Suffern Middle School in Second Life

Ok OK - I know - Thirty lashes with a flexi prim for my lapse in blogging! So much going on - and very interesting comparisons to make. Remember - I promised the truth and the whole truth so here we go:

A new approach for our Library Media class. This is a ten week class that teaches the research process and is product oriented as the kids use the TV studio and iMovie to complete a visual presentation of their research. Catherine Conley, the teacher, developed the curriculum and is an outstanding educator (National Board certified) She is also a very organized and structured teacher and has learned how to get an incredible amount of learning into 10 short weeks. For this reason, it was especially crucial that her students truly transferred their learning into the virtual world in an authentic manner and one that would not require “extra” time added to the unit—To learn the research process the kids are asked to explore a topic that supports the science curriculum. This semester they chose catastrohic events.

The list was narrowed down to: volcanoes, floods, global warming, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and tsunamis. In order to conduct their research they are taught note-taking and source validation, proper citation etc. Mrs. Conley chose to conduct her final week in Second Life. The kids have already created a movie - complete with soundtrack, voice-over and effects. They are now asked to engage in debate to convince the class that their catastrophic event is the most worthy of receiving government funding. Here’s what we did:
Rather than giving the kids the normal day or two to become acclimated, we had them rez directly onto the Science Island right near the Weather Center (FireSabre has built an incredible volcano and a simulated earthquake!) The students were directed in a very structured, step by step manner exactly what to do and how to:
1. upload a photo
2. attach a note-card to it with the research they had already conducted in bulleted points
3. add scripts to deliver note-card
4. place their “exhibit” in the weather center museum.

They then had a day to use Decka’s pods to hold discussions and select the most important issues pertaining to the catastrophic event that they were going to defend as the most deserving of funding. Most kids grasped things pretty quickly and stayed on task - there were therefore, mostly identical generic avatars and purple shirts abounded! The discussions were less focused than other experiences we have had in the past, (samples below) and the final conclusion was that there is no one “right” answer. Each of the disasters caused different problems: some intense damage to property, some loss of lives, some financial and others environmentally damaging the earth itself—

So - here’s the deal —-Initially I was very opposed to having the kids start the project without first getting a chance to alter their appearance and explore - to learn to chat and IM and exchange friendship - to explore their inventory and start to build simple things - in other words, to PLAY! I felt that a major aspect of our past successes was the degree of investment that the kids felt, and that the level of participation and discourse was contingent upon the extent of identification they had with their own avatar.

I was wrong.

True, there didn’t seem to be an especially deep level of discourse,but perhaps this was because the topic being discussed was not a personal one (such as in the Body Image Unit) and perhaps it was because these kids are not as invested in the topic or were fully saturated after 10 weeks of working with it.

But = here’s the reality - In 5 days these kids accomplished so much I could barely beieve it! I had assumed that without really investing some time in avatar and identity they would not be as likely to participate but the one thing that Mrs. Conley did say is that overall participation improved dramatically.
Next time we try this she wants to eliminate the museum exhibit portion and focus instead on debate and rhetoric. We will have Poinkey’s Pods on Ramapo by then and they should facilitate great discussion. We’ll see - (I know you are all dying to know what Poinkey’s Pods are , but all I will tell you for now is that Decka designed them!) Here are some examples –good and bad of the chat logs of discussions and some pics of the Weather Center Museum: