UW-W set to study in Second Life format — GazetteXtra.
At first blush, the idea of presenting a college course in Second Life is an interesting idea. It’s something different.
But when you read the story, you discover that there’s hope that conducting class in a virtual environment will inspire more class discussion.
To be fair, this is not the motivation of the instructor, but it’s one of the anticipated outcomes.
When will we stop enabling the inclination of some of today’s students to hide behind technology? Isn’t it sad that some students won’t interact unless they’re being represented the phony anonymity of an avatar?
I’m grateful to be part of what might turn out to be the last generation to be forced to interact with other humans. I fear that if I were growing up with technology there is today, I would be one of those “avatar” students. Growing up, I was introverted, but eventually built the confidence to speak my mind in social and professional settings. This didn’t happen voluntarily. It happened because it had to.
The introverted among today’s students have a whole menu of options for conducting their social and professional lives from the comfort of a computer screen or smart phone.
I fear for them.