The article "Social Studies in a Virtual World" from Andrew Wheelock in the March/April 2010 issue of Learning & Leading takes a look at the use of a computer game named Second Life that lets users create "Islands" where they can pretty much build and create anything they wish. For the author he came in contact with a group of teachers and educators who meet up every other Sunday to explore different islands that have been created for historic purposes. With each island there is a specific theme such as, Capitol Hill South which looks at opinions of current U.S. political issues; there's also Virtual Babylon that has a ton of information of that time period, there is even a island themed after the life of Abraham Lincoln showing off various times in his life. The author talks about the use of this game as being able to connect with others to explore these different historical times and the networking that can come of it.
For the classroom I can see this being a very useful experience for students. The main incentive is the fact that they get to play a video game at school, the other is they are allowed to use their imagination to possibly create their own islands and themes. This can be used in many different ways, such as giving a group of studens an assignment to recreate a time in history or a place that can be represented in the game. To me that is something that is very extrodinary and very cool to think about.
This article fits in with NETS standard 2 and 5 as students would be collaborating with each other to create their own island and along with this they would need to learn how to be appropriate citizens in an online game where they are interacting with many others.
Wheelock, A. (2010). Social studies in a virtual world. Learning & Leading, 37(March/April), 26-27. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-march-april-2010.aspx
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