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Second Life looks like a multimedia game that is increasingly sophisticated. However, it's not a game but rather a way of creating a second environment. The learning design is up to the educator, who designs for learning and evaluates the student's learning experience.
Think about the ancient Scandinavian society. They had a special tent set up called the Sir Army Tent where went to worship. Where a person could go and whom they could talk to within the tent depended on their status. Second Life would build that tent to allow students to see for themselves these restrictions based on their status.
Twofour Communication's Learning division is working closely with The Beyond Distance Research Alliance based at The University of Leicester in the UK in the creation of an immersive teaching and research environment in Second Life (SL).The SL Media Zoo, which already exists online as a virtual showcase for Leicester's e-learning research initiatives, will enable users to visit, explore and collaborate with others in SL's virtual 3-D environment...
Gilly Salmon, Professor of E-learning & E-learning Technologies at Leicester commented: 'The collaboration between E-learning researchers and Twofour Learning has enabled us to create an environment to explore the myriad of questions that SL raises for learning and teaching in the future. And has provided an examples of a productive collaboration and partnership of two different kinds of organisations working together to create new kinds of student experiences'.
Related links
www.twofour.co.uk/learning
www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance
www.le.ac.uk/seal
www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance/mediazoo
University of Leicester- Designing E-Learning
Facilitating an online environment has its own set of characteristics and challenges.
When designing online learning, it's more important to drive it from the learning challenge rather than the technology perspective. You also need to design for student activity rather than delivery of content. Unlike a classroom setting, all the materials need to be prepared and structured in advance.
About Dr Gilly Salmon
Current Position (since October 2004):
Professor of E-learning & Learning Technologies,
*Head of Beyond Distance Research Alliance, University of Leicester, UK
National Teaching Fellow 2006
Role includes:
Development and implementation of e-learning strategy for the University of Leicester, including advice to senior teams and all departments.
Development of sound forward looking student centred pedagogical development for distance and campus based learning.
Establishment and development of the *Beyond Distance Research Alliance including establishing a national and international network of researchers and teachers , securing external research funding, building a research profile.
Establishment of the **’Media Zoo’ – a physical and virtual space for promotion and dissemination of learning technologies across the university and the wider network including Leicester 20 FE partners.
Related links
Gilly Salmon (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
All Things in Moderation
