Note from a concerned educator

I received a note from a concerned educator today who feels that "promoting Second Life to teachers to promote to students is a really bad idea" since "kids spend so much time playing console and computer games, that something like Second Life could easily overtake their first life". He (or she) felt that I had not thought this Second Life thing all the way through and felt, as a leader in ed tech, I should be more careful what I promote.

Okay, to clear a few things up-- I am not currently "promoting SL to teachers to promote to students." I am developing an online, synchronous professional development environment for teachers to engage in some meaningful professional development with colleagues from all over the globe in real-time. There are very few environments that allow such a thing for such a little investment in capital.

Secondly, I created the list of Teen Grid ideas to help those who are already going into that area to work with students. I wanted to offer my ideas and solicit some from others. On the student side of things, I feel that Second Life can become another avenue of assessment, in addition to allowing students to do some things not possible in real life. I forsee, if our district winds up utilizing the Teen Grid, that it will be during the school day and a natural part of the instructional process. However, as with all technology, it should be used when appropriate to support teaching and learning.

Off the soapbox now,
Kathy

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Kathy Schrock