Virtual Worlds

Select two worlds to join and explore more in-depth. After you have done so, please compare these worlds to the one you have focused on in this course, Second Life. Among the criteria you should consider:

1.     How do the worlds compare from a technical point of view: speed, richness, ease of use, available tools such as voice chat and shared media (web on a prim)?

2.     How well would each world serve your needs as an educator?

     Second Life caters more to the educational environment. There are many institutions of higher learning involved in the Second Life. Many commercial business jumped ship early on when they did not see a profit in the virtual world. However, as technology and 21st Technology demands increase, the use of the virtual world is an effective low risk, high rewards commodity for educators to utilize. Second Life just offers much more efficiency in the educational spectrum. Stanford and Boise State Universities still utilize virtual worlds and see value in it potential. 

Stanford University Virtual World (53, 138,43)

Virtual Worlds and Imprudence (seen here) do not offer much in the world of virtual education searches

3.     What have you learned from this comparison and this course about the benefits and drawbacks of education in a virtual world?

The benefits of virtual reality is that it offers a place of collaboration and differentiated instruction. The students can interact with their virtual environment. It has so many possibilities such as real world training that is cost effective. Individuals can build virtual worlds and reenact historical events. The ultimate form of understanding is evidence through an assessment. Checking for understanding becomes more fun than feeling like something occupational. The students will be able to create their own models as well to interact with. Just an amazing tool that is right at the fingertips of every educator.
The drawbacks are there is so many mature websites through out each virtual world that filtering some of these worlds are a problem. Many are designed with the gamer in mind and are not really educational. However, I had a student understand the Aztec civilization because he played the game civilization. Even though it was not entirely accurate, he was able to research the civilization and now I think he knows more than I on the subject. The building of interest can be positive and negative especially with young adults that are starting to become interested in the opposite sex.  The virtual world is pretty commercialized as many seek to make money on unsuspecting youth. There really is not enough control at times and now we are seeing vandalism on the virtual world become huge. This is known as griefing. It is never good when you see a word for it. This usually indicates that it is prevalent in many virtual forums. 

4.     If you had it to do all over again, which world would you chose and why?

There is no doubt in my mind I would stick with Second Life. It just offers a more thoroughly outlook of education. It is direct and has many options for the student to take advantage of. Although it is very difficult to filter each and every society within Second Life, it is the best option. NASA and other groups have really been able to provide themselves with an inexpensive tool to create models and to recreate historical regions and events. The other worlds just are that worlds, made for entertainment. These are not as commercialized and have some minor flaws here and there for the user to have to overcome. 

5.     Please use screen shots to illustrate any point you wish to discuss.