Saturday, February 10, 2007

NOAA in Second Life

I am growing increasingly intrigued by the possibilities of using Second Life in education. Just wish I had the time to play around with it more! Here is a nice video clip that illustrates how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is using Second Life for educational purposes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jim. I'm hoping to be teaching an online ENG 1A in the fall, and have been seriously thinking about the possibilities of creating my own Second Life avatar to teach particular concepts or/ and having the students meet in Second Life for discussion. I don't want to make the technology requirements daunting for the students, however, but I'd like to experiment with the SL discussion in some way. Thoughts?

Jim Gaston said...

Julia:

How exciting! I think it's a great idea but you are wise to exercise caution. Second Life is still an unstable platform and the learning curve can be a bit steep for some. I would recommend starting off by making it an optional activity that does not penalize people for not participating. Perhaps use it for virtual office hours, or if it's for an assignment, provide an alternative that is worth the same number of points.

I think it's great you are heading in this direction - let me know if I can help.