Week 4 - Blog Posting #7 -Second Life

My thoughts on Second Life are very limited. I’ve had an avatar for a couple of years and have tried it out numbers of times. I don’t understand how to do anything but look at things. I’ve traveled to a number of sites such as the Alamo and ISTE Island that I liked, but once again I don’t understand what to do there other than look.

I’m carrying a house, but I don’t know what to do with it. I’ve looked up how to make money and finding land, but that costs money and I don’t see that it’s worth it. On ISTE Island they have a number of free items like clothes, boats, building textures and several other things.






I’m not impressed by the graphics at all. I’ve shown it to my own three teenagers who are very much involved in using the Internet, and they aren’t interested in something with such poor graphics.

On the positive, having been involved in a meeting on Second Life, I can see how it would be useful for companies that have employees scattered around the world to meet. This would be a great tool for them. For education grades 7-12 and college it would be a great place to hold meetings as I see a number of colleges have done such as Ball State. North Carolina has an online virtual high school with a meeting room.

I can see Teen Second Life as a better tool because it doesn’t have the mature content. At this point our filters block these sites, so using them is out of the question.

I know this has been a rather negative blog on Second Life because I’m not sold on what I’ve seen. I’m not against virtual worlds. I spent a year doing Runescape and made it to level 89. I’ve watched my one son play on World of War Craft. I can see in these worlds a lot of creative learning, critical thinking, and decision-making. I look forward to getting involved with Quest Atlantis. The graphics on these sites are far better and they draw the students.

I’m sure there is excellent learning taking place on Second Life in meetings, but I don’t understand the rest.