I have visited a virtual world. I cannot remember the name of it, but I took a class online at Pellissippi and we used the virtual world to have class discussions and meet with the professor as needed. Personally I did not care for it. I had taken other online classes and the class was able to function without, so it kind of seemed like a waste of time to me, but I guess it was okay for people who are in to those kind of things.
I do not think I would ever use virtual worlds in my classroom. I cannot see any real use for them. I don't really like the idea of having students interact with other people that way. I think this very easily can open children up to cyber bullying, which is already a problem. Another issue I have with virtual worlds is that it allows children to spend too much time on the computer. I just do not believe it is healthy for a person to spend that amount of time at the computer, especially at a young age. Overall I just do not see any real positive function for the use of virtual worlds in the classroom.
I think the strongest case may be to build a better understanding and empathy for historical time and figures, or other situations beyond a child's base level of understanding.
ReplyDeleteOthers have suggested cyber bullying would be a "con" for a virtual world. Actually, the anonymity of the avatars is more likely to deter cyber bullying. We will talk more about cyberbullying in October.
Thanks for your thoughts, though. :-)