Extra Credit - Second Life

So I thought this was pretty incredible.  I Wiki'ed "Second Life" before watching the YouTube video and found the entire concept pretty insane.  The fact that they have their own currency called "lindens" that is actually exchangeable for the dollar is crazy.  So I have to admit that reading the Wiki version of Second Life made me not like it a bit.  I have to admit, I'm someone who thinks that the virtual world is replacing human interactions too much.  I feel that sometimes you should pick up the phone and call someone instead of leaving them a Facebook or Myspace comment.  The idea of an entire virtual world almost completely cuts out all interaction.

However, watching the Ohio University's YouTube video was interesting.  The concept of having such an in-depth learning experience available online is extremely interesting.  It would definitely allow for students who don't have the ability to commute to school to have a more interesting experience than your generic online class.  But I do have to admit that I really value my in class time.   I don't particularly like the idea of online worlds taking over a classroom experience.  I think that the human interaction and simple act of verbal, in person debate is extremely valuable in an individual's learning process.  I'm planning on attending the presentation at the KCI center tomorrow so I will be able to learn a bit more as to the specifics of the Second Life program, however at this point in time I definitely feel that it has it's pros and cons.  I do think I'm a bit old-fashioned though, I don't even like having books replaced by online texts (although it does save trees) just because I absolutely love having me books to read.  Which is probably why I have 5 books shelves...

The video show an absolutely incredible world of technology.  I liked the idea of the 1 hour learning modules.  This is definitely an idea that appeals to me more than actually replacing a class with an online one.  I think that using those modules in conjunction with a class would be an awesome idea.  Also, having those available to students would allow for exploration into new fields that they may be interested in.  I know that if I could look up a catalog of 1 hour modules on different subjects I would definitely take the time to listen to a huge number of them in a vast array of subjects.  

I definitely think that Second Life is a valuable idea and I am interested to see how the implementation of it at Ohio University will go.  I would love to see statistics as to the number of students who use it, and those who find it useful or not.