Student Exchange, Without the Jet Lag; Educational Collaboration in a Virtual World

Baedeker, R. (2007). Student Exchange, Without the Jet Lag; Educational Collaboration in a Virtual World. Edutopia. Retrieved from  http://www.edutopia.org/student-exchange-without-jet-lag

In this article, Rob Baedeker looks into how students in California high schools are getting to know their Japanese exchange students before they get on a plane using Second Life. Second Life is an online virtual world where students create avatars for themselves in a world that the users create. The avatars can communicate with other avatars using Second Life and students from all over the world can get acquainted without the travel.

In a project called Pacific Rim Exchange, students from Modesto, California and Kyoto, Japan have connected through several virtual islands in the Teen Second Life Grid. This grid is apart for the larger Second Life arena and is restricted to ages 13-17. After meeting in the program, about twenty students from Modesto visited Kyoto on their spring break and then about fifty students from Kyoto visited Modesto in the summer.

Realizing that videoconferencing brought logistical difficulties because of the time differences, teachers at the Modesto high school bought land on the Second Life Teen Grid with virtual money (this money is called Linden and can be purchased using U.S. dollars at changing rate). The teachers then build the skeleton of a layout and a welcome center. Students from each city were then invited to join the world, explore it and collaborate to build its environment. Collaboration project ideas could include building a bridge together or maybe a famous building.

This island also posed as an environment for the kids to post picture, videos and information about their cultures. A chat bar is available with a Japanese-English translator to help students communicate. Language skills could be enhanced during the exchange as well.  Baedeker points out that the possibility for this kind of virtual world are “vast” (Baedeker, 2007). Math teachers can ask students to use their algebra and geometry to build roofs on virtual houses, physics teachers and play with gravity by dropping their avatars off the virtual earth, history teachers can ask students to have their avatars dress up in period clothing and more.

I love the seemingly endless possibilities posed by this virtual world. I have always thought of Second Life as more of a game and time waster rather than a teaching tool. I really like the idea of students from different cultures meeting each other through this program. It takes away the slow processes of writing, sending and waiting for letters in a pen pal system. The only drawback to this is that you would have to connect with a school who had access to this kind of technology and it would leave a lot of really interesting places out of the picture.