I found Peachey's ideas about the individual being 'protected' by second life unconvincing; I certainly prefer an atmosphere of the 'real world' for education - can't say too much as using this and Bayne in EMA!
However, I felt that both articles are far more connected to 'identity' rather than 'education', and identity was an important element of my earlier studies, and seems to becoming more important as the world becomes more globalised.
Personally, as a tutor, I do do not wish to 'hide' my identity with an avatar, and would tend to be a little suspicious of those who do, although equally I can understand the student response of not wanting to be 'known' - in my experience it is often the extremely clever students who do not wish to be identified as such, but this risks the debate becoming philosophical rather than educational! (although undoubtedly an area for further research)
Jiang (2011) makes a case regarding the danger of adding a 'game layer' to the real world, and my view is that second life or similar are a step too far in the direction of gamification (Deterding et al, 2011)
References:
Bayne, S. (2005) 'Deceit, desire and control: the identities of learners and teachers in cyberspace', in Land, R. and Bayne, S. (eds) Education in Cyberspace, Abingdon, RoutledgeFalmer.
Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R. and Nacke, L. (2011a) 'From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification"', Envisioning Future Media Environments. New York, New York, MindTrek '11 Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference,
Deterding, S., Sicart, M., Nacke, L., O'Hara, K. and Dixon, D. (2011b) 'Gamification. using game-design elements in non-gaming contexts', Envisioning Future Media Environments. New York, New York, MindTrek '11 Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference,
Peachey, A. (2010) 'Living in Immaterial Worlds: Who are we when we learn and teach in virtual worlds?', in Sheehy, K., Ferguson, R. and Clough, G. (eds) Virtual worlds [electronic resource] : controversies at the frontier of education, New York, Nova Science Publishers.
H800 Peachey Article
I found Peachey's ideas about the individual being 'protected' by second life unconvincing; I certainly prefer an atmosphere of the 'real world' for education - can't say too much as using this and Bayne in EMA!
However, I felt that both articles are far more connected to 'identity' rather than 'education', and identity was an important element of my earlier studies, and seems to becoming more important as the world becomes more globalised.
Personally, as a tutor, I do do not wish to 'hide' my identity with an avatar, and would tend to be a little suspicious of those who do, although equally I can understand the student response of not wanting to be 'known' - in my experience it is often the extremely clever students who do not wish to be identified as such, but this risks the debate becoming philosophical rather than educational! (although undoubtedly an area for further research)
Jiang (2011) makes a case regarding the danger of adding a 'game layer' to the real world, and my view is that second life or similar are a step too far in the direction of gamification (Deterding et al, 2011)
References:
Bayne, S. (2005) 'Deceit, desire and control: the identities of learners and teachers in cyberspace', in Land, R. and Bayne, S. (eds) Education in Cyberspace, Abingdon, RoutledgeFalmer.
Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R. and Nacke, L. (2011a) 'From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification"', Envisioning Future Media Environments. New York, New York, MindTrek '11 Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference,
Deterding, S., Sicart, M., Nacke, L., O'Hara, K. and Dixon, D. (2011b) 'Gamification. using game-design elements in non-gaming contexts', Envisioning Future Media Environments. New York, New York, MindTrek '11 Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference,
Jiang, K. (2011) 'The Dangers of Gamification:why we shouldn't build a game layer on top of the world', pdf-release.net, pdf-release.net, 01 December 2013 [Online]. Available at http://pdf-release.net/2841688/The-Dangers-of-Gamification:-Why-We-Shouldn't---Get-a-Free-Blog (Accessed 10 July 2014).
Peachey, A. (2010) 'Living in Immaterial Worlds: Who are we when we learn and teach in virtual worlds?', in Sheehy, K., Ferguson, R. and Clough, G. (eds) Virtual worlds [electronic resource] : controversies at the frontier of education, New York, Nova Science Publishers.