Second Life Tour, Day 4

I've skipped a couple of days, but I'm going to catch up and refresh my memory on where I've been and let you know where I've gone today.  Here's an image-capture of my teleport history, which took me awhile to figure out how to access. (I had 'Cyprus Chat' in the search bar,  and I had to clear it before I could find my recent history):

The area that I'm determined to learn more about is EduNation, where Learn It Town resides.  I have not yet figured out the difference between EduNations I, II, and III and you can see here that I've been going to EduNation I by default.
















I started out where I left off, which is an option SL gives you.  This seems a sensible approach when you're just learning how to get around; I've discovered that refreshing your real memory, not just your computer one, is key to getting your 'physical' bearings so you can use your internal compass and landmark recognition to get comfortable with the environs. This is "Country Western Wear', and I believe it is in EduNation.  It was the last place I visited before today's visit.

In one of our readings from Module 5, "Presence Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning in a 3D Immersive World" (2008), the authors in this peer-reviewed paper shared their findings and research in the 'AET Zone', a 3D VLE that has been around since 2001. In my journey in SL today, I wanted to be sure to address our instructor's question "How could you use these sets as immersive environments for lessons," and this article elaborated on this question perfectly. I've spent too much time floundering/getting lost/frustrated in SL and not enough time examining it from an educative POV.

The article shed some light on a couple of things that had been confusing me.  One, when you encounter an avatar after you teleport to a new location, it's known as an embedded avatar, called 'greeter bots,' who announces the name and cohort of each participant the moment he or she enters the world. Initially, I thought this avatar was there in SL 'real time' and that I was expected to be polite and interact with him/her.  I was relieved to know that it is merely a formality, the point of which is to 'capitalize on the presence of others', according to the authors. The point of this greeter is to let students know immediately upon arrival that they're in the presence of someone with more knowledge of the area who also shares responsibility for learning within it.

"Presence Pedagogy advances a peer-based approach to teaching and learning....to remove the preset hierarchy of expertise that is common across most educational models and replaces it with one in which all members of a learning community share in the responsibility for supporting one another." (p. 63)

 I've encountered many of these greeters; on Oahu and again today when I visited EduNation. Carol Rainbow, owner of the island, appeared for the first time in my visits. I couldn't capture her while also capturing a screen shot, however.

In the photo above, I was able to visually capture that magic wand 'line' that happens sometimes when you click on something.  I was trying to figure out if clicking on this poster would do anything....it listed a website but I thought if I clicked on the link, it would take me there. Nothing happened. I clicked on the green arrow you see.  Nothing.  In this way I feel SL needs to be more intuitive and operate like other sites.  Also, I am frustrated with  not being able to click and drag myself to places with my mouse. I'd like to be able to click on my avatar and move her about while holding down my mouse click, in that same way you could use Apple's 'MacPaint'.  Remember that one, boomers?

The same thing happened when I clicked on a holodek called "Randall's Renior Horizon's" while in this area of EduNation. The time it's taking me to get used to the gliches I'm finding in SL is trying my patience!

So, I decided to get the Hell Out of Dodge and go to Paris 1900.  I first searched for Berlin 1930's in the search menu but came up with zilch.  Paris 1900 popped right up, voilá!

I wanted to end this visit on a high note, and also keep in mind my goal of today's journey, which was to express my ideas on how a teacher can use Second Life for lessons.  Here are some screen grabs and shots of my journey on the Paris 1900 island.  I've noticed that teleporting to familiar places or familiar environments (like the stables I visited) eases some of the beginner's anxiety when immersing in a 3D environment. Take a look at my visit:

The impulse to visit Paris 1900 came to me subconsciously, upon retrospect.  As 'presence pedagogy' aims to to promote a more flattened approach toward instruction by removing hierarchy that is common with most educational models, it isn't completely egalitarian.

"There is an awareness and acceptance that the hierarchy and structure that expertise brings does exist within the community and that this expertise should be recognized and shared." (p. 63)

How might I use today's visit in an educational context?  Here are some ideas for using Paris 1900:

• Ask students to say whether they've been to Paris and if so, what they recognize and where they think we are on the island.  Ask them to express their thoughts verbally with regards to initial impressions and opinions about the surreal notion of placing Paris within an island setting.
• Students can write Twitter-length sentences in chat box to express these same thoughts in writing.  They can also practice writing in the interrogative (question) form for things they don't understand.
• If one of the students is familiar with SL and knows how to open/access the poster in the Moulin Rouge theater that is a tutorial for how to animate and choreograph the dancers, they can take the opportunity to show the rest of the group how to do it.

