donderdag, april 05, 2007
Second Life and education: the good, the bad, the ugly
Last time I shared 5 ideas of how SL can be used for learning. Today I'll list some pro/cons for using Second Life for education.
PRO: Second Life is free
This makes a very strong argument! No software to install, no software to purchase. No investment. If you don't like it just walk away. And you can't develop it yourself for that price!
CON: There is a hugh threshold
(Please note I'm writing this from a corporate learning perspective.) There are two big thresholds to using Second Life for learning in companies. One is technical. You need a powerful machine with a rapid graphical processor and plenty of memory to run it properly. In many companies the current PC platform will not allow for a comfortable Second Life experience. The second one is time. (And time is money.) It takes at least 4 hours for an orientation in Second Life. So if you use Second Life for mandatory training, you will spend 4 hours per person just to learn how to move in Second Life an go through the orientation and help islands. It will kill your business case because teleconferencing or face-to-face classroom take 0 time. In schools you might assume students already have a SL account or will get up to speed quickly. In a company you really can only assume basic internet navigation skills.
PRO: Second Life is hot
It doesn't hurt the hip factor of learning to ride on the waves. If people are curious and motivated to be on Second Life, give it to them! Motivation is key in adult learning and anything that helps, just helps. Consider it a form of edutainment.
CON: There is no sound
A big handicap is that Second Life has no voice facilities. You cannot speak, just chat. That means your teacher will either have to type everything and your session becomes an animated chat window, or that you'll use a telephone/skype conference on the side. That is far from ideal. I think takeup of SL and its use for education will go up even much higher at the time Linden Labs bring voice to this virtual world.
PRO: There is money to be made
It is possible and even relatively simple to charge and sell in Second Life. So there is an opportunity for a virtual learning MARKET as well. You can sell classes, rent virtual classrooms to others, etc.
CON: You don't own it
This might sound like a typical 'web 1.0'/capitalist/'big mean corporation' thing to say. But companies want to control the learning environments they use. Second Life is completely owned by Linden Labs. If they decide to kick you or your students or customers out of SL based on their interpretation of the code of conduct, there is nothing you can do about it. And there are no guarantees on security, privacy, availability of the environment. These are typically things companies need and are even willing to pay for. If companies really want to use SL for part of their learning, it cannot crash and it has to adhere to some Service Level Agreements.
Note: in January, Linden Lab put the code under GPL but only when linked to their own servers. So it doesn't really count as 'open' as far as I see it.
PRO: You can fly
Seriously, flying is fun :-) . What I mean is that a virtual environment let's you do more than you could in the real world. For example, in a real setting you can't speak to fellow students and listen to the teacher at the same time. In a virtual setting you can.
CON: It is public
Anything you say can and will be used against you. So do you want your sensitive and costly in-company training given on a public place? Would you organise your sales training in the middle of the city park?
So there is good and bad, as always. I'd like to conclude on a sceptical note taken from a newsletter I got:
"In case any of you are being pressurised to dabble in the online virtual reality game that is 'Second Life', The Register provided a useful analysis this week:
Despite Second Life's claim that it now has 3.1 million residents, there are typically only 15,000 clients logged on at any time. Only 15% of those who became residents last October have ever logged on again after their first 30 days. Less than 50,000 of the residents are premium accounts which are able to start businesses. All of them rely on new users entering Second Life for their income. Although 21,000 of these premium accounts had a positive cashflow last month, only 10,000 of these made more than $10. And that was before the owners, Linden Labs, applied their charges.
Only people with no first live need a second...?
Other sceptics who believe the emperor may well be wearing no clothes include the one-page spoof Website that is http://www.getafirstlife.com/ ."
PRO: Second Life is free
This makes a very strong argument! No software to install, no software to purchase. No investment. If you don't like it just walk away. And you can't develop it yourself for that price!
CON: There is a hugh threshold
(Please note I'm writing this from a corporate learning perspective.) There are two big thresholds to using Second Life for learning in companies. One is technical. You need a powerful machine with a rapid graphical processor and plenty of memory to run it properly. In many companies the current PC platform will not allow for a comfortable Second Life experience. The second one is time. (And time is money.) It takes at least 4 hours for an orientation in Second Life. So if you use Second Life for mandatory training, you will spend 4 hours per person just to learn how to move in Second Life an go through the orientation and help islands. It will kill your business case because teleconferencing or face-to-face classroom take 0 time. In schools you might assume students already have a SL account or will get up to speed quickly. In a company you really can only assume basic internet navigation skills.
PRO: Second Life is hot
It doesn't hurt the hip factor of learning to ride on the waves. If people are curious and motivated to be on Second Life, give it to them! Motivation is key in adult learning and anything that helps, just helps. Consider it a form of edutainment.
CON: There is no sound
A big handicap is that Second Life has no voice facilities. You cannot speak, just chat. That means your teacher will either have to type everything and your session becomes an animated chat window, or that you'll use a telephone/skype conference on the side. That is far from ideal. I think takeup of SL and its use for education will go up even much higher at the time Linden Labs bring voice to this virtual world.
PRO: There is money to be made
It is possible and even relatively simple to charge and sell in Second Life. So there is an opportunity for a virtual learning MARKET as well. You can sell classes, rent virtual classrooms to others, etc.
CON: You don't own it
This might sound like a typical 'web 1.0'/capitalist/'big mean corporation' thing to say. But companies want to control the learning environments they use. Second Life is completely owned by Linden Labs. If they decide to kick you or your students or customers out of SL based on their interpretation of the code of conduct, there is nothing you can do about it. And there are no guarantees on security, privacy, availability of the environment. These are typically things companies need and are even willing to pay for. If companies really want to use SL for part of their learning, it cannot crash and it has to adhere to some Service Level Agreements.
Note: in January, Linden Lab put the code under GPL but only when linked to their own servers. So it doesn't really count as 'open' as far as I see it.
PRO: You can fly
Seriously, flying is fun :-) . What I mean is that a virtual environment let's you do more than you could in the real world. For example, in a real setting you can't speak to fellow students and listen to the teacher at the same time. In a virtual setting you can.
CON: It is public
Anything you say can and will be used against you. So do you want your sensitive and costly in-company training given on a public place? Would you organise your sales training in the middle of the city park?
So there is good and bad, as always. I'd like to conclude on a sceptical note taken from a newsletter I got:
"In case any of you are being pressurised to dabble in the online virtual reality game that is 'Second Life', The Register provided a useful analysis this week:
Despite Second Life's claim that it now has 3.1 million residents, there are typically only 15,000 clients logged on at any time. Only 15% of those who became residents last October have ever logged on again after their first 30 days. Less than 50,000 of the residents are premium accounts which are able to start businesses. All of them rely on new users entering Second Life for their income. Although 21,000 of these premium accounts had a positive cashflow last month, only 10,000 of these made more than $10. And that was before the owners, Linden Labs, applied their charges.
Only people with no first live need a second...?
Other sceptics who believe the emperor may well be wearing no clothes include the one-page spoof Website that is http://www.getafirstlife.com/ ."
Labels: metaverse, Second Life
