Teach Your Children Well

Teh question of education of teens and young adult scame up on teh thread about allowing teens into sl main world (a dark day, indeed.)
However, my question is this;

What exactly do educators intend to teach children when they are on sl? Surely teachers can find better resources than secondlife with all its issues? What do teachers propose to teach? What objectives would they have? What lesson plans? How would secondlife fit in with approved curricula? Please explain.

this maybe
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=uDoQFcQEpOQ

SL is a relatively cheap and easy platform for distance education. This means students do not have to worry about hiring a sitter, fitting a class into a 9am-3pm schedule, driving over icey roads etc... to get toclass.

An instructor does not have to worry about his/her computer services department giving him/her root access to set up the software as is necessary with Drupal, Caucus, and I believe Moodle.

SL may or may not be cheaper than I-college. It does not require that an entire institution implement it for one department or even an on-campus club to implement it.

SL works best when coursework involves some visual material. Visit Genome Island to see what can be done with SL. Conceivably SL would be good for reading Shakespeare in a group, learning a language, or for having discussions when students are separted by miles. It would be a great platform from which to study social science especially as related to cyberculture.

The downsides to SL are the mainland culture which is not work-conducive, the fact that it requires a fairly new computer and a fast connection to work at home (Not all students are going to have that), and the fact that land ownership is very expensive compared to the usual costs of server space. The SL interface also has usability issues. A certain percentage of the population falls in love with the interface and a certain percentage finds it pure torture.

Much of th educational grid is locked by the way. I have tried to access my alma maters. One does not have islands and the other has an island that is locked to all but current students. Being a fairly decntralized place, one club at this alma mater has an open island.

It would be better for the schools to run their own servers really.

Less chance of griefing and the grid being down...

IBM looked at sl for use in a corporate world, but decided the platform is better on an internal network vs an open network like the grid.

We will probably get a lot more surveys as well.

I once visited an educational sim or build that was built by a math teacher for his/her math class. I was super impressed with all the geometrical builds that actually let you SEE what was happening with the math. I also have an LM to a parcel that has more advanced builds based on 3D calculus equations. I could imagine that that sort of thing would be really helpful to students. It would have for me, that's for sure.

Also, I suppose that social interactions via the internet could be a subject, since the internet is all-prevalent in today's age. We should teach our kids how to act and beware in an online environment.

You could also teach money management; give a student a parcel that he'd have to pay rent on each week, and a weekly stipend; he should learn how to pay and play, and save L$ for future debts.

I have to agree with Oryx. There are things you can do in SL you can't do as easily or as safely in the real world. I'm also envisioning author readings via voice chat or streaming. Wouldn't kids flock to come hear -- I don't know -- Neil Gaiman reading a young adult novel, assuming he's written one, and interacting with them?

I have been to only one in world tutorial, but it was great. I thought having to read the text chat would make it dull and tedious, but far from it. It stays on the screen for a while, but spoken words fade instantly.

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Well, I know one Ivy League University that was/is seriously planning a "youth outreach" program in SL, on the teen grid. It's to be aimed at introducing teens to the courses and majors available at that University, and to offering early studies classes that can help a prospective incoming Freshman hit the ground running on actual enrollment. Teens would be able to take some full-credit courses on-line, and even in-world, before ever setting foot on the real campus.

I looked into what it takes today to be an educator or a content provider on the teen grid. Sheesh! The background checks and special account requirements are more stringent than any real-world elementary school, high school or university requires for their faculty! Just to build a campus for that college, I would have to create a dedicated special account that could ONLY log in on that school-owned sim, and only if the sim-owning school sponsored me to be their content provider. And if I worked for more than one school? I'd need a fresh background check, account and sponsorship from each potential education sim! And the Teen students themselves have to meet special requirements to visit the sim, as well!

Aren't there already educational sims on the teen grid?

I recall someone who said they are a teen, here in the forums, a short while ago, saying that is ALL there is on the teen grid.

Also aren't most of the educational sims in the main grid, at college level? And couldn't they just make a deal so that educational sims are extremely cheap if you add the second to the teen grid also? Or something like that?

I probably don't have a politically correct education philosophy for kids, i'm for the trial by fire, let them try things, and let them get burned.

I take it you're either very young, or don't have kids yourself. I'd say that only works when there are parents/adults overseeing the experimentation, even if at a distance, and ready to step in and prevent situations getting way out of hand when necessary.

Your philosophy applied to -all- situations would soon result in emotionally damaged, physically injured or just plain dead kids. You also would probably change your mind when the hordes of other people's children, rampaging around with no rules or supervision whatsoever and trying every damn thing, started to impact on your own daily life.

To answer Jig:
I'm not an educator but I can see there -may- be useful applications for some kind of online 3d environment for a few educational purposes. What I don't see is how SL or the Main Grid as it is can possibly be that place. It'd have to be some entirely separate educational Grid or there would be far too many problems with security, safety and griefing etc.

Also, atm, if any youngster of mine under college age was being "taught" in SL I think I'd have serious questions to ask the school governors and headteacher about misuse of teaching time and public funds. For one thing they'd need far better computer networks with more frequent hardware upgrading than they can generally afford in any state school I'm aware of. I'm in UK but I imagine that'd be an issue in most countries.

I think it's a possible development for the future - but not integrated with SL's main Grid.

--
Aes

Ooh.. some stuff that could be useful for my edu sim! Do you remember the sim names?

