Huge Darwinian

As the owner of The Virtual Classroom mentioned here I thought I might take the opportunity to add a couple of points. My aim differs from most other teaching spaces in that I provide no content or teaching staff. I rely on educators for that entirely. My focus is on creating a simple to learn, easy to use generic teaching space which adapts from one subject to another across the broadest course content possible. In my view teaching in Second Life suffered from over-specialisation with large spaces and prim counts being used in a rigid manner for small student groups, then not having any use until the next class, or requiring a rebuild to be useful for another lesson. Alternatively a virtual replica of a campus from Real Life was created, without any consideration of how it would operate in Second Life. The final error in my opinion was to focus on a spectacular build, which dragged the students focus away from the lesson material. I believe that a simple, easy to use and learn broad based teaching space that presents a good teaching environment can have a place in the VR education future. Whether that is in Second Life or not remains to be seen. But in any event rumours of my demise are premature. I will be supporting The Virtual Classroom in an ongoing manner into the next school year and welcome vistors or educators with whole classes.