News that education chiefs in Manchester have spent taxpayers’ money on a school in Second Life seems to be predictably provoking some outrage at the news site.
The scheme to pay £5,000 for an SL plot of land and to pay designers to create a school which children can visit and interact with is coming in for a kicking because – “it doesn’t exist”.
I find the language here problematic. Of course it exists – it exists in SL, that’s the point.
Whether or not it’s a good use of money is another debate entirely. The idea of the project looks to be a way of children interacting and being able to shape a school environment for the future.
The fact that technology allows them to collaborate and express their views in an accessible way, while also providing them with a level of computer literacy they will need for later life, looks like a project to be applauded.
According to the article, “the school was created as part of the £500m Building Schools for the Future project, which will see every secondary in the city rebuilt or completely renovated over the next decade.”
So, for a fraction of that budget, the children who will actually be using these premises, or their brothers and sisters, will get some input into what will eventually be created.
How else would you achieve such a potentially high level of engagement?
Seems like a good use of technology to me. What do you think?
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Dim Sum Digital 
It exists as much as a Web site exists.
I’m pretty anti-spending when it comes to government, but £5,000 is peanuts compared to their overall budget, and it’s worth them doing small scale research and innovation to see which ideas stick and which won’t, to improve things in the future.
I can think of 1001 worse ways that the government spends £5,000, so this doesn’t seem like a bad idea at all.
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It exists as much as a Web site exists.
I’m pretty anti-spending when it comes to government, but £5,000 is peanuts compared to their overall budget, and it’s worth them doing small scale research and innovation to see which ideas stick and which won’t, to improve things in the future.
I can think of 1001 worse ways that the government spends £5,000, so this doesn’t seem like a bad idea at all.
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I am very much an advocate that sl users should dictate what sl will do – indeed, I think that reason the “Manchester” site is not used very much is because it was built without user participation. More of that anon, no doubt …
So, from that perspective, I would be far more impressed if the kids were allowed to construct their own ideas of what a perfect classroom looks like, so that the R&D team could see if any insights thus gleaned might lead to productive areas of further research.
It has been my experience that when authority figures build impressive edifices and invite comment from those they rule, they are far more likely to hear “Wonderful, sir” than the equivalent of “Oh my God – the emperor is not wearing any clothes!” Unless the kids are out and out brats – and who wants a school designed by such brats?
I think that building something and saying “what do you think” is not the best way to get kids to think outside the box. For however unwitting, you have just given them the box inside which to think. 🙂
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