Blog 4- Second Life in Education

I have mixed feelings about VR and 3D web mainly because I have seen the side effects of being over involved in the virtual reality world. My initial response is no, it should not be in the classroom. Teachers are working at doing enough to include technology in lesson plans that they should not have to submerse a student into a "video game" to teach. A virtual reality is not safe for the student who has little to no self control and who has a disinterest in learning and more of an interest in video games. If this type of student has access to a "learning tool" like this one the fact that it is even in the classroom will distract them. For these students a VR isn't safe. And what about the students who prefer learning through class lecture? It is engaging, true-very true, but why is it engaging? Because it is more of a video game than an actual learning tool. It should be something for students to do at home or during free time at school, not in place of curriculum. I don't think a teacher can justify taking time away from the curriculum to teach the orientation require to operate SecondLife. There are so many state benchmarks and requirements a teacher has to meet in one year that by spending a week or however long it takes to orient a student with the program, that time will run out to get everything in. Unfortunetly, I do not think this is just a fad. I think it is part of the video game world and more and more people are going to try to push video games into education with the label that it "has educational value" and I don't agree that it should be part of our classrooms. I feel by integrating technology we are supporting our students, but by teaching them to run around and glance at educational items in a video game they will more often than not ignore it.