MMM not really sure where to begin here. I visited Second Life. Whilst it was fairly easy to check out what was involved and the various choices on offer (ie billions), I started getting more and more stressed about the fact that soooo many people, especially young boys/men would spend sooooo much of their time in the virtual world. My husband reckons he has enough trouble dealing with the real world. I immediately thought of our 5 year old son who began Kinder this year. He absolutely loves reading (says it's his favourite thing in the world to do - which I can totally relate to), and is already reading chapter books. I had images of him as a teenager happily ensconsed in the virtual world creating multiple Avatatars, totally oblivious to anything around him. Where has my beautiful articulate little boy with the love and awe of everything around him gone???? Am I just being old fashioned here? Or am I experiencing technology phobia? I am a huge promoter of social skill development and I do question where social skills fit in to virtual worlds.
I can see the benefit to Virtual Classroom with online collaboration tutorials where educational institutions such as universities take advantage of this platform to deliver content to a world wide audience at low cost. As a primary school teacher I don't see the value in a primary school setting. Fortunately the 13yrs plus age limit negates this anyway.
I think it would be great if I was learning or practicing a language. I can see the value of Exit Reality. As I am planning the building of a back deck for our home I can see great benefits if you were an architect.
Really well written reflection. I have been slighlty concerned about the virtual world and can really see some damage occuring with this in the future. Happy building!
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