WHAT KILLED TSL?
As a Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) participant anda presenter, Experiential Learning Meets Market Research on the Teen Grid, thewind in my sails was quickly taken out by Philip Rosendale’s keynote address
that Saturday by his announcement that Linden Labs will be closing Teen SecondLife (TSL) this year (December 31, 2010), thus discontinuing a wonderfullyflawed version of a multi users virtual environment (MUVE) platform. Anyeducator involved in this virtual world will tell you that there are/were manyshortcomings to implementing the platform into the actual classroom learningenvironment. Yet, it is/was the leader in providing a functional 3D MUVEplatform for in world virtual learning for 13-17 year old students, compared toOpenSim, ReactionGrid, and a few other Second Life-like worlds. Online 2Dcourse management systems – no comment.
What Killed TSL?
Of the near 100 educational sims created on the Teen Grid (TG) a majority were closed to all but that particularinstitution’s students and teachers. The availability to educators of such a vibrate world, rich in collaborative andimmersive learning possibilities, and then creating a walled
garden within an institution where particular students could interact withinthe institution, thus restricting access to all others within this world, was acontributing factors to the downfall of TSL.Philip Rosedale’s primary concern with the closing of the TG was not creating a secure environment for teens, for that worked well. It wasn’t that theplatform was restrictive by nature, for the creative possibilities were endless really. No, educators strangled the TG by notconvincing their local constituents, parents and ultimately the school boards,that TSL is as safe of an environment to learn in as say, well, their ownmiddle school or high school classrooms, or a field trip to an urban or rurallandmark. By not communicating a total vision to their stakeholders of theimmersive educational possibly by creating an open sim, thus encouragingcollaboration between teens of many countries, and educators from many types of diversified settings, the TG was suffocated, deprived of the rich educationalnutrients needed for growth - content. Rosedale understood this. He alsounderstands, as does Bill Gates now that the institution of public education isdifficult to change – no impossible, in any larger context than displaying aBarry Joseph or even a Peggy Sheehy and stating, “See, look at what they aredoing; we can change how students learn.”
Really, using Global Kids, a non-profit organization, as an example is not fair. For they actually only used TSL as one of many components of theirsuccessful program in New York City. The other few educational “SLebraties” within the TG needed to either blog about their escapades, and weall know how bad educational blogs are, or capitalize off of conferences andkeynoting. While creating an interesting narrative for sure, and many are goodstorytellers, no one has offered a fundamental idea on how TSL can improve studentlearning in the classroom.Virtual worlds are about collaborating with others not within our immediate face-to-face (FtF) realm. There was always something incestuous about thefew activities shamefully marketed as being good pedagogy within TSL. By far, using technology like TSL in the classroom shouldonly be used when FtF is not available. For that matter, technology like thesorts mentioned, should only be used when FtF is not readily available. Askingstudents to log into TSL and then having them communicate with each other, at aspitballs distance, is really the tragedy and outright failure