Second Life Making the Most of Life

I recently came across an article that cited a shocking dynamic. Although each day more and more people are seemingly glued to their smartphones, laptops, and tablets, the number of young people actively pursuing a knowledge of computer science has been dropping. I can cite from experience that despite the nearly impossible job market, at least in my South Florida region, there are increasing pleas for students in tech-related fields.

Educators have thus begun attempting to bridge this crevasse and have turned to venues that were previously considered to be distractions for help. Rather than fight the interest students have in spending hours on various games and websites, many professors are utilizing virtual realities such as Second Life as supplemental class time. I have personally had the pleasure of working together with a handful of brilliant people who greatly contributed to generating digital learning realms within Second Life and exploring the extents of their use in foreign language learning, Spanish in particular. Teachers are able to invest in "land" in the digital world and build a reality best suited to fit the learning goals.  A hacienda style villa, such as that developed by Dr. James Abraham, can provide cultural context for learning Spanish, with tasks designed to practice forms.  But this is only the beginning, with larger universities expending resources on building virtual libraries and resource centers for their students and creating distance learning modules.

Practice Spanish Screenshot

There is certainly something to keep an eye on in the realm of realities such as Second Life, that allow students a glimpse into the themes and concepts they study in class.  Such realities are spurring waves of role playing serious games, such as the "Practice" series by McGraw Hill and the "Practice Spanish" installment that I have the opportunity to advise on.  I am truly excited to see how the increase in these games affects the educational scene and curious as to what impression teachers and students alike will have to their use.

For those still wondering and with reservations about creating an account to view Second Life, the "Practice Spanish" demo is available here.

References:

Ritzema, Harris. The Use of Second Life for Distance Education. 2008.