Tomorrow I'll continue to address the lesson-planning opportunities in SL and also try to resolve my problems in clicking on banners and posters and collecting notecards while on location.

Second Life Tour, Day 3

For today's tour, I set the timer on my iphone to 45 minutes.  I was able to stay in Second Life for that long, although I admit I was ready to split after about 30 minutes.  Clearly, there is no danger for addiction, as I explored in yesterday's blog (see below).

I tried entering through a different porthole today, one that I viewed on a video made by David Taylor from National University's Second Life island, which automatically uploaded following one of our class video tutorials. It's pretty good and might be helpful for those who are wishing to visit Second Life for the very first time in order to set up their accounts.  I've already visited with the help of my instructor, who guided me on how to select an avatar and find landmarks and other perform other necessary functional tasks in S.L. Here's is David's version of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siRbP8oErHI&spfreload=10

Moving on.  Today I intended to enter something called Svarga, which was mentioned in one of our readings, 'Blended Realities: A Virtual Tour of Education in Second Life.'  (Calonge & Hiles, TCC 2007 Proceedings).  This paper documents how, "in 2006, formal education took root in this online multi-user virtual environment and how new kinds of learning environments and activities are emerging in this rapidly-growing world called Second Life." One of the primary purposes for this blog assignment is to explore SL and fill this space with my impressions, reactions, observations, etc.. into how the 3D immersive environment could be used for lessons with my ESL students. Svarga sounded like an interesting space:

"Svarga's lush landscape, created by former Lionhead game developer and SL avatar Laukosargas Svarog, includes interdependent species of artificial life, complete with genes that sometimes mutate and produce new variations." 

I wasn't able to enter Svarga because I didn't search for it in the right way.  I'm sure it's there, I just didn't find it in the initial search screen on SL.  No matter.  I entered via one of my previously saved locations, Learn It Town.

For a change, I decided to visit things that are familiar to me and that imitate real life; known locations. This was one way I thought I might embrace the surreal world of SL a bit more readily.

I found Oahu Island on the list of suggested places.  After an airport-style greeting with a lei (which took me several minutes to find out how to wear it...clicking 'wear' doesn't automatically made the lei appear around your neck and it took several tries to make it 'stick').  Here's an overview of the Arizona Memorial location, which is an artist's re-imagined version:

 Here's a realistic view of the shrine dedicated to the soldiers who still lie entombed in the ocean below the monument.  This is a what the wall looks like in real life, so I like this aspect of Second Life.  I'm not very interested in fantasy, fiction, sci-fi or anything that isn't real life.  For those of you who feel the same, rest assured there are many sites on Second Life that are based on reality.

I navigated to a familiar spot on the memorial (which I have visited 10+ times) where you can see the submerged hull of the U.S.S. Arizona over the railing.  I liked how the designer of this site re-created a realistic view of what you might see while actually on the memorial.   The name for the memorial is now
"World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument", and has been for the past 10 years or so.

Here's a good link for you to compare the real Valor in the Pacific Memorial to the SL one:
https://www.pearlharboroahu.com/

Somehow, I ended up on the ocean floor, which was mildly entertaining for a few minutes.  Fish swim overhead and I felt like I was at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.

 











After a few minutes, I needed a change of scenery, so I returned to Learn It Town with my lei on.


After flying around, I could see waves in the distance and having just visited Oahu, I felt compelled to get close to the water.  However, I couldn't move past a yellow barrier preventing my avatar, Brunellista, from visiting the beach.  I assume this is a privately-owned island and I don't belong to whatever group has developed it.  No worries..there are plenty of other places to go in this town.

 I sat down on a Learn It Town landmark but wasn't able to add a  'note' as it was asking me to do...I right clicked several times but just couldn't activate anything.  In our instructions for this assignment we are asked to collect as many notecards on locations when possible.  The are supposed to appear automatically when we click on a object but this one didn't give me anything. Hmm.

 I visited the stable via one of the links that my instructor gave me...not exactly a horse barn environment...more like a shopping mall with options to choose from, horses to buy with Linden dollars, etc...I received a barrage of cubed-note icons in my upper right screen which I assume were generated by visiting the area.  I couldn't figure out ANYthing about how to move around in this space, so I left.


I eventually ended up following a link that showed me where other people were in Learn It Town during my visit.  I found Lowrie, who I believe is my instructor's business partner in Learn It Town.  She was sitting down watching a film in a movie theater, which I remembered visiting before.  There was a strange urge to say 'hello!' or move closer to her avatar to see what would happen.  Nothing happened, even though I moved around a bit.  Art doesn't really imitate life in this arena.

