The Affordances of Second Life for Education - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 105

of approaches in order to support all learners.
It is critically important to pay attention to the
different responses that learners have to aural,
textual, visual, and kinesthetic information, and
to find ways to accommodate all learning styles
in any learning environment. It is especially
helpful to provide summaries of information in
multiple formats at the beginning and end of any
presentation, and to always provide alternative
formats of any information presented. The second
important aspect of representation is that learners
in the process of acquiring skills or concepts can
represent their understanding for the purposes
of formative and summative assessment. Many
students respond positively to the opportunity
to represent what they know or are learning in a
creative or artistic manner. Teachers need to pay
attention to these representations to gain critical
insight into student understanding, and to provide
necessary supports and scaffolding in the process
of developing mastery. Second Life affords many
opportunities for artistic expression, and has a

thriving community of artists who design, pro-
duce, display, and sell their creations in- world.
A good place to get a sense of what is possible is
the Second Louvre, where paintings and sculpture
are on display. Another showcase of SL artistry
is the Sistine Chapel at Vassar Island (see Figure
2). (In SL, areas of land are often referred to as
“islands,” “estates” or “sims”.) One inspirational
activity is to take a tour of art galleries in SL; a
special “Heads-Up Display” or HUD (see below)
is available to guide you.
Making machinima offers a powerful way for
students to represent their ideas. Students who
have trouble with traditional school assignments
often come alive when given the opportunity to
write a script or short a video. Because creating
a well-done machinima is a lot of work with
multiple functions, it also provides a good activ-
ity for groups. Possibilities for content include
demonstrating a new science concept, filming a
reenactment of an historical event, or creating an

Figure 2. The Sistine Chapel Re-creation: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vassar/111/113/27