W2_Reading: Pedagogical Applications of Second Life

  Among the articles I've found that deal with using digital storytelling with teens, Second Life comes up every so often as one possible tool for working with this age group. Initially I steered away from the articles about Second Life (SL) because I felt the learning curve would be too great to use it with teens without giving up a lot of class time in the process. How could I justify using so much time in SL when there are so many things we are supposed to cover in the classroom?
  Reading the article by Joe Sanchez (2009) has made me rethink that point of view. Sanchez used SL to enable students to create experiences in a space instead of videos.  Key for me was the aspect of students sharing their stories with groups of people. SL provides a platform for role-playing and community engagement. Sanchez reported using Teen Second Life to help a group of fifty Austin, Texas high school girls examine gender equity in gaming.
  It was easy to recognize the stereotypes these students identified: the princess, the fantasy girl, and the overly muscular or powerful females of games like Mortal Kombat. They then held a fashion show using avatars to depict the stereotypes and then to demonstrate what they thought the women in these games should look like. Their "average girl" was much more realistic and quite a contrast to the fictional females usually found in games.
  It had not occurred to me that SL could be used to foster such deep reflective learning. I'm sure all of the young women who participated in the class came away with a much deeper experience than mere discussion could have provided.

Sanchez, J. (2009). Pedagogical Applications of Second Life. Library Technology Reports, 45(2), 21-28. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.