Just reflecting on last week's class and the introduction to "Second Life"... I thought it was interesting so I decided to go to http://www.secondlife.com/ to see if I could bring back the avatar that I orginally created. I was not able to do so and I'm not sure why. But it was interesting to even see the home page because it literally is like a second life! I just thought it was like a little online virtual-reality game, but I was wrong. You can buy property, clothes, jewelry, etc. It scares me a little bit to think that some schools are having their campuses in Second Life. I guess I'm just old-fashioned, but I really like the idea of physically being at school. I am O.K. with computers in the classroom, as long as the students are actually present too!
On that note... I'm not sure I'd know exaclty how to handle a classroom that was set up the way ours was in Moulton Hall last week. I certainly know that that particular set up was not efficient to teach in. Our guest speaker was not really able to see what we were doing on the screens and not all of us were doing the same thing at the same time. Because were doing different things at different times, we all required individual attention from her and I felt like a lot of time was lost that way. I think that a computer lab/classroom should be set up in a way so that the monitors are more visible to the teacher. That way, the students stay on track and can't go surfing the web and the teacher can see that all students are on the same page.
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I agree that Second Life was crazy! I never got into the whole avatar thing, nor do I feel as though I would have enough time to have another life, let alone trying to keep track of this one, but it was still interesting. And I think I could see our classrooms looking like that someday, but I agree that we would have to find a way to keep track of our students. I just keep thinking back to Little Brother when anyone mentions computers for everyone in the classroom. But I could see it happen, and yet I am a little nervous about it. I am not sure how I would be able to handle that.
ReplyDeleteSecond Life was interesting. I had always heard people talk about it, but I never knew what it was. So it was fascinating to get a crash course in it! I don't think I would ever use it though. It was kind of confusing and I don't have the time to play around with it.
ReplyDeleteWith the classroom setup, I agree with you. You have to be able to monitor what your students are doing on the computer. I think it would probably be a good idea to set the computers up along the walls of the classroom. That way you can have a better view of what the students are doing.
I think you're right about the classroom setup. I remember not paying attention for a while, and looking around to see that most others weren't either. Teenagers and adults can turn into little kids when you plop them behind a computer. I think that maybe if she had tried to explain everything prior to letting us use the computers, she may have been a little better off. But I think that since she had us open up Second Life, she lost everyone right away since it was so new and interesting. I doubt that I will use Second Life, but it was definitely interesting to learn about!
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