Ah Secondlife - the endless conunderum

There are two parts to my lifes passion/interests...

one is a total fascination with innovation and the new - maybe this is also slightly intertwined with a wish to be the first at something (not a very good trait I admit).

then there's another side that simply want to support learners - to make sure they have the most wonderful, inspiring, enjoyable time whether or not it's supported by digital or more traditional technologies. If one-to-one, a desk and a big sheet of paper is required. so be it. It just has to work. And the more simple it is the better.

So..Second Life or Virtual Worlds in general have become my life's quandry. I'm fascinated by them. i love the way they connect me, I love the anonymity (at times), the visual quality, the way you can develop new relationships, feel emotion, really live and experience. And I want to explore them - to really know their educational value - so where it's good it can be really good and where it's bad we can finally forget it!

I think probably being married to an even great virtual world nut encourages this urge. At the same time I have a deep cyncisim of its value in University. So much hype, so many failed or questionable projects, so much bad design. Is it worth exploring or not? Is it the technology that I want to explore more than I care about students' writing experiences?

Well...there are places where I see it might have a place.

My director mentioned she'd like to see our mentors connecting with others around the world. How might that be done best? teleconference? wiki? videocast/skype? Or 3D world? What does connecting mean? The most perfect result would be one in which all students are immediately teleported together - for free, immediately and met face to face, physical presence, body language and all in place. So, not possible.

Second life comes some way towards that but then a whole lot of other aspects come into play? The effort/return balance comes into play. There's a huge amount of learning that needs to take place in order for SL to be useable for a start...

But - it means it might be worth exploring.

And maybe it's worth giving it a go. Just to see what we can get out of it. Then maybe I can launch or bury it once and for all in this job at this time!