Second Life

Second Life is a virtual world that allows users to create avatars and explore many different virtual islands. Your avatar can be made to look very close to the way you look, or as different as possble, it is your choice! The graphics are amazing, and the few people I came across were friendly. Some educational islands I found were:

• ISTE - International Site for Technology Education
• NASA - An island where you can explore the galaxy

Some positive aspects of Second Life:

• Socialization with others in a virtual world
• Learn about many, many different things
• A potential tool for educators
• Teachers from across the globe can meet and share ideas in the virtual world

Some Negative aspects of Second Life:

• Many potentialy dangerous places for students
• Can be hard to navigate, and time consuming to learn how to navigate
• Students could easily be distracted

There is a place for Second Life in education, but not yet in schools. Seconld Life is a plae where educators can meet to share ideas, hold conferences, and network. Eventually there could be a place for Second Life in schools. Once there is censorship, and the ability to control content available to students, Second Life would be a great place for discovery and social interaction among students.

Gaming, Kids, and Education

Games are a form of entertainment that has been around forever. Today's digital natives are increasingly interested in playing all kinds of games: traditional board games, video games, and online interactive games. Some interesting statistics I found this week are:

• 43 percent of gamers are female
• 83 percent of games are non violent
• An average eigth grader spends 5 hours a week playing games.

Games offer clear goals, lessons that can be practiced and mastered, monitoring learner progress and adjusting instruction to learner level of mastery, closing the gap between what is learned and its use, motivation that encourages time on task, personalization of learning, and infinite patience.

Gaming does have a place in Education. Educators should work to minimize competition with classmates, though some competition seems to be healthy. This is why funbrain can be good. Students aren’t playing against each other. Another positive outcome of gaming is that it teaches problem solving skills as well as other skills that are vital in the workplace as well as in the classroom. According to Ross Miller’s article “Scientist recommend Educational Gaming,” “Making logical deductions, staying on task, staying motivated and goal-oriented despite constant failure, and infinite patience are all abilities gamers have and students need.

An educational gaming site I found particularly interesting was Supercharged! The Educational Arcade. This is a site containing a game that teaches science, but through browsing the Educational Arcade site I found games that reinforce history, math, and literacy.

Social Networking on the Internet

The main thing I took away from this week’s information is that there are both positive and negative aspects of social networking on the web. Some positive aspects are:

· Students can build on the relationships they previously have
· Students can easily find peers that have similar interests
· Students can share ideas and collaborate through social media

Some negative aspects of social networking on the web are:

· Students can potentially list too much information about themselves
· Students can unknowingly make themselves available to predators
· Students might possibly become victims of cyber bullying

As an educator, I think it is very important to be aware of the risks and benefits of using social networking sites in schools. The more we know about what is dangerous, the better chance we have of preventing it. Also, I think knowledge is power. The more we educate students as to the potential hazards, the more they will think twice about how they use the Web, and what information they post.