The Disruptive Power of Second Life OR Too Much Time on SOME People's Hands!!

Second Life?  To be frank I had never even heard of this new use of technology until taking a Walden University graduate course on Emerging and Future Technologies.  As a former, pre-computer “gamer” of a different sort, i.e. a former Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master, the idea of a role-playing, artificial computer world is engaging, illustrative of human creativity, but at the end of the day much less exciting than real life.

Why?

Although adolescence affords one the ability to develop creativity and many continue this trend into adulthood by and large the demands of real life, financial, vocational, familial or just other interests that become more compelling, often makes such a virtual computerized world just a niche market.  However, as Philip Rosedale points out this new technology extends beyond normal gamers due to not having traditional gaming features such as high resolution graphics (2008). 

But what about use of technologies such as Second Life for educational purposes, can this prove promising?  Here, I can speak somewhat directly due to such technologies currently being used in a First Year Sequence course that I am teaching (currently two sections) for the University of Phoenix.  HUM 114: Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving has an innovative curriculum, partly based upon traditional pedagogical methodologies such as discussion questions, essays and a fairly straightforward introductory textbook, albeit in online E-Text form.  However, forms of virtual reality role playing are also included as course assignments.

Why?

My thoughts are that given a generational shift toward increasing technological familiarity and immersion that in order to draw students into an introductory university curriculum, especially since for-profit schools draw non-traditional students normally not accustomed to traditional universities and liberal arts colleges, such technology is especially inviting.

Here I think that Second Life has the power to be a major disruptive technology as higher education (or other industries) ends up shifting in the available genres of accepted pedagogical or communication practices.  My students are graded, to include even short answer questions with definitive right and wrong answers, and all as set within an artificial online world similar to Second Life.  However, to the extent that such Second Life technologies provide a consumer-based set of artificial worlds that cater to every interest from art & fantasy to even home & garden or Duran Duran (the 1980’s musical group) http://secondlife.com/destinations?sourceid=1111-sergoog-othervirtualworldsa-dg&gclid=COPV8sLNnbMCFQmonQod8EEAYg this technology has an ability to draw in those who are predisposed to spending time in role-playing in ways that might even increase overall percentage participation of a given population.  Thus, whereas once the Advanced Dungeon Master led his or her fellow gamers through an artificial world in which one’s role playing identity could be a creative diversion from one’s own life now such interests have simply moved online.

AD & D, and other such role-playing games lacking a precise telos or end-goal, have been effectively displaced, and now people will increasingly relate online than in person.  However, what percentage of the population will truly be affected by such a shift?  Second Life might already be in the process of finding its “shelf life” about to expire, especially as socio-economic factors will limit those with such spare time on their hands to only a minority.  The rest of us will be working 2 – 3 jobs, taking real online undergraduate and graduate courses toward completion of the next academic degree.  Who needs a Second Life when one’s First Life is already spent increasingly online?

Reference
Rosedale, P. (2008). Philip Rosedale on Second Life [Video].  Retrieved October 25, 2012 from

http://www.ted.com/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html

In online higher education, first through for-profit pioneers such as the University of Phoenix (where I teach Critical Thinking), then through public higher education adopting similar technologies, use of class discussion forums has moved from emerging to fully emerged within the past decade. For example, when I first started teaching for an online university the task of "down-loading" class folders (2005) was onerous, somewhat time consuming, and required a rather specific set of technology compatibility requirements between the university's servers and the faculty member's personal computer. However, such glitches that marked online higher education, along with shifting only to e-books for textbooks, were solved over the next several years so that now anywhere in the world, and with any reasonably up-to-date computer, online classes can be fully accessed.

The problems and challenges with this technology are now an issue of the past. Whereas once University of Phoenix students lamented slow download times, lack of full compatibility, and other issues, now such technology is streamlined, smoothly functioning, and even available for access over Internet phone applications so that class discussion can be accessed literally from any location with a consistent cell-phone signal. The challenge at this point no longer rests with the technology itself, but rather with how well such technological use can be incorporated into seemingly busier family and professional lives.

The online higher educational model of places such as University of Phoenix, Walden University, etc. meets numerous needs of access that previously were left unaddressed. Rural communities now have full access to higher educational resources previously out of reach due to geographical location. Online education also allows access to educational resources in a myriad of increasingly diverse vocational settings, e.g. deployed military personnel completing an academic degree, sometimes even finishing coursework in a combat zone!

The technology of online higher education itself is no longer a barrier, but full economic access to the newest technology can still pose a problem. For example, if Microsoft revises its Office software every 3 - 4 years then in order to remain current a student (or even faculty member) must constantly incorporate these expenses into his or her budget, a potentially difficult task in an economy where scare financial resources are already stretched thin. This problem of economic access can become even more pronounced if the latest Internet phones are assumed as normative, yet might be somewhat out of reach for an increasingly larger portion of the population.

In conclusion, whether it's a new Internet phone application (http://www.phoenix.edu/news/releases/2011/04/university-of-phoenix-launches-phoenixmobile-app-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch.html) or just ordinary class discussion forums that can be accessed on any normal personal computer, the technology of online higher education has already moved from emerging to "fully emerged," and therefore questions of economic access are the only major challenge to address.