I wasn't really familiar with Second Life, but Learning in Second Life: Virtual Education gave me tips on what you can do on SL, and found it very interesting. I thought that it's a great tool for distance learning, providing education to anywhere that it's difficult to get education and providing education to people who have difficulty in come to a class physically (like, handicapped people).
But then I thought, what good does it do to the people who don't have problem in coming to a class and receiving education? Argument on which one is better: real or virtual reality classroom, is too large to discuss here, but it's pretty understandable that people who don't have any problem in coming to a real classroom is better off coming to a class room than taking a class in a virtual world.
Then the article Augmented Reality Vs. Virtual Reality: Which One Is More Real? gave me a great knowledge about Augmented Reality (AR). Easy said, it's more like adding virtual reality to the real life- instead of replacing real life with the virtual reality. In this way, I think people could combine the benefit of real classroom and virtual class room and use the fullest of technology today in education, or in any other field. I'm excited that in the future, I will be walking around the "real" town and receiving many information and enjoying anything that technology could provide us, than to be getting lost in the virtual world at home, which is not real.
+Photo Credit+
http://teamsubmarine.wordpress.com/2009/07/
I agree with your point about combining the virtual and real world rather than replacing one with the other. I don't think online classes or meeting in virtual worlds works as a classroom replacement. It's just hard for students to concentrate when they're not in the classroom setting and on the computer. But as a supplement, virtual reality could be very beneficial.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you. Online class itself cannot do its real function. People cannot be controled to go to class, because they can skip courses by just one click. It would be realisic if the world of "Avatar" were real.
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