The first place I found, and my favorite of them all, is Etopia Island. It is an entire world dedicated to green living and education. There is a no flight rule on the island in order to conserve energy, but they have a fantastic train and gondola ride for you to use to get around the island. When you first walk in you can learn about the island and take a sustainability quiz to see how much you know about being eco friendly. One of my favorite parts of the island is the fact that businesses that choose to join this island donate all of their profits to eco friendly charities. There is even a coffee shop that you can buy coffee from and all the money goes to a good cause. The education possibilities of this site are endless! There is an Aquaculture Wastewater Treatment Plant that your students could tour and learn about the science of taking wasteful water and turning it into water for sustaining plant life here on earth. There is also a Sustainable Energy Science Lab produced by Energyteachers.org that teaches students about solar and wind energy. Students can see all the different technologies we, as a planet, will be using now and in the future to get our planet back on the right track! Here are some pictures of Etopia Island:
The second place I found was a Second Life world dedicated to William Shakespeare, called... Shakespeare! When you first enter the world you can see candle light dedications to Shakespeare and his work. The COOLEST part about this world is the actual replica of Shakespeare's Theatre! You can go into it and put on a play yourself or see one of the scheduled plays Second Life has to offer. Educationally, it would be a lot cooler to put on a virtual play of Shakespeare rather than to just read from a textbook in class all day! Check it out:
The third place I found was a place called Lunar Exploration Island. The education possibilities of this site are ENDLESS because there is just no way our students would be able to see and experience was this virtual world has to offer! You can step into a real space station and mission control center to see how it all works. You can listen to presentations on different Space and Aviation topics and the coolest part is the rocket launches where you can actually see a rocket being launched into outerspace!
In many ways, Second Life is a great educational tool. It gives students opportunities that they may never have in real life and it is a great alternative for the old, mundane way of teaching. In an article in USA Today, Beth Sussman interviews several college professors on their opinions of Second Life. One professor, who creates virtual worlds based on literature her students are reading said,"It's another way to interact with me and each other." While many college students say that it is an unnecessary tool if the activity can be done face to face in class, it can be effective for unattainable activities, such as the rocket launch I talked about in Lunar Exploration Island. Other teachers are actually using the Second Life technology as a lesson in itself. In my research I found a teacher, Sara Robbins, who is teaching things like team cohesion, ethnography skills and reflection by having her students create a world in Second Life. So as a summary, for the most part, Second Life is a great tool for social interactions and for educational goals. It gives the students an opportunity to learn in whole new ways and to interact with one another without the nerves of being in a classroom setting. It gives them opportunities for events and activities they may never see, but it is not a tool to be used in all realms of teaching, only those that may not successful as an inclass lecture or activity.
Sources:
Hotrum, M. (2006). Second Life 3 D Educational Tool. Retrieved September 18, 2009 from http://choicelearning.blogspot.com/2006/09/second-life-3-d-educational-tool.html
Sussman, B. (2007). Teachers, College Students Lead a Second Life. USA Today.Retrieved September 18, 2009 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-08-01-second-life_N.htm
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