Second Life Reflection

Initially, I would have to say that my initial opinions of Second Life were not the best. Much frustration came out especially when it came to scripting objects. When I first used Second Life I found it to be dizzying and experienced some delays (even throughout the project). After battling all of the technical issues, I found using the program to be a valuable experience. It not only forced me to further my knowledge about Howard Gardner, I then had to apply his learning theory withing Second Life. In any other class, you would normally be asked to write a paper arguing the theories of him and the impacts on society today and the connection amongst other theorists...yada yada yada. Using Second Life to understand Gardner's theory was actually more challenging, especially when I had to think of a way to tie in and teach one thing eight different ways. I feel that this illustrations was much more effective than someone reading it on paper.

Using technology also gave me the opportunity to work with others and learn about their theorist while learning about mine. While the building of the rooms seemed more like a solitary activity, we all worked with each other to give insight and ideas and help out others. You would not have the same result if you wrote a paper. Within this process of assisting others, we were able to partake and learn about other theorists. Working this way, we were able to understand the significance of other learning theorists and the correlation amongst them.

AS far as technology goes, there were times that I hated it, but honestly, I felt as if I got more out of the project by working with others and applying my knowledge. This was very much an inquiry-based and open ended assignment. I don't think I would have learned as much about other theorists if it was not interactive. I actually enjoyed this project more than writing a paper! If I had to say one thing, I'D DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN!