Elluminate's Advantages, SL challenges

After last week's class I decided that elluminate is my favorite of the distance learning models I have had experience with.

Here are a list of the reasons why I like Ellumiate:

1. It has text and voice, so people can respond in a way they are most comfortable. The voice aspect is good for those who type slowly. Hearing a voice also makes it seem more real. Having a text option, however, is great for those who aren't comfortable speaking up verbally and for messaging single or groups of people rather than addressing the whole group.
2. There is a visual opportunity with the white board. I love that you can view websites, powerpoints, or write on it. This seems to work well for guided lessons instead of everyone opening a different browser and trying to follow along on their own.
3. You can do simple responses with the build in features on the roster list.
4. It is the most like a face to face class. since you are seeing, hearing, and reacting.

I know that Second Life has some of these features, as does blackboard chat or classroom. However, I found that Second Life could be distracting, and my mind wandered wanting to look and explore, figure out how I fit in to it, and even wondering about other people in the class and what other people in my class thought of me (my avatar). One of the things I like about distance learning is that the physical things of like, like looks, body type, and clothing/style aren't getting in the way. You are only being judged by what you say and how you act in class and on blackboard. However, with second life, those components are back and it seems almost more so, because you are choosing how you look, what you are wearing, and how/where you are standing in relationship to others. What you choose about your avatar says things about you and your inner self.

I think Second Life is an interesting concept, I enjoyed using it for class, and will go off and explore in it, but I think it is a difficult tool to have a structured class in, unless there were specific rules about sitting, staying still, raising hands, ect. Our second life experience reminds me of a middle school class when I have a lesson to teach, but also want to give them options and freedom of movement and choice. It ends up that some are listening, but others are wandering, talking to friends, or zoning out. It seems like this is easy to happen in SL. Maybe I am more tradional than I thought, and I just have to expand my mind, knowing that I, as well as others (including middle schoolers in the "real" world and master's students in the virtual world) can stare at a windmill, wonder about a setting sun, and still follow what a teacher is discussing.

After posting, I thought of the following and just had to come back and add them...

I like, in many ways, that with distance learning you are experiencing and learning as a name and brain, instead of a physical person. On the other hand I met one of my classmates this summer, and it was really interesting to get to know more about the person behind the brain and words. It made her, and in turn the class, seem more real. I like the classes I have taken that require us to post a paragraph or two about us personally. Including a picture helped too, making more of a human connection and letting us get to know each other a little better. So, with that reflection, perhaps Seond Life is a good way to teach, providing classes with a way with connecting physically, even though it is virtually, in a way that is almost cooler-because we can connect with our dream selves, having the body, the clothes, and the actions that we image ourselves to have.