As a mathematician this is precisely why I find SL so useful... at degree level there is a big difference between those students who can visualise 3D objects in their heads than those that don't... for the latter you can rez an object, rotate it, cut it, let them fly around it...

Seifert Surface has some great stuff in his sim "xyz" (I'm sure he'll find his way into this thread before long....)

Seifert Surface was one of the ones I was thinking of. I have several of his sculptures. The other one, I can't remember; I just sort of happened upon it one day about 6 months ago. You might try searching on "geometry" or "math".

I don't have kids right, wich makes my opinion even more valid because i am not blinded by my mothery emotions.


Of course a bit of surveilance from the parents is necessary, just to tone down a bit the laws of natural selection.
But kids should have to take the responsabilities for their own actions as early as possible.

It also means parents taking the responsabilities of thrashing their kid's bottoms when they did something really stupid.

Kids are just miniature humans, you can't go simply on the ground of immaturity that they shall be protected at any cost, a lot of very adult peoples are as immature as kids, yet we do not strip them of their constitutional rights.

It's a very convenient thing to say kids can't be responsible for their actions and thus must be sheltered, allow us all kind of ways to use them as an emotional tool to fullfill personal agendas.

I have to remind all of you that not so long ago the life expectency of a human being didn't go over 40 years old. With this in mind a 20 years old is already pretty much an "old" person. There was time where what today we consider kids where considered as grownup.

Yes, there are educational sims on the teen grid. But it's harder to set one up than it is to found a real-life school and get all your faculty and your carriculum accredited by the state. The hoops they make you jump through now to be an adult on the teen grid are so stringent that it keeps most educators from even trying. And you CAN NOT be an adult on the teen grid unless you or a sponsoring educational institution is willing to foot the bill for a full sim - and then you're restricted to ONLY that sim.

You can't get cleared, go buy a parcel, and set up a classroom for free workshops on building and texturing. You have to buy a whole sim, and invite students to enroll in classes at that sim.

Even group membership and IM's are screwy on the teen grid. You can have a "closed group" and a "closed sim" that allows IM's, but then all avatars in the sim and group have to be dedicated alts that can't exist anywhere but in your sim. Or you can have an open sim and group, where the adults are trapped on the sim, and teens can freely come and go, but you can't send IM's or group messages as an adult, to the teens.

I have just recently transfered from the Teen Grid (Former TGer). Yes, there are educational regions in Teen Second Life. Around 25 - 30 regions are educational sims that open to all (As of December 200 and 60 - 65 regions that are not open to teens, but used for private projects only.

I used to be manager (Estate Manager) and Helper of a few educational sims there, because I was interested in the opportunities it gave us (Teen Grid community) when I joined TSL (16yrs old). Now that I'm (18 years old), I have applied for a TG Background Check to carry on helping out the educational org's and help teens have a good experience etc with getting them to do events and their own projects. The background check for me took about 4 weeks to complete and to be approved.

For more information, check out my blog TSL Education page with full details on projects happening there today: http://danielvoyagerblog.wordpress.com/tsl-education/. I've put more futher links at the bottom of this page. I hope this helps!

I agree. I was taught in teh UK and in Africa and SL just would not have been appropriate. If Computer Sciences and Applications were ever on my timetable, I am quite sure SL would not have been a suitable model. It lacks the subtleties and dynamics of teh teaching model that most students require. In this sense, I think Lindens must invest time to re-consider the educational possibilities for their world. I doubt if any teacher submitting a course outline to their Head of Department would be granted approval (and probably NOT because of the Mature sims but because teh apparant lack of direction of the entire approach of the sl grid. SL suits teh public needs but NOT a school's. In terms of university educators, I know that universities have sims that were purchased in teh "heady days" of the initial sl concept but I dont think they have been taken very seriously since then. Some students "play" in sl, some write essays about social dynamics in sl, but I think suggesting that one of sl's prime objectives is educational is stretching it. It's a place of dialogue but mainly between middle and upper-middle class people with medium to substantial incomes (most often from the developed world) who want "safe" and "interesting" interludes from a frantic and, often, disheartening real world. I use it to relax and I think 99% of us use it for that as well. To add some weight behind my argument (and to point out my shortcomings), I am NOT far removed from my school days, I use technology in my work in an indusry that depends in a great part upon a younger generation's use of technology, BUT I must admit I dont have children, am not married (not even partnered in real - far too busy) and only see youth and young adults as financial patrons and supporters of my "product". And my "product" requires an intense knowledge of the technological world's attraction to people.

One of my customers is a Japanese woman who in 6 months learned how to speak and write english quite fluently solely from her exposure in Second Life. I watched with amazement as her English progressed so rapidly. I think the educational potential for SL is untapped and has astounding possibilities. In the early days of the internet critics claimed it would always be a niche playground for geeks, that it would never commercially succeed. So, don't be so fast to undermine the potential of SL to teach and learn.

I agree. BUT I just dont see a truly organized educational approach to sl. Slyly I add that I picked up some French, German and even Japanese in my wanderings in sl but I was a "sleeping dictionary" as tehy say to many men.

Mankind has never been limited by the things that are "not possible". The challenge of harnessing SL to become a truly wonderful tool for educators isn't really that difficult. Its potential is great, just wait and see

This place contains too much "forbidden knowledge" to be a credible learning environment.