I decided to search some information and places about eLearning from SL. I found some places but stayed longer in Info Island's ICT library. There were lots of info (notecards, tutorials, web links and other items) about using SL as a tool for educational purposes.
I was buying some free scripts for future purposes from the ICT library when I met Madragal Poppy, a student who needed to get to know about the library as her homework assesment. She was very humorous and and clever so we chatted for half an hour this and that, mostly joking about everything. Sometimes it is nice just to relax with funny avatars and real persons behind them.
After she had to leave me beause of her lunch time I wandered throught the library when Gvak Latte said hello. He introduced as a Building Technology Coordinator and teacher in a middle shcool in Anchorage, Alaska. It turned our discussion rapidly focusing on the challenge of education in virtual worlds. We thought about it from both teacher's and student's perspective, agreed that students has grewn in ICT world and got involved about ICT techniques even virtuality already from their childhood, so it is the teacher who has the most challenges to get known about the new possibilities and try to use them with not so good skills.
Gvak had noticed that the interface of SL and the virtual world's many atractions will cause easily a lack of interaction with the learning goal itself instead of focusing on the irrelevant issues. It is not so easy to concentrate when there is happening a lot around your self. It is like this expecially in the first visits into SL when everything is new.
There might be some ways in this gap. One is to restrict the places where one can go and other environmental things, what one must face and must not. Keep it simple and always keep the goals on your mind. It would be a good way to get through some of the orientation islands cause there are good tools to study and learn about interface of the SL with a group or only by oneself.
In Anchorage, Alaska, snow was falled down on the ground at the same time as in Helsinki. As we added each other as friends we noticed that there were "only" 11 hours between us what comes to the time zone differencies. So I might not meet him again for a while in SL. Luckily Instant Messages can be sent also if one is not online.
Some useful information about education in virtual worlds:
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