http://i33.tinypic.com/qqrceo.jpgI learned today that I am supposed to be blogging after each class this week. Sorry faithful readers that I forgot to blog yesterday! Yesterday was very interesting as we looked at Second Life. At first I thought Second Life was pretty cool. I created my character and set forth going from island to island. As we kept exploring Second Life I got a little bored. I'm not a big video game person and Second Life reminds me of a video game. It was also a bit frustrating that I couldn't change my second life character the way I wanted to and the islands weren't loading up very quickly. I would say the coolest part about Second Life was when I went to Hallucination Island where I got to experience what it was like to be a schizophrenic. The "voices" in my head never stopped and you can truly appreciate all that a schizophrenic has to deal with. We also learned that this is not a program to be used with kids under 18. As a teacher of 2nd graders I was a little annoyed that we spent 4 hours playing with it! However, Sara from our class had some amazing alternatives for Second Life that we can use with younger kids. Check out the other alternatives on her blog at Sara's Sighs.
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I have been WAITING for a blog from you ... I'm so disappointed ... :) I think we all had the same experience. (Glad to see you relaxing tonight at the OP. Hope dinner was great.) I did not go to Hallucination Island - I was more than creeped out by the idea of that. I was just perplexed by the whole Second Life deal. Sara is amazing - how she had the time to find that stuff ... she is a machine!
ReplyDeleteThe picture you've chosen truly captures the second life experience. I agree with your connection between video games and second life, which makes me think our students will not be "creeped out" like many of us were. I think we as teachers are going to have to connect to the worlds our students are comfortable operating in...even if we are not.
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