have heard of Second Life, but I assume it is not expensive. To have a software with that good of picture and be inexpensive is amazing. The whole idea of Second Life is understandable, but I wonder will communication become more a video game than a chat line?
As far as schooling, I never have come across anything that is remotely close to this! Yes, I have computer games and yes I chat with instant message, but to put both together is amazing. There maybe something out that is like this software, maybe even better and I may just be technologically behind!
I see this software being used more in the home environment, but not in the schools. Communication is a great aspect but this software makes it more of a video game (and a lot of focus on images rather than the content of the conversation) than a message board. I may be totally off but from what I got from this video, I don't believe this could be useful in the classroom.
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I agree there are more uses we can see at home for SL than in school. Still, I think virtual world technologies are only going to get better and we'll likely see more developed for in-school uses. OpenSim is 1 project that is trying to do this, and the following K12Online preso tells more if you're interested.
ReplyDeleteOpenSim-OpenLearning