The Educator’s Coop group is filled with people who obsess over trying to find ways to “teach” in SL. What they mean by that is “deliver instruction.” In most cases that’s “display a PowerPoint”, “show a video”, or even just, “display some text.”

My problem is that SL is the wrong environment for all those.

In the first place, PowerPoints are almost universally the wrong choice of medium to “deliver instruction” despite their endemic application.

In the second place, the power of SL is, at least in part, in the shared experience of a 3d environment — whether synchronously (together) or asynchronously (one at a time). Reading or watching a video is a two-dimensional activity and there are much better environments for delivering text, audio, and video than SL.

The fundamental issue, for me, is what I’ve dubbed the Tyranny of Synchrony. It comes from the classroom mndset that says, “We can instruct people better in a group setting where I can bring them altogether, tell them all at the same time, answer all their questions as we go.” The fundamental flaw here is that, while that might be an efficient application of instructional resource, it’s not necessarily the application that yields the best learning outcomes.

Myself, I’m getting more than a little tired of the focus on Education in SL, and I think maybe it’s time we shifted to a focus on Learning.

But before I lose what I am thinking at the moment …

I am building on SL with the main goal of dialogue spaces. The more I build – the more I am convinced, that for dialogue and participation, the ERG model of open spaces with images and “boards” and other props thrown around and handed around works very well on SL.

However – since SL is full of stuff we can do without encountering or viewing when we are there for discussion on specific topics or for class – it is a good idea to screen out some of the surrounding stuff.

For instance on my “Maidaan” (large open grounds – I use a Hindi word to express the openness of the metaphor that I am trying to invoke in the building) at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Brouwer/168/145/43 – I have “cloth” screens all around instead of walls (most of these are phantom so people dont encounter walls while trying to come – but where the surroundings are not conducive to the atmosphere I am trying to invoke – I have set those to “physical” ) .

While some of the houses and buildings are beautifully built on SL – they have other purposes, I feel. And for what I am trying to set up – these are claustrophopic.

Likewise with the use of voice – which to me would need to be used performatively and strategically.

r