Second Life as a partial answer?

If you've read the posts about the videos below (students holding up signs etc to convey impressions of how education isn't working for them) then is educational engagement via Second Life a partial answer? Well, maybe, but only partial. But here is a short positive video on just this issue. Go Go Joe!

Second Life: Graphic Gripe

I'm not about to complain that I'm in a part of Second Life where the action it too graphic (because I'm not) but I am about to whinge about the fact that if I now try to launch Second Life it tells me that my video card is out of date or unsupported.

That'll be the exact same video card that has run perfectly well every time until tonight?

Playing around with technology always involves a certain degree of pain but things like this are just so annoying. To put it mildy���

Second Strife!

I saw a great article in The Guardian on Saturday about the current strife in Second Life as people (in the guise of their avatars) protested against the new SL HQ of the French far right. Protests escalated as avatars began fighting with stun guns, exploding pigs, and even a holographic Thomas the Tank Engine.

Who couldn’t be excited by this? Beneath the bizarre facades is a serious battle but the list of protagonists, and their weapons, reads like a scene from an unpublished Michael Moorcock novel. Fantastic and fantastical stuff!

See extensive coverage here (which is where credit for the Thomas image is also due)

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/01/stronger_than_h.html