Second Life...Yeah Not So Much

Second Life, as it is so inappropriately named, is supposed to be just that.  A second life.  To me however, it was a colossal waste of time.  People are able to sign on and create an avatar.  This avatar can look like you, but in most cases, people are walking around as vampires or German Shepherds.  Seriously, I talked to a German Shepherd.  The people are able to interact with one another via chat.  They also teleport to various worlds.  In theory, this can be used in the educational world to expand the classroom.  I thought I would give this a try by going to "Mexico."  Wow pretty cool right?  Wrong.  The point of this place is to practice your Spanish.  Well, if there had been people on the island, that would be great.  I was there at the specified time and no one was around.  Well the German Shepherd was, but he didn't speak Spanish.  I thought I would use the time to try out the dance floor.  Well, it took me another five minutes after I was done dancing to figure out how to stop.  Obviously there is a learning curve, but I just don't have the time nor desire to figure it out.  Call me crazy, but I think there are better ways to expand the classroom (I just don't know what they are yet).  I thought I would give
Second Life another shot by checking out the ancient ruins at Machu Picchu.  Sorry, but again Second Life failed... miserably.  There is no a way a computer generated image can compete with that of the ancient ruins.  I think having my students use Google Earth would be a much better way to discover the location.

Maybe some will want to use this in their classrooms.  I obviously will not be using Second Life anytime in the near future.   After teleporting to numerous locations looking for something that might be educational.  I even checked out Eagle Island.  Apparently that is a pretty cool place because all of my classmates enjoyed lounging on a hammock.  I don't know, I saw their screen shots, so I checked it out.  Give me a real hammock any day but laying on a hammock in a digital world?  I just don't get it.  I am a live in the moment kind of gal.  I can enjoy a good video game because there is a point, but you will never catch me living a second life in a computer generated world.  Facebook is the closest I will come to that.