I think there was a film playing...it had dialogue between two African American people who were discussing the proper way to wear a cravat/ascot and whether or not it was similar to a tie.  I invisoned Morgan Freeman in my mind, even thought the voice belonged to some other actor.

Thoughts on Second Life, Day 2: caveats and advisories

New research suggests that Facebook could be detrimental to your relationship status.

“Previous research has shown that the more a person in a romantic relationship uses Facebook, the more likely they are to monitor their partner’s Facebook activity more stringently, which can lead to feelings of jealousy,” Clayton said. “Facebook-induced jealousy may lead to arguments concerning past partners. Also, our study found that excessive Facebook users are more likely to connect or reconnect with other Facebook users, including previous partners, which may lead to emotional and physical cheating.”  (Huffington Post, 6/6/2013)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/facebook-divorce-linked-i_n_3399727.html

The article's final caveat: "In 2012, divorce lawyers surveyed by Divorce-Online UK said that the social network was implicated in a third of all divorce filings the previous year. "

It's easy to see how a 3D immersion, whether a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) or not, could lead to even bigger troubles.  Here are a few links pertaining to Second Life addiction:

https://ohwhyme.wordpress.com/

 http://www.experienceproject.com/groups/Am-A-Second-Life-Addict/112970

https://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Second-Life-addiction-is-a-very-real-problem-This-is-my-story/td-p/1785407

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-keltz/been-there-did-that-doing_b_4599835.html

On a hunch, I figured there would a "Dummies" guide to Second Life.  This one is copyrighted 2008, so I suspect the $1.99 price tag might even bit a bit steep. ;-)

Reviewing the module for our 3D exploration was informative and I liked this flow chart (or spoke wheel chart...whatever you call it) very much:

Here's the video link to the screenshot above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCNdI35UKHU#t=27

"Ability to move around/explore the space" is something that pertains to my recent experience in the 3D environment.  As with all things, practice makes perfect, or at least competent.  I remember when I first learned to use a mouse and a Mac, way back in 1989.  I thought "oh, dear. I'm NEVER going to figure this stuff out" and within a few months I couldn't remember ever not knowing how to use it.  It's like that old expression, 'once you know something, you can't un-know it'.

When would a 3D VLE, Virtual Learning Environment, have an advantage over a face-to-face or 2D learning environment?

I don't have an answer, and after aimlessly flying about in Second Life just now for 45 minutes of my real life, my answer to the question is 'not yet'.

Here's how I started my 45-60 minute journey: 


That's fine. I've seen that page before. Now, I must enter into this world of Second Life.
It's a groovy place to fly about it but at this point I'm not getting the point of why this is a good learning environment. And, let me say that I'm pretty open minded....way more than most people my age.

I go in and navigate/teleport to a familiar spot: Learn It Town.  I recognize this place, as Shelwyn, my instructor, has taken me here, via teleport, several time in the past 3 weeks. This is the first time I've ventured in on my own.

I like this house so somehow I've found myself in the bedroom.  I fooled around with my clothing and hair for a few moments, and ended up bald at one point.  The controls and settings on Second Life aren't intuitive for me....it requires more attention the the 'fine print' of the windows and drop-down menus than I'm in the mood for this evening.

Next, I go over to EduNation, which is a public place on Second Life that is well known to English learners. I have no idea what this plaza/space is supposed to be...there are many images on the wall here, like murals and I suspect that each one of them will transport you into another space on Second Life. 

After visiting this place for a few moments, I venture over into something called Virtlantis, which I found by typing its name into the search bar on the left side of my screen.

I'm still fiddling around with the camera controls to see if I can rotate around enough to get a look at the place.  The option of flying is always available but for some reason it's not that easy at this point. I think I'm in some kind of flying disc now and I can't remember what Shelwyn told me about them.

At this point, I've navigated my avatar, Brunellista, into some kind of outdoor space which I believe is still in Virtlantis.

My conclusions at this point are that entering Second Life on your own as an investigative experience is fine, but also irritating, time-wasting and one of those moments where you question what the hell computers are supposed to accomplish. I'm not in the mood this evening for this kind of exploratory view and suppose that many people feel this way after they enter into this 3D world unsupervised.

