Learning in a Virtual Classroom
By Josue Habana
Virtual worlds are beginning, in some ways, to emerge from the stereotypes of being pointless platforms for geeks and nerds hiding out in their parent's basements. Much of this emergence can be attributed to the endorsement of educational institutions operating within the likes of Second Life.
Education in Second Life is big business. The UK's Open University has a huge presence in Second Life, with its own chain of islands and a number of lessons held in world for its course's distance learning students. But the institutions whose presence in the virtual world have gained the most global press are the US ones. Harvard Law School, Stanford and Princeton all have virtual campuses within Second Life and offer lessons to their students within the virtual classrooms they host there.
But what are the pros and cons of learning in a virtual classroom? Well, the students experience an immersive learning environment from the comfort of their own home. For distance learning courses, this offers a whole new level of engagement that may previously not have been there. Few could argue that the experience of sitting in a virtual classroom is more engrossing than that of sitting at a desk with your head in a text book and nothing other than email contact with your tutor. It also allows people the opportunity to communicate in a learning environment with fellow students from all over the world, something that they may not have the fortune to experience in sitting in an actual real life classroom.
However, learning in a virtual classroom does of course have its drawbacks. Where there is a reliance on technology, there is the potential for something to go wrong. Second Life, like many other virtual worlds, is a continually developing platform. There are bugs and occasional problems and having a lecture interrupted by a server failure or something similar is a frustrating experience, to say the least. There are also those who argue that students fail to concentrate as well in a virtual classroom, owing to the fact that they are also trying to manage the technology, get to grips with the platform and are tempted by distractions in their home.
However, whichever standpoint you take on virtual learning, one thing cannot be denied. It is progressing at a huge rate and is becoming incorporated into increasing numbers of courses within growing numbers of institutions internationally. So whether we like it or not, it seems that learning in a virtual classroom is here to stay.
Josue Habana blogs on the Second Life Music, Art, Literary and Performance scenes. He is also learning (slowly) the art of Second Life Machinima
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