Second Life: Baptiste Breguet Goes to School!

I've been on SecondLife for about two years now and seen it's many ups and downs. I've built houses, changed my avatar's skin, body type, even clothing. He's learned how to play the piano, ballroom dance, and even speak different languages. He can also turn into a cat. These are all things I've never been able to do ... yet, at least. ;-)

I have never, however, used SecondLife for educational purposes. 

On SecondLife, I've been known as Baptist Breguet. While I have always considered SecondLife as a learning experience, I've never considered it a learning experience like in a typical classroom.

I've done a lot of reading about this subject as of late - when I saw the original assignment, I had to swallow a grain of salt and realize that I'm not the smartest person in the world. 

SecondLife is cool - don't get me wrong. I've just recently come to despise it once its grid became the Windlight grid - it slowed everything down, and I shuttered my house building business that had become somewhat profitable.

I digress - I found a great article that spoke to me in one simple sentence - "Virtually all college students have had experience with games. Games represent active, immersive learning environments where users integrate information to solve a problem."  This is such a great thing to say - and a brilliant analogy. I've said it on many discussion boards - learning CAN and SHOULD be fun! SecondLife certainly crosses this bridge. Plus, putting a classroom behind a locked door in a building can make it great for an uninterrupted lesson - and even more "lifelike" if the participants have microphones.

SecondLife could (and I use that word cautiously) be the wave of the future in education - but they really need to work out all the connectivity issues and slowness to ensure that happens.