Immersive Environments Part 5

Remember when you were a kid around the ages of 8-12 or so and you suspected that there was a secret world of knowledge about the world, society, and nature that everyone except kids knew about?  Adults held these secrets close, just out of your grimy-handed, cookie-breath reach; your fascination with what might be out there would keep your developing brain busy for minutes at a stretch.  As soon as Santa Fraud was exposed you began to think "Oh boy, the ball is rolling! Any day now another big secret will be revealed. Yay!"

I can't be the only person who was preoccupied with this notion before my rational, cognitive mind developed.  Here's how I envisioned the big event: these mysteries of the universe would be parceled out to me at some point and my astonishment would be off the charts initially, later subsiding into that zone where I'd share knowing glances with others in my same age bracket who were also in the club.

We'll look at 3 more sites today, all for pre-teens and teens.
First up, Super Secret, owned by JumpStart.  www.jumpstart.com

JumpStart is a subsidiary of Knowledge Holdings, Inc. The company is privately held and based in Torrance, California.  The site has a link to a pretty good blog under the 'what's new' tab on the home age. It's target audience is teenage girls, and even though it says 10-16 above, I suspect it might be a bit younger, even.  16 seems to be the new 20 these days.

The next one, Smeet, targets a bit older audience and also sets itself apart from its competition by being "a unique 3D online world in which users can style and customize their avatar, chat in real time with other users, and play online games." www.en.smeet.com

"Unlike other virtual life games, Smeet is completely browser-based, so there are no downloads necessary - you can log in from anywhere".  It's a free 3D virtual world that seems kind of hipster-esque and uses that word again, 'flirt', which you see on sites for teens.  http://en.smeet.com/virtualworld   The name is a portmanteau, the process where two words are artificially combined into one, rather than when two words are combined to describe a new concept or item (e.g. Hatstand or lamppost).  Think chillax, sup, guesstimate. Provide others you can think of in the comments.
Smeet = let'S MEET.  But, I must confess that smut was the first word that came to my mind when I saw the name on our assignment.  Also, meat is often associated with meat market, which is sometimes linked, unfairly, to dating websites.

Without looking for it, I found a comment on the next site's forum about the whole 'flirt issue'.  I didn't know prior to writing this blog that it was an issue...I just had a hunch. Look:

This site, PlayTown www.playtown-game.com, seemed like a younger child's gaming website based on the graphics, name, etc... But on closer inspection I see that its developer is a multi-layered, and diverse group called Avaca Technologies, based in Athens, Greece. That might explain some of the cultural differences I noticed in the animation, the person begin put off by using 'flirt' (Greece is still somewhat conservative isn't it?) and in general the different 'vibe' of this promotional trailer:

 Among the many other ventures this group Avaca is involved with, I gained a new respect for the forces behind the gaming industry by investigating this site.  As part of the




sponsored by the E.U., their "KTS project aims to design, develop and validate a serious game that will provide medical students and (novel) surgeons with innovative ICT-based psychomotor MIS training. The KTS serious game will be based upon previous and extensive experience in training and learning models for surgeons."  Gaming's applications go beyond entertainment in a "Serious Game" for minimally invasive surgeries:

For people familiar with gaming or the medical industry, this use of gaming technology comes as no surprise, but I was excited to see this surgery training video.  http://www.avaca.eu/en/avaca-portfolio

See you tomorrow for the last installment of this project! :-)

Immersive Environments Part 4

Immersive Environments, Part 3

As part of our blogging assignment, we've been given the tips on how to make screen shots to add visual interest to our blogs: command+shift+4 to select a segment, command+shift+3 to select entire screen.

In yesterday's blog, I uploaded several glorious images made with the command+shift+4 feature that's a simple feature available to our fingertips.  At 11:40pm last night I was still waiting for Blogger to upload my images. The assignment was due at 11:59.  I deleted the images, keeping only two very small ones, and was relieved when it uploaded immediately.  Lesson learned: don't overload your blog with images because it will cost you time.

Here are the next 3 virtual environments on the list:

AE English, Trace Effects, a video game for learning American English and Culture
http://americanenglish.state.gov/trace-effects  This is a site from the US Department of State's English Language Programs elprograms.org and is a government site.  This lends a bit of a 'dry' and not exactly cutting-edge feel, but it's still a valid and potentially worthwhile site.  I met with the people from EL Programs last semester on campus and applied for a job as a specialist. You can also apply for a fellowship position on their site.  This is a good group and my guess is that they've developed a virtual site in order to engage with students in countries where classroom and DOS teachers aren't in situ.

Kaneva,  from their blog, claims to be "the first to integrate social networking, shared media, and collaborative online communities into a modern-day, immersive 3D world for the masses. Kaneva…imagine what you can do, do what you can imagine,"  http://blog.kaneva.com/?page_id=2

A blogger and reviewer commented: "The question I posed, why would someone prefer to spend their time in the Kaneva beta, which is extremely limited in the range of actions
available to it’s users,  compared to Second Life, which has many thousands of times
of virtual space as Kaneva, a developed economy, a scripting language, etc?" https://suezannecbaskerville.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/kaneva-kicked-from-mall-for-mentioning-second-life/

Vside, https://www.vside.com/app/start
My take: Techno-hipster, 2000's club vibe, anime visuals. Good music. Seems like a rather small audience, select-group of users. While it is engaging and visually interesting, I doubt if I'd ever go here to teach a class unless I had a student who was a member and preferred meeting in this environment. I'm open to new experiences so it's possible that I could enjoy this site.  It just isn't one that is at the top of my list.

Here's a screen shot of each one of today's sites. (I think I can do this!):

Immersive Environments, Part 2

We'll examine three more immersive environments in today's blog. They are child-centric in their approach and all of them promise lots of fun! and the opportunity to make lots of friends!, accrue credits, points, and 'coin' (digital currency), play games, have adventures, and even learn things!


My first opportunity to observe a child using computer technology for entertainment and learning was with my three year old nephew in September, 2001.  I'd only been relying on the internet myself for about 3 years at that point, and I was impressed to see how quickly he learned new things for an only moderately intelligent mass of cells.

The games were most likely from Disney, Atari or Nintendo.....pretty old-school for today's PlayStation sophisticates. Concern over the effect all this new 'computer stuff' was having on kids began to emerge in 2001: The warnings from this August 2001 article in The Guardian that "Hi-tech maps of the mind show that computer games are damaging brain development and could lead to children being unable to control violent behaviour" made me laugh out loud just now.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/19/games.schools.  Evil nephew-conspirator punched me later that month while his parents were away, later tattling to his mother right in front of me that 'Kathleen hit me!'


More than a decade later, news of various research studies showing how technology is changing our brains is center screen.  Embedded in this 2013 article from Huffington Post, "This is How the Internet is Rewiring Your Brain" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/shocking-ways-internet-rewires-brain_n_4136942.html , is a telling slideshow entitled 'What happens in one minute on the internet'.

Whyville is a creation of Numedeon, Inc., "a company started by scientists at the California Institute of Technology's CAPSI (Caltech Pre-College Science Education Initiative), with the mission of creating an engaging, inquiry-based learning platform for children. The first social networking site was thus born in 1999 and since then has been part of the lives of more than 7 million children worldwide."  www.whyville.net  It has the backing of an illustrious group of investors and the pedigree of a famous founder, Roy Ash.  They've won National Science Foundation awards and received a grant to develop PlayMath.  This site is worth the effort to explore if you want your kids to smarten up.

Club Penguin is from The Walt Disney Company.  They have several links for parents, branded with this trademark:
 

On the homepage, a video welcomes visitors with an introduction to the site.

This site is a fun, hyper, interactive, fully developed creation. You can bet that Disney's lawyers have fashioned a site that is safe and age-appropriate. www.clubpenguin.com

Habbo is a site that's difficult to review without actually playing the many games that are featured in a bold matrix on the home page.  www.habbo.com  The banner motto advertises it as "A Strange Place With Awesome People" which might appeal to a bit older youth.  It's for ages 13 and up.  "Habbo Hotel is meant for users 13 years old or above. Users under the age of 13 are not permitted to register an account on Habbo." I've never hear of its owner, the Sulake Corporation, but that doesn't mean anything, really, as I don't teach children and I'm new to teaching with technology.  I do think that parents like to see the endorsements that Habbo offers.

Habbo seems like an entry into a more sophisticated world like Second Life (see my blog from Sunday, April 19th) because it offers Avatars and the players inhabit set spaces like the 'Habbo Hotel'.

In closing, I told you that I'd report back on my Star Stable experience.  www.starstable.com  My horse's name is Rock Ruby and my alias is Katalin Younghill.  I wasn't able to ride outside of the courtyard enclosure because I didn't pay to use the site, I only downloaded it to my Macbook Pro and didn't pay to be a 'star rider'.  It's kind of cute, albeit a bit old in terms of tech; the horse isn't anatomically correct by anyone's estimation.  It is available in 11 languages, most of them being horse-centric countries like the Netherlands, Germany, France and Hungary.

Immersive Environments 1

It's Sunday Morning.  The first few moments of this video are key to my entry today.

What do we notice about the first few moments of this video?  What is the date of this song by Maroon Five? 2003. 12 years ago.  Karaoki Nikiri was an immersive environment of sorts, was it not?  Not the type we're going to consider in today's blog, however.

When I started teaching ESL in Honolulu in 2001 my students were mostly from Japan, with a few from China, Taiwan and Korea in the mix.


The Japanese students were crazy for Karaoke and carried out reconnaissance missions  the few clubs in Honolulu within their first week.  They enjoyed singing in English and, being from a very social culture, they didn't think 5 hours in class per day was sufficient time spent with their classmates.  They were eager to lure their teachers out with them, but we were all Americans and just as eager to go home at the end of the day. Our students, however,  would become She-devils and Casanovas after hours with their inhibitions thrown to the wind in the Karaoke scene.  It occurred to us we were missing out on a secret, immersive activity that was creating a fast bond between them.  If we didn't venture out with them we wouldn't know what we missing.

Cut to 2015 and this class at USF: Digital Literacy.  Our mission today is to "examine three immersive environments per day and write your impressions. You are not required to join or enter any of these environments...you will do your investigation and discovery to become better informed about this rising trend in social media worlds."

To examine 3 environments in an educational framework, I'll start with these 3: Second Life, World of Warcraft, and Google Earth.

Second Life 

I'm just getting my first taste of what life is like in Second Life. I can tell there is plenty of potential there for create and engaging learning environment for students to visit.  My question to our teacher yesterday was how long it will take students are are unfamiliar with it how to become proficient.  I know it's taking me awhile to figure out how to get around it. The teacher will need to be proficient with the use of any site in order to help students get the most out of it.

Age appropriate:  Can be
Underlying values:  Relies on the teachers discretion
Hyper sexualization:  A danger
Learning goals:  Relies on the teacher
Ultimate goals:  A very good supplemental tool, with ultimate goals needing to be clearly defined.
Strengths:  Captivating environment which can fully immerse student in the target language.
Weaknesses:  Slow startup time for adoption and navigation. Sexual predators might be around.

World of Warcraft 

I'm not a Warcraft user but have friends who are and so I mainly basing my comments on what I've read on the Virtualworldforteens.com review of it.  It is the all-time bestseller with gamers, I've heard.  If the games can be played in English with the L1 in subtitles, it might be useful with beginners. For intermediate learners there might be some value if the players are already familiar with the game and can deduce what some of the dialog is, based on that familiarity.  I don't really see it as a learning tool, more of an entertainment one. It is easy to use and that is one advantage it has over something like Second Life, which requires a bit more training.

"There are also various selections for what you can become, depending upon whether you choose Alliance or Horde. Regardless of your decisions, you have the chance to become entertained with and even addicted to all that is offered."

Age appropriate:  Can be
Underlying values:  Relies on the teachers discretion
Hyper sexualization:  A danger, and also includes what might be considered violence for some users.
Learning goals:  Probably minimal
Ultimate goals:  Entertainment, relaxation of the affective filter.
Strengths:  Captivating environment which can fully immerse student in the target language.
Weaknesses:  Sexual predators might be around.

Google Earth

This was one of the first amazing applications I explored when I became more computer literate.  Like many people, I explored it by zooming in on my current house and then the home I grew up in.  The ability to delve into our real world in a visual Smörgåsbord was a thrill!  I've never used Google Earth as a teaching tool, but if I decide to, it will be easy to figure out lessons to first do with students, and then assignments and homework for them to do on their own.  The sky's the limit here.  Also, it is edu-oriented in the same way that Wikipedia and National Geographic are.

Age appropriate:  Yes
Underlying values:  Strong informational and educational content can be made valuable.
Hyper sexualization: None
Learning goals:  Relies on the teacher
Ultimate goals:  A very good supplemental tool, with ultimate goals needing to be clearly defined.
Strengths:  Captivating environment which can fully immerse student in the target language.
Weaknesses:  Will require imaginative teachers to create substantial and solid lessons.

As a result of today's investigation, I was intrigued by an ad I saw on the Virtual Worlds for Teens website:  Star Stable.  www.starstable.com

I've already downloaded the application to my computer and will report on my progress in the next blog. I want to be a Star Rider and compete against all of the other little 13 year old girls who are likely to create the main demographic of the audience.  I was a bit worried when I put in my age to enter that I might be considered a predator.  So, I took 5 years off my age just to be safe. ;-)