I checked into 2nd life and was impressed with it. I am not aware of this idea of a virtual world that you can manipulate and contribute to. I thought it was pretty cool. In fact, I might spend the rest of my kid's naptime this afternoon working on making my own world more complete. This can be used in the class room to simulate the real world and help students see what it's really like to live on your own. They have to maintain their currency so that they can buy land and build a home to live in. Now there are plenty of other educational ideas floating around in this idea however, it's probably better suited for a college audience because there is an age limit of 18 on second life. There is a teen version however, which I haven't looked into yet.
I found a few ideas of the use of facebook in education. You can find others in your classes, share notes with them, start a forum discussion, do a video chat and more. You can also keep track of assignments, upload your own notes and manage your course activities. I was surprised quite frankly to find any ideas on how to make facebook more useful at all considering that I find facebook to be a waste of valuable time.
Also, an educational store, institution, or professor can create a facebook page and post valuable information they have. Friends can easily comment and share with one another. This seems to be a pretty smart idea because only those who are invited (as friends) can access the information and make comments. Therefore, this is a little bit better controlled than a blog.
I like the idea of having a protected page on the internet like facebook, although I would use other routes to protect my information with students than facebook. For one, facebook has a reputation/understanding that it is a social networking site and as a teacher I would not consider it professional to give students a facebook page to visit and participate in. Instead, I would create a private blog or a private wiki and request they use that route to view information I have for them.
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Second life is interesting and can be very information rich. There is a teen SL that only allows teens. I have only seen screen shots so can't really comment. A few teachers have gotten on with FBI clearneance. wow, I'm not sure SL is there yet but see it as leading us into avitar participation in education games in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Facebook would work best for college age students. I don't share my profile with my students. Not a good idea professinoally.
You are Done, can you believe it, it seems like this went by quickly. Great work! Alison