This post is not about Fantasy Faire, I repeat, this post is not about Fantasy Faire! I do make one or two non Fantasy Faire related posts during Fantasy Faire and in this case I’m looking at yet another excellent episode of The Drax Files : World Makers, in this case; Episode 19 – Virtual Chemistry. I will, in traditional fashion, post the video at the end of the post.
In this episode the star of the show is Wendy Keeney-Kennicutt from Texas A&M University, who is very enthusiastic about teaching chemistry in Second Life. There are some very good reasons for this and they are reasons that may surprise some people.
One of those reasons is that students who engage with Second Life report that they enjoy this aspect of their course, in some cases they enjoy the virtual labs more than the real labs because there are less distractions in a virtual lab. I must admit I’m surprised to hear this but maybe it’s because someone in a virtual lab feels more in control of their environment and that the environment is less hazardous.
Another advantage of teaching chemistry in Second Life is that Second Life is a 3D world and Chemistry has a lot of interests in shapes of molecules and understanding their 3D nature, which a 3D virtual world can demonstrate admirably. Then there are interactive periodic tables, at this point I was tempted to run screaming from the video, periodic tables are the stuff of nightmares, however I persevered in the name of truth and justice.
Yet again we see the use case of collaboration being highlighted regarding Second Life with Wendy pointing out that people don’t need to be physically next to each other to build together or examine each other’s work.
The virtual versus real aspect is highlighted with news that Wendy and Kurt Winkelman from the Florida Institute of Technology are conducting a study comparing virtual and real labs. This study is funded by The National Science Foundation, with results due in about twelve months time.
Wendy also has a very grown up attitude to Second Life in general, pointing out that there is a depth of richness in Second Life in terms of art and architecture but also pointing out that Second Life is like the web in terms of content as a whole, with the implication there being that there are many forms of content on the web, some informational and some not so informational, shall we say. Second Life is similar in that regard. I’m glad to hear an educator saying this because it’s a point I’ve long banged on about. Yes Second Life does have adult content, but so does the web. Second Life does not deserve to be tainted in the way it is due to some of its content, the virtues of Second Life should be about the whole and in many ways, Second Life has better mechanisms for avoiding adult content than the web itself does due to maturity ratings within Second Life.
Drax again does a wonderful job of highlighting a Second Life use case that the mainstream media don’t want to hear about, it’s far easier to write negative stories about Second Life. This leads to situations whereby people don’t appreciate the wonderful advantages of Second Life and also it leads to people believing that Second Life does not have Orcs, it does … oh wait I said this post wasn’t about Fantasy Faire!