Remember the name of that online thing? I seem to be asking this question more and more. I was working with the students in my grad class and discussing the section of our book that concerns what we describe as “exploratory environments“. I have longed been intrigued by the potential of an open environment that allows exploration and even construction. It took the group a while to figure out what I was trying to remember and even when identified not everyone knew what the rest of us were talking about. I was trying to recall “Second Life”.
I thought Second Life had great potential for learning, but I remember it as being hijacked by those who supported it (by purchasing virtual land). I remember the demise of the education potential happening in two stages (although the stages were related). The first was the “teen online” portion of the virtual world. The second was the growth of “sex oriented” themes throughout. Sex sells would be an apt summary. I just remember the popularity of the service among many of the tech support people at the University and I always wondered if they persisted in their commitment.
As things seem to happen, I have this thought in class and then encounter something soon afterwards that is related. I also wonder why this seems to happen. Perhaps the brain is just prepared to attend to things that are still kind of active in our memories. Anyway, I just found this story from ReadWrite describing a new development from Linden Labs (the company that developed and maintained Second Life). The story explains the efforts from the company directed toward virtual reality, but also includes a history of the company and Second Life. Makes a good read if you are interested in exploratory environments.