A time for reflection

I recently asked my 1st year students, particularly those that had taken an advanced level course in ICT or Computing, what they felt about their courses. Some said that although they enjoyed the course, they didn't feel that they had covered many relevant topics. I asked in what way relevant, they replied relevant to life! All agreed that the courses were lacking in creativity and did not cover the wide range of material that they thought would be most useful to them in the workplace. So what is missing and how do we fill this gap?

We are really educating and preparing our children for a life and a work place we can only imagine. Although we can say that for each new generation, the vast changes in technology over that last five years is almost immeasurable and makes it hard to visualise the next stage. That took me back to a project outline I read from ESRC seminar I attended in June. The project, developed by the London Knowledge Lab, is Learning from Online Worlds; Teaching in Second Life. The aim of the project is to develop theoretical accounts of learning in immersive social spaces and, based on these findings, to develop and test practical recommendations for teaching. They are focusing on how people learn in online social worlds, how to teach in these online social worlds, and also how cultural contexts impact on learning and teaching.

At the time, I had not even heard of Second Life, not that I have explored it personally even now. I do know however, Second Life is an Internet based virtual world, where, as an inhabitant you can create, explore, socialise and participate in individual and group activities, you can create and trade items and services with one another, indeed generate yourself a whole ‘Second Life’. Rather like a more social version of the computer game Sims that children have been playing for the last seven years or so.

I guess there is little argument that learning takes place in these virtual worlds, but the question is what is being learned and should we capitalise on it? And if so, how?