Second Life as a Virtual Learning Environment

This concept fascinated me. My head started spinning with the idea of Second Life classrooms. I have never visited second life, but my understanding is that it is a virtual space where users can "build" almost anything. Imagine having a science lab with limitless equipment that never broke. Imagine being able to take a History class to Gettysburg, during the battle, that is. If simulators are good enough to train fighter pilots and tank drivers, why can't they be used to educate our students.

In the case study presented, the following methods were used to prepare for and implement the activities:

1. Interviews were conducted to build the team of teachers and fellows. Potential fellows were also asked to write an essay detailing their philosophies on gaming and education as well as their perceived abilities to work with the students in question

2. Teachers and fellows were brought together for professional development in order to ensure that the instructional modules aligned to standards, addressed proper topics and took into consideration classroom dynamics.

3. Teachers and fellows worked together to create modules and lesson plans that complemented each other

4. Fellows worked in the classrooms to assist the teacher in implementing "gaming" days.

5. Pre and post tests were created to assess student learning.

6. Steps were taken to ensure safe and secure use of technology for all students.

7. Observations were conducted by the College of Education to ensure goals were being met.

From the findings we know that:

1. Varying states of technology in the schools had to be considered immediately by the designers.

2. Student enthusiasm was high for the games

3. Unit test scores for these difficult concepts showed improvement form earlier years

4. Scores on the state test increased 10-30%

As encouraging as this project is, there are improvements that I would like to see implemented. I think it would be important to have a control group to compare with. Finding a way to have all students working with the same quality of equipment would also be important. Computers are expensive, but if the researchers are serious about gathering true data, all the participants should be on a level playing field. These should be students receiving the same quality instruction in the classroom with a more traditional activity used in place of the games. The authors mentioned a more formal methodology being implemented in the second year. It would be interesting to know what changes they made.

Franklin, T., Mayles, J., Liu, C. & Chelburg, D. (2007). Games and engineers in the middle school science classroom: A case study.