Second life - BAN IT
I must be honest, I have not played seriously in second life. My lack of participation does not come from any philosophical agenda, from any technical impediment or from anything other than time. I think 2nd Life has great potential, but I don’t have time to exploit this potential.
Second life allows its participants to engage, collaborate, share, express, create and participate. Its a amazing “place” with huge potential. Like anything, it has its risks. There are undoubtedly unsavory individuals who given the opportunity will take advantage unaware or unprepared citizens of this virtual world. However, I would challenge you to find one society, virtual or real that does not have its share of twisted individuals.
I read this morning David Warlick post on BAN SECOND LIFE (David is strangely enough not advocating this rather commenting on it). A US politician is proposing to Ban Second Life in Libraries and Schools.
What a sad statement this is. Are we going to ban walking down the street because we might get attacked, are we going to ban treats because they might cause tooth decay or you might get fat? No we tell our students how to be safe, about moderation etc
Second life, has huge education potential. Even if we ignore the opportunities to meet and converse with experts in virtual forums, or to communicate and collaborate with our peers. You can’t over look the value of virtual locations like Education Island - http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki
http://schome.open.ac.uk/wikiworks/index.php/Schome_Park
Banning Second life at school and in libraries, will achieve little. Students who want a second life will still access it through cafes, at home etc or by bypassing security setting. In these environments they will have little or no supervision.
In some many ways having these accessable at school is actually going to make the usage of these facilities safer. At school and in libraries there is supervision, there are adults who should be informed and able to provide advise, there are monitoring tools that log and track activity, and their are processes in place to support students who intentionally or accidentally access or connect with aberent activites, behaviours or information.
Banning Second life on the basis of risk is like burning books because they “might” have unacceptable content. Schools and libraries are education and learning centre, lets use them.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
This is so destructive! Who are these politicians who think they can make rules about things that might possibly engage learners and make life fun. Why do we apparently continue to vote in our collective wisdom for these enlightened representatives of our people? ARGGGGh
Thanks for the post Andrew, this is why I love social networking - I wouldn’t know stuff without twitter - wonder when schools will block that?
Cheers
Sharon
May 9th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
This is such on sad commentary on our times that whenever we encounter something new in technology it must be banned. Many schools block anything web 2.0 and interactive, you tube, mobile phones let alone second life. When are we ever going to teach appropriate use and responsibility. Must we be afraid of every new technology that comes our way? Let’s look at the positives and see how we can use them to help us in our learning and keep spreading the message of the 21st Century to our communities.
comment08
May 9th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
What gripes me about this development is not so much losing the instructional benefits of Second Life, though I agree, that there seem to be amazing untapped opportunities. It’s the politics of the thing. It’s the notion that I can get people to vote for me, if I can make them afraid of something.
In my country, it works. Fear is potent politics. As you describe, a revision of DOPA (Delete Online Predators Act — an unsuccessful bill introduced around our last election, designed to make people afraid of MySpace) would do nothing to protect children. They (politicians) wouldn’t dare suggest walls around town to protect children. But walls around our schools, well that makes us feel, not safe, but like we’re actually doing something — and it’s easy to do things to public schools.
I’ve spent time in Second Life, and although I do see the potential, I’m not sure that it’s Second Life that will exploit that potential. There are other Virtual World tools out there, and many in development, and I think that when we can have a virtual world service that is dedicated to learning, then we’ll start seeing some of the untapped potentials and even unimagined applications.
I guess that my hope is that the last several years, here in the U.S., have taught Americans that fear is not an appropriate motivation to take with you into the voting booth, and that politicians will learn that solutions win votes, not warnings…
Thanks for continuing the conversation.
– dave –