Demonstrations, and such..

Demonstration was kinda fun. Not the ' wow, this is interesting i'm enjoying it to the fullest' fun, but the kind of, thrilled and anxious then pulling it over kinda fun. ha ha.

Well i do hope that Blogging becomes a big thing in motivating students and teachers to wite. Oh, to Blog i mean. I was reading one of the related Links on Dr Tan's blog. The one on 'Blogs as reflective writing tools - M's Primary Weblog'. It was really interesting. It was almost exactly what i feel about blogs and educational blogging! And, besides just reflection, blogging also offers students to learn effectively, as they can now go home, digest the information thrown at them, and blog about it. Alright, maybe it is yet another form of reflection, but. I just think blogging is powerful.

Most importantly, like the previous stated blog i visited( M's primary weblog) i think blogging really creates an open platform for students to write and express themselves, to a whole world of an audience. Yes, the idea of having many people reading what you have got to say is just, exciting. Especially in my area of specialisation- Chinese language and literature, it is so very important to interest and motivate students to use the language. Singaporean students these days often communicate in English, as a result, many are prone to neglect their second language- mother tongue. With such a platform, it is more engaging a form of writing than just the essays and reports in class. Hopefully they will gain an interest or at the very least, not have a 'phobia' in second language?

That aside, we were introduced to Second Life. It is this virtual world that is created for fun? Well, since it is not a game, but like a second life you are leading, only in a virtual space. Good thing there is 2 categories to it- the 13-17 years old [ or something like that ] and the 21 and above category. Lets just say we wouldnt want our younger generation to be exposed to potentially harmful contents.

Personally, i do not really agree with such virtual world. It is not really 'right'. Especially for the younger ones, should they be so absorbed into the game and be unable to differentiate it from real life... Oh that IS disastrous. People are generally also more concerned with how they look or specifically how their avatars look since they can now alter how it is themselves, to their liking, as and when. They start to 'buy' clothes, go for 'hair treatment', 'plastic surgery(changing their looks/features)' etc. There are just about as many or even more things people can do in the virtual worlds than in real life! Could it lead to materialism? Or discrimination?
Big words aren't they, hmmm...

Maybe i need to understand and know more about how such virtual world/lives can aid in learning and teaching.

Looking forward to more Second Life. Now this is going to be interesting..