Anita Shipman

I understand the point you are making. How this online virtual world will work is to address how K-12 education sorts students and the transition to online education in schools to address budget cutbacks. First, students are sorted in K-12 by age rather than by interest and ability like it is done in college. Secondly, schools are putting 60+ students in a single room, call it a "computer lab" to get around class size restrictions and rather than staffing the lab with a teacher, they use a "facilitator" who takes attendance, solves computer issues, and hands out/collects assignments & tests, at a fraction of the cost of a qualified teacher. The model I envision has students in that large room log into classes they are interested and proficient in. Thus, each student in that lab will be in different classes with students of all ages sorted by interest and ability. I also want to stay away from texting as many students are not proficient at communicating with words. They are visual learners. There are those (like me) that can read a book over and over and the words don't "click" in our heads. But if you SHOW us, we get it right away. That is the reason for the visual Second Life classroom over just a text-based classroom.

Okay, you say it can be done...but how? Who do I contact?

When the project is executed, each "student" will actually be a student in a classroom on their own computer. Our school district has a One2One laptop program.

The annonymity is towards their peers. Peer pressure can suppress risk taking when it comes to asking difficult questions. The teacher has to know in order to give credit for participation. Asking questions must be rewarded.

I am working on a Masters Thesis that deals with an online virtual classroom. I need to create fifteen "student" accounts and a "teacher" account. I need to have two "states" in the classroom. One is the "collaborative mode" where each student avatar can be unique while they work together on projects. During the "teaching mode" where the students are to focus on the teacher's instruction, all students look the same. During the transition, the student's view will be disabled and the students location in the classroom would be randomly moved. This allows total anonymity to the student. Through this, the students are able to ask "difficult or embarrassing" questions without revealing who they are. So, the question is..Can this be done? "Anita"