It’s nice to see a mainstream business outfit like Forbes – home of the annual Forbes 500, and a business person’s bible – give some column inches (is that the term for it on the Web? Or should it be “scroll depth?”) to SL education. This also shows that education in SL may actually be gaining some traction in the business establishment.
A co-leader of a school in Germany has set up “Second Life English” and since February, the site has had upwards of 75 visitors per day. The island is an ESL resource center for both students and teachers.
“The richness and multitudes of environments seemed to offer fantastic opportunities for exposure to language,” said the teacher, Kip Boahn.
Boahn both creates holodecks with a variety of learnings within them, and also has used role-playing to teach ESL students new language skills – though the one example he cites does seem a tad silly:
“I once dressed up as a pirate, had a ship and everything. I was kind of rough on the students,” he admits. “I put some of them in cages, and had them confront language in a shock-and-awe kind of way. They seemed to like it, and they learned all sorts of new words, like ‘loot’ and ‘booty.”
The article also includes a somewhat interesting sidebar that Forbes (it has to be a list at Forbes, doesn’t it?) calls the Top 10 Life Lessons From Gaming.
Sometimes one must mention the silly to be taken somewhat seriously. Know what I mean, or mean what I know? That comment was one of many that I made to the journalist who did that interview. I had no idea she would choose to spotlight that particular comment, nor could I have predicted that you would focus on it as well. Thanks nonetheless for the write-up. I am also of the opinion that educational efforts in SL need more (positive) coverage. And just fyi, that particular event was theme-based (invasion of pirates), and was part of a series of free experimental language learning/teaching activities in SL. According to participant feedback, it was one of our most enjoyable and memorable language learning/teaching events.
Silly?
*Second Life offers us the ability to explore new approaches to learning and teaching. Let us not let worries about “silly” get in the way of well-intended efforts. Let us explore the possibilities…and have fun doing so!
Thanks for the follow-up Kip! I’m with you on silly, and on education in SL in general. Keep us posted!