Right, Barry, Second Life is like Real Life in that way - you have to
figure out your own mission - no small task sometimes!

But if you were meeting your students in a particular area, and giving
them an assignment, having a discussion, sending them on a quest or
whatever, that would be their learning experience. You would be supplying
the mission.

Marian Thacher
OTAN

The Technology and Literacy Discussion List <technology at nifl.gov> on
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at 5:18 AM -0800 wrote:

>To Barry from another Barry,

>

>I think second life has merit to it, I think it is a lot like the game

>World of Warcraft, AKA WOW. A major difference I have noticed in my

>minimal time on the system is that there is no set purpose for an avatar

>to continue, as an example, in WOW after you decide who you will be,

>what you will wear, etc you are given a mission.  As opposed to Second

>Life where I built my avatar and then essentially walked around, lost.

>

>If you were able to give your students directions to you virtually that

>may work.

>

>Do I have this wrong?  Is a player given a sense of purpose and an idea

>of what they need to do to continue playing?

>

>Barry Burkett,

>Frankfort, KY 

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: technology-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov]

>On Behalf Of Bakin, Barry

>Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 6:59 PM

>To: The Technology and Literacy Discussion List

>Subject: [Technology 1211] Re: Prosessional Development Design

>&Developmentfor the 21st Century

>

>I don't know if it's been mentioned in this forum or not but there's an

>interesting discussion taking place at Sylvia Martinez' blog on her

>experiences with using SL as an educator.  It's worth looking at for

>some of the issues that she raises. You can read through her original

>posting as the responses at

>http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2007/07/21/second-thoughts-on-second-li

>fe/  Again, as David notes, my position is not one of saying one should

>use or not use Second Life but rather what would it take to get to the

>point that educators would want to invest their time to make this

>technology tool practical for the students they work with.  Speaking as

>one who is extremely pleased to get something as basic as an email

>message from a student, it would take some doing to expect my students

>to be creating avatars and visiting educational sites on SL on their

>own.  I'm not convinced yet that my time is well-spent on encouraging

>that endeavor.  

>

>Barry Bakin

>Pacoima Skills Center

>Division of Adult and Career Education,

>Los Angeles Unified School District

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: technology-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov]

>On Behalf Of David J. Rosen

>Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 11:31 AM

>To: The Technology and Literacy Discussion List

>Subject: [Technology 1210] Re: Prosessional Development Design &

>Developmentfor the 21st Century

>

>

>Hello Mark, and others,

>

>Thanks for your thoughts on the use of Second Life (SL) for adult

>literacy education. I hope you will share some of your group's research

>on "under what conditions and for what purposes 3DVR might be more

>appropriate or effective than other tools/environments for learning" and

>what you see as some of the opportunities and limitations of using

>Second Life. I would like to learn more about what  "we need to advocate

>*for* educators *to* vendors like Linden Labs, so they build in more

>education-appropriate features." What features on SL do you think are

>worthwhile? What other features should we be advocating for?

>----------------------------------------------------

>National Institute for Literacy

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>Email delivered to barry.burkett at franklin.kyschools.us

>

>

>----------------------------------------------------

>National Institute for Literacy

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>Email delivered to mthacher at otan.us



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