This past Friday I experienced my first online class in the online RPG "Second Life." It was interesting to say the least. The first thing I noticed was convenience. I woke up, rolled out of bed, turned on my PC and became immersed in a world of infinite possibilities. I flew into my class room after 'teleporting' from a virtual island. There is no way I could ever say that sentence in the real world without turning some heads.
The best part of my online class however was the manner in which it was conducted. Students sat in a circular fashion and answered questions from the professor in an open forum style. Everyone had a voice and no one was restricted by having to raise their hands. Discussion brought about new questions and interesting new ideas.
There were some downsides to this online adventure though. Our classroom was not private and any person could enter our discussion if they stumbled upon us. I believe there was an option to buy a private room, but that would not have been necessary for our purposes (It seems as if this virtual world cannot hide from the reaches of capitalism).
Overall, this classroom experiment went very well. Education is not limited to just brick and mortar anymore. Instead, we can rely on the powers of technology and the internet to connect ourselves and our minds. However, we must realize that the only way for this to happen properly is with some sort of 'code' to structure how we learn online. This is what Lawrence Lessig talks about and it is what we will continue to discover as time passes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment