Session 8 of ICT

In this week, Dr. Quek brought us to the Media and Experiential Lab to learn more about how game-based technology can be incorporated into our teaching. We watched the IT technican give us a very good and fluid demonstration on how the interactive 3D game Second Life is played and how we can use it to demonstate and explain to students concepts and ideas related to our curriculum subjects. Although I'm an avid fan of computer games, I have never ventured into games like Second Life, which has gained a welcome reputation as an educational platform that many universities and other institutions of higher learning are increasingly turning to as a complement to traditional classroom teaching. There are even specialised regions in Second Life used for educational purposes covering subjects as diverse as chemistry, English, geography etc.

However, I have to admit that I found the game to be a bit boring when I watched the demonstration. There was basically this one avatar moving around by himself in the virtual environment, interacting with the objects around him and only occasionally coming into contact with other people. I haven't really delved into the game that much though so there are definitely a lot of areas which I haven't explored. And the demonstration of how a tsunami occurs was definitely interesting...

On whether I would really use Second Life or similar games in my future teaching career, I think the jury is still out on the question. No doubt it is useful in some ways, as evidenced by the fact that many institutions use it, however I would have to do a practical and thorough comparison of its effectiveness compared to F2F teaching before drawing any definitive conclusions. There is something to be said about face to face interaction with the teacher, that personal touch, the warm smile and the immediate presence of another person that is impossible to replicate in a virtual machine. Second Life as a form of e-learning though - I think its usefulness would definitely be manifest there.