[CAnet - news] The ultimate distance learnig - second life

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[Some excerpts from NYTimes article posted on johnmacsgroup by John McMullen
- BSA]

>From the New York Times --
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/education/edlife/07innovation.html

The Ultimate Distance Learning
By CHRISTINE LAGORIO

Isaac Greenbaum, a continuing education student at New York 
University<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations
/n/new_york_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>, 
remembers the day last semester when his media studies class 
was settling into a discussion of its next group project. 
Shortly after class began, a brawny, bare-chested figure 
bounded in wielding a crossbow.

"This guy is shooting arrows, and if he hits you - of course, 
you can't die - you get teleported to a different land. And he 
hit me! I got sent to, like, the Himalayas!"

Sabotage can happen when your class is held in cyberspace, 
where a marauding avatar may just barge in and audit. Much of 
Second Life, now occupied by some two million users, mimics 
real life (R.L., in the vernacular): sun, sky, trees, 
waterways and anything users think to build. 
(Enter at www.secondlife.com.)

Scores of colleges and universities have set up campuses on 
islands, where classes meet and students interact in real 
time. They can hold chat discussions and create multimedia 
presentations from virtual building blocks called prims. The 
laws of physics don't necessarily apply.

Instructors say the Second Life class experience is 
particularly enhanced for distance learners. In Second Life, 
classmates and instructor don't just communicate in chat 
rooms; they can actually see one another - or, at least, 
digital alter egos - on screen.

Bill Moseley, whose distance-learning course for Pepperdine 
University<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations
/p/pepperdine_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>meets 
roughly every two weeks in Second Life, found an unexpected 
benefit: within the program's lifelike graphic environment, 
his students had "a community online and the feeling of being 
together." Nearly any time he logs on, he finds one or two 
tinkering with their project or exploring another area of the 
grid. For fun one day after class, everyone took a student's 
new virtual dune buggy for a spin around Malibu Island 
(Pepperdine is in California, after all).

Rebecca Nesson, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science, brought 
her class at 
Harvard<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/
harvard_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>Extension 
School to Second Life last semester. "Normally, no matter how 
good a distance-learning class is, an inherent distance does 
still exist between you and your students," she says. "Second 
Life has really bridged that gap. There is just more 
unofficial time that we spend together outside of the typical 
class session."

SECOND LIFE'S education community is growing: subscribers to 
its education listserve number more than 1,000; at least three 
islands run by library groups are open to the public; and 
universities are collaborating by lending space on their own 
islands or sharing ideas. Graduate students doing research or 
teaching in Second Life have formed a mobile colony that holds 
discussions with experts in subjects like online ethics or 
aesthetics. Seton 
Hall<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/set
on_hall_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org>, 
in South Orange, N.J., presented its Second Life teaching 
methods at a recent conference held on New Media Consortium's 
island, and the MacArthur 
Foundation<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations
/m/macarthur_john_d_and_catherine_t_foundation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>hel
d 
a panel discussion called "The Future of Digital Education" on 
Harvard's island.

Christine Lagorio is a news producer at CBSNews.com. A video 
of how some colleges are using Second Life --  Cyberclass: How 
Some Colleges and Universities Use Second Life<javascript:pop_me_up2
('http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/01/07/education/edlife/20070107_INNO
VATION_slideshow__index.html','750_700','width=750,height=700,scrollbar=yes,
toolbars=no,resizable=yes,location=no');>


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