Second Life & Education

Baker et al. (2009) provide some suggestions for instructors before inviting their students to use SL. They claim that it is optimal for instructors to visit SL and navigate through its islands, attend different social activities, and try different features before developing their learning environment.

After visiting SL and becoming comfortable with it, instructors can start building virtual learning environments.An optimal way to start is by assigning specific objectives for each lesson to help learners focus on their mission, and to eliminate boredom and confusion.

Baker et al. (2009) also suggest backup plans in case technical problems occur. For example, instructor and students can meet in another time in SL or continue their discussion using other web 2.0 tools like blogs.

Student safety is an important issue in SL. Instructors should inform their students to follow ethical rules when communicating with other peers or avatars from around the world. Students within SL are encouraged to start exploring islands in SL before engaging in educational activities. The goal of this exploration is to build an initial awareness of SL and how to navigate through different platforms.

As students find their way in SL, they can start exploring learning activities initiated by their instructor and provide feedback or short summaries about these activities. Instructors and other classmates can benefit from other students’ feedback by correcting or enhancing the functionality of learning activities.