youtube on second life

The youtube video that I looked at was educational uses of second life.

The benefits of Second Life that were mentioned in the video are as follows:

1. Once users are done with the basics of navigating the terraine, students can suspense their sense of disbelief and feel immersed in their environment. Thus this makes SL ideal for role-playing eg. learners can engage in a Shakespeare play and interact with other characters.
   
   
2. Students can participate in virtual scavenger hunts where they locate information relevant to their field of study. For eg, how to build a capillary.
   
   
3. Students can go for guided tours on their field of study in their classrooms. They are able to travel to places where they would have otherwise not be able to go.
   
   
4. Students can learn by doing, ie. students can experience with building objects.
   
   
5. Students can learn to collaborate in a project and co-create virtual images.
   
   
6. SL provide opportunities for students to walk in other people's shoes. They are able to experience issues such as schizophrenia.
   
7. Students are able to attempt quizzes as well and tutorial sessions can be conducted on SL.
   
   
8. Educators can join professional networks in SL to discuss about various topics. Meeting of colleagues is also possible through SL for discussion.
   
   
9. SL breaks down language barriers as there are language translators.
   
   
10. Whiteboard can also be used for teaching in SL and students are able to edit the whiteboard after the presentation.
    
    

The video talks about the educational uses of education. It can be further improved by also mentioning the various drawbacks of Second Life and maybe the strategies that we can take to minimize certain issues since SL is still a new concept to many of us. Overall, the video gave me a clearer picture of how it can be linked to education, compared to the hands-on-activity last week where I could not really find the linkage.