Reflective Journal #5 - Second Life as Language Teaching Tool

Okay... so when I first heard about people learning English via Second Life(SL) sometime last year, I have to say I was somewhat impressed and anxious to explore this possibility (and perhaps make some $$ doing so!)... However, after merely just sampling SL, I feel much different about this possibility...

As an educational tool in general, SL might provide more use than its functions as a language teaching/learning tool specifically... it could be used to help socially challenged children to interact in environments which mimic real life situations, or it could be used to provide a long-range teaching solution for a school which may operate across many countries... it offers a number of different avenues for acquiring information, such as the ICT lab or the Ancient Egypt area... so the overall learning potential is high, but SL fails in one major area: focus.

SL avatars are allowed too much freedom... from creating objects to simply flying away from the current position, SL avatars can basically change the environment to match their current urges... this is what would happen if Adam and Eve had kept going... the world of SL is filled with potential, but that potential is muddied by gross freedom... while this may be enticing for casual users who wish to escape the monotony and dismal everyday drone of their own lives, it is detrimental to learners who are attempting to achieve some kind of focus... at every turn is a distraction... and I do not see much of a future for learning tools in something so un-structured...

I do see a small window of opportunity for langauge learners to experience authentic communication; however, the laborous task of setting up, signing up, and creating a SL account is a hassel far beyond the benefits of what may be achieved through SL...

SL is a disaster... there is way too much freedom and not enough learning potential to outweigh the install time, loading time, registration time, and SL specific adaptation time... I give the software a D- as a language learning tool... exception: a language learner who is used to virtual worlds and is intrinsically motivated to learn and not easily distracted... I challenge you to find a whole class of them! :)

Boo SL!
Go Wings! Hockeytown 4Ever!