From District Administration - The magazine of school district management on the educational potential of Second Life for primary and secondary students:
Some educators also are reluctant to experiment with non-traditional teaching methods and are content to stick with lecturing in front of a class.
"A lot of the conversations revolve around fear — if we open this stuff up to the kids, it could get out of hand or you could open the kids up to danger," said Stephanie Sandifer, a literacy coach at Houston's Waltrip High School who uses Second Life as a professional development tool.
We all know they have a point, but most of us in SL know the following thoughts are probably predictive.
Today's teachers, the same ones who watched the Internet evolve, should know that they need to embrace this technology, proponents say. Even 10 years ago, it was tough to encourage teachers to incorporate the Web into their lessons.
"If you were talking to a room of educators, they would have looked at you and said, 'I don't have time for this. Get away. I need to make overheads for my class,' " Jarrett said.
Like the Internet, virtual worlds aren't going away, experts said.
"I don't think they're a fad," said Fred Fuchs, whose Houston-based consulting company creates content on Second Life. "They're here to stay."
And finally, a pretty constructive suggestion:
"Something that is that compelling, education cannot ignore, even though it doesn't make sense to us," said David Warlick, an education consultant and author from North Carolina. "What I look forward to is someone building an environment like this for education, where it becomes a sandbox for kids."
Labels: education, imagination, rl
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