Second Life 2.0 is Here?

Yesterday, I wrote about my first impressions of Second Life, and received some great comments.  But principally, this one from Ryan Bretag, of The Four Eyed Technologist, who reports that SL 2.0 is already here.

2 Cents Worth » First Impressions of Second Life:

Second Life is already at the 2.0 stage you refer to but it has been this way in its first generation. It needs expanding, yes, but it is already there.

There are some great examples like the SL ecosystem, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terminus/131/115/34/, or the emergency response simulations from play2train, http://irhbt.typepad.com/play2train/

In fact, I attended a great presentation by members of Oxford Unversity in which they discussed some of their early endeavors:

  1. Public Health and Medical Scenarios: massive outbreaks, disabilities, and treatment regimes
  2. Social Interaction case studies
  3. Simulations: spread of diseases, first response setup, physiological processes, identification of diseases by physical symptoms, etc
  4. A Body Simulation: possibility of an island that functions as a human body. Can you imagine? Wow!

I think the real issue is that there are so many exciting things being discussed and even brought to fruition but people just aren’t aware of them. Also, from my perspective in secondary education, these things are impossible to bring to my students and my teachers because it is on the adult grid.

The true fight is how to maintain the security of the Teen Grid and the benefits of the Adult Grid. In my eyes, this means a new grid —> an education grid! Maybe I’m the only one wanting this… maybe it simply is selfish but I believe this is when Second Life will take off in the k-12 world!

Woe!  I’ve got to get back in there.  And, by the way, here’s the Paramecium I was talking about yesterday!

5 thoughts on “Second Life 2.0 is Here?”

  1. David,
    I am looking hard for SL stuff out there for use at the Elementary level. If you can connect me with anyone who has experience with SL at this level could you please connect us.
    Thanks,
    Jeff

  2. David, I completely agree – you are not being selfish. We do need a teen grid. Now that I am like you becoming completely addicted to becoming better at all this digital stuff – I am learning just what we can do with our kids to really help with their learning. Now I havent got into the Second Life thing – not sure that I would ever come out!!! But things as simple as YouTube – where there are really great educational videos being posted – but without being a technical guru and having to jump through hoops I cant show them to my students at school!! (I picked up a thread the other day on classblogmeister about how to do this and I will try) – but I guess I feel that as educators we are being asked to change our pedagogy and integrate these new ways of doing things and yet as we try these new things, we keep getting blocked!
    But I suppose that just allows for more creativity and learning about how to do things better!!

    Keep up your 2cents worth:)

    Lizz O’Hagan (aka TeacherLizz)

  3. I have yet to try anything with second life because a colleague told me it was filled with porn. However, with the ideas you talked about with simulations, social interaction, and the body simulation I am now intrigued. As an educator in athletic training we are always wishing to give our students ‘real life’ experiences without the risk of harming the athlete’s care. If second life is able to create these scenarios that we as educators can control, it would be an unbelievable asset to the student’s education.

    I guess I will have to break down and actually see what is out there and determine for myself how difficult it would be to set up a scenario. However, I do agree with the point you made about creating a separate grid for educational purposes to help filter out inappropriate images/information.

    Justin

  4. Justin:

    Remember, that is exactly what people said about the Internet 10 years ago: you don’t want to go there; it is full of porn.

    The porn is still there like it was 10 years ago on the Internet. The big difference is that there is also great content being added daily by some of the greatest minds.

    Second Life is in an early phase from an educational perspective. It will take innovators that understand the concerns but turn them into goals like those that came before us with the Internet.

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