Well, of course it is, if you use it as a tool in your teaching. Clark Aldrich somehow misses that point here (link via the SL educators mailing list). Clark is a clever guy, and one of the better proponents of GBL, but I think his bias towards simulations as tools for teaching has blinded him somewhat to the use of SL as an educational platform.
Learning Games Learning about games, games about learning
Call for research proposals… IN Second Life
December 14, 2006 — DanielLots of call for conference papers and research proposals to publish. Meanwhile, what a difference six months makes. I’ve recently had two research proposals based round exploring Second Life as an educational tool rejected. One reviewer at least clearly had problems appreciating what on earth Second Life is.
Now comes this call for research proposals from Eduserve. And what do I find? Not only does it make explicit mention of Second Life, but you can even submit your application INSIDE Second Life!
Crikey.
Drawbacks of research by Google
December 1, 2006 — DanielShort break in my paternity break.
My wife sent me this interesting link (the baby is late, and she needs to pass the time somehow!). Essentially a Ben Franklin misquote appears to have ended up on 44,000 different web-pages. The amazing ability of the web to share information and speed communication also enables the ability for mistakes to spread far and wide amazingly well.
On the other hand, if you search now for “They that can give up essential liberty” on Google now, you’ll find that several of the top ten links also show the correct version of the quote – and some even link the the page mentioned above. Wikiquote for example. So the internet isn’t all bad – but use with care!
