annef's blog

The article I chose was entitled “Use of Second Life in k-12 and High Education: A review of Research” by Chris Inman, Vivian Wright, and Julia Hartman.  I decided to use this article because I think simulation games such as second life have become astonishingly popular among this new generation.  As educators I think we need to understand why it is our students find this type of technology interesting and how we can relate it to our course material. 

According to the article virtual simulations are becoming more and more popular, especially for online courses as a form of assessment.  Second Life is not a curriculum based software program, but it is a virtual world in which users create a character and can interact with other characters doing every day activities such as shopping and even going on dates.  In this study the researchers analyzed Second Life to see three main things: 1) What research methods have been applied to Second Life 2) How is it used by students and teachers 3) What are the related findings to 1 and 2.  The study showed that Second Life is more dominant in higher education situations.  There is a risk associated with K-12 students using Second Life due to the potential exposure to profanity, pornography, and other inappropriate materials.  Areas that Second Life could be incorporated include training, designing, and simulated social networking.