Thing 10

I spent way more time on exploring Second Life than I really had, but I kept wanting to find more. I did not really interact with anyone while there, but I did jump around to several different islands. The first one I chose totally at random, decided I did not appreciate the language and moved on. I found the ISTE island and spent a while exploring that and then moved on to some of the museums just to see what it was like. After I explored and fumbled around a bit on my own, I viewed the SciLands Classroom and found it very helpful. Watching the video clip of all the educational sites already available got me to thinking of the possible uses for my students. I'm a little bit cautious due to the number of inappropriate sites available as well, but I think many of the sites listed in the SciLands video would be great motivators for the students. I saw a virtual Alamo, health sites, architecture sites, space sites, and many more. If a teacher has the time to locate specific worlds and can guide students through there, I think it could be a very powerful motivator to get students to have interaction with their course material in a manner they are familiar with and enjoy. Having students "build" a set for a book they are reading, or using the visualize math tools to create their word problems in the virtual world could really help improve comprehension. It could also be fun to use the projector on the teacher computer and let the class decide which of several preselected islands to visit, or where to go once you arrived. That would provide more control for the teacher. This "Thing" will definitely warrant more investigation.