This Life

Second Life continues to catch media attention.
I still don't get it and really don't understand the hype.
Those people that believe that Second Life is the sort of place where we can create a virtual classroom where students will come to learn in an alternate reality are so misguided.
Yeah its a cool tool, but its not the beginning of a bave new world.
What matters is how we might use it to persuade students to come together to reflect upon their learning.
Its hard to do that in the real world.
It might be harder than we think to do it in a virtual world

Richard and Judy were there yesterday, or were they?
They talked about it on their show, displayed their avatars and made them jump.
I was watching them on the TV.
Their discussion showed that they weren't there, I'm not sure that they had been there. They certainly didn't design their avatars.
I guess their researchers were there pretending to be Richard and Judy.

They had some bloke talk about spending more time in Second Life, than he does in this life.
No.
He spends his time in this life sitting at his computer, no different to spending time in a book, in a dvd or on the playstation.

I think everyone should have a look at this place and then perhaps spend a little more time in the real world!
Read the response made by Linden Labs to the creator of Get a First Life.
Its hard to see where the parody ends and the real world begins.

Stephen Downes comments on ebay banning the sale of virtual goods here.
I'm with ebay. At least they don't want to be seen to be making money out of nothing.