Education and SL (A Brave New World)

Hi,

This is my first post here and I look forward to sharing my thoughts and observations of SL in the education arena.

Here in Australia today we saw the opposition leader Mr. Kevin Rudd flag education as his first biggy policy announcement in his quest to unseat Mr. John Howard as Prime Minister.

A curious choice but not a bad one given the changing face of education in Australia and the flagging fortunes of this nations manufacturing sector in the heat of increasing Asian competition and the inability of local firms to compete due to labour costs (to name one factor).

So, where does SL fit into all this? Well, over the past decade governments across Australia have spent millions of dollars plonking computers in front of students in the K-12 sector of education. And, in the past 2 to 3 years there has been another big spend in enabling students and teachers to access the internet and have email addresses.

Whilst this has been going on developments like SL have appeared which current Government (State and Federal) Education policy, well, quite simply, have not even considered and, in fact, have denied access to at school level.

In SL we have a challenge to utilise a new form of communication in a way that has educational benefits and outcomes that go beyond anything ever seen before. SL, like Google Earth and Web 2 technology generally will dramatically affect the way education programs are delivered, accessed and credentialed.

And so, I look forward to sharing my thoughts and observations in this brave new world of SL and education over the coming 2007 year.