Amanda’s E-learning Blog

Ok now its the second half of the semester and we are starting module 2. Presentations are still going. We did ours in the last week.

On the 26/3/08 we sat in a class where we were connected with someone named Joanne Kay in Wollongong over a piece of technology called Skype, a phone connection over the internet which was connected through the speakers so we could all hear her. Up on the projector screen we had second life and through Anne’s avatar we were following Joanne through various worlds in second life.

Second Life is a 3D interactive space where both social networking and learning can occur. I first encountered Second Life in our E-Learning Experiences class last semester, so therefore I had a basic understanding before this class. From last semester some of the students in our class started up an avatar and were able to join in during this tour.

‘How could virtual worlds, like Second Life be used for learning?’

As shown during the tour, Second Life is full of islands that are used by large companies for staff learning and development. We were shown into an area called ‘Swinburne University’ which was designed to look like an actual university. It had a meeting room where the characters could sit down and watch a presentation.

This could be used in organisations (and is) for staff to learn and to increase their knowledge of their jobs/the company. Gronstedt (2007) states that Second Life is the “fastest growing online community on the web” (para 5) and as a result many people will find themselves with an excuse to use it in the next few years.

Some issues raised about Second Life:
- It is quite advanced so computer literacy is an issue.
- Can contribute to lazyness.
- Less face to face interaction.
- Technical difficulties.
- Lag time can be frustrating.
- Since it is a syncronous activity, it may be difficult for people of the world to meet at the one time.

Some positives raised about Second Life:
- Time efficent when it works.
- Helps bridge the distance between people.
- Student centred learning environment.
- Creates an informal learning environment.
- Communication is instant.

Second Life does have a lot of positives, however also a lot of negatives. From looking at these I do not think Second Life would be a good training tool for DOCS staff. It seems to be too involved and takes up too much time. Jess said that when she set up hers it took her 5 hours to set up and learn what to do. DOCS staff does not have this time spare.

 References:
 Gronstedt, A. 2007, ‘Second Life Produces Real Training Results’, http://www.learningcircuits.org/2007/0807gronstedt.htm

Module 2 to be done over break.. (and module one while im at it!) watch this space!!!

Tomorrow we have our presentation on blogs wikis and eportfolios. We had our wiki draft due a couple of weeks ago and our comments were quite good, only a few things to fix up which we have done. Our presentation is going to be an interview style asking questions on the three technologies we are doing. We are being filmed which I do not like at all. However I think our approach to the presentation is quite effective and should be easy to follow.