When I was 14 - which is only 10 years ago - I was as lucky to attend a highschool with a more than decent computer lab for that time: 20 macs hooked up to the internet. Not that they were used much, as for except a few, nobody had an idea what to actually use the internet for. I remember teaching ‘internet for teachers: the basics’ with a friend of mine during lunch break, covering exciting missions such as there are ‘how do I create an email account’, ‘how do I check my email’ and ‘how do I search for something’. That’s back in the time when AskJeeves was actually popular.

Now, 10 years later, computers have become indispensable to modern education. Students use them for research, and teachers to find out if the students copy pasted from more than one, unique source. Or they use computers and the internet to connect to the Second Life Teen Grid, which is the case at The Suffern Middle School. I’m not reading up much on using virtual worlds for education, but was amazed that Peggy Sheehy together with the teachers has worked out that many projects that proof the possibilities for teaching using a virtual world. An example:

Teaching maths & budgeting in Second Life

Hello everyone…

By now you should have received your lindens. You are going to have to make sure that you budget wisely. In order to attend the beach party, you MUST have:

A bathing suit
A Suntan lotion
AA towel
AA surfboard
You will also need a beach blanket, a cooler, and some shoes. You must have 6 lindens left at the end of your shopping so that you can pay to get into the beach party.

You will record all of your work on the recording sheet I gave you. The first sheet is like a checking account…when you buy something, subtract the money. Your second and third sheets are for calculating how much money you are paying for the item (with the percent off). This will be handed in and used for me to grade your project. PLEASE DO NOT LOSE IT!

Good luck and I’ll see you at the beach party!
Mrs. McKiernan

Peggy Sheehy on Teen Second Life in Education

One of the leading ladies behind the ‘Ramapo Islands’ project is Peggy Sheehy, who already in 2006 established a presence for her middle school in the virtual world of Teen
Second Life. The Ramapo Islands now welcome more than 1200 students a year. Miss Sheehy tells us why a 3D Virtual Environment is that suited for use in education:

1. Level of Engagement - The kids perceive it as playful and creative. 90% of the kids are gamers, so the Second Life client is an interface they are familiar with.
2. Psychosocial Moratorium - Teens need an environment or a situation where they can experiment: explore their personalities, social norms, explore who they are without the fear of consequences.
3. Possibilities - Kids can participate in situations they could not do in ‘the real world’. The above ‘maths mission’ would already been hard, but imagine climbing into a rocket, physics tests, … .
4. Equality - There is less peer pressure, and lots of the social differences disappear. The avatar does not carry their ‘real life’ limitations.
5. Safety - As they are stuck on the Teen Grid, so no ‘freaks’ and ‘weirdos’ to worry about.

Other interesting projects:

1. An investigation of ‘body image’ in Second Life.
2. The sets for the ‘Wizard of Oz’ school play are build in Second Life and will be projected behind the actors.
3. Open the Rampage islands to collaborative teamwork with other schools on the Teen Grid.
4. …

More at Ramapo Island Edublog
and skoolaborate.com.

Peggy Sheehy Video Interview

Make sure to watch all the video interviews with Miss Sheehy by ‘Happy Steve’, as there are quite a few. In the order I enjoyed them: students’ perspectives on TSL, Class Intro to TSL Part I (noisy!), Class Intro to TSL Part II (noisy too), on TSL in education Part I, on TSL in education Part II and on Security in TSL.

Via SLtalk.de


Tags: education, peggy sheehy, ramapo islands, second life, teen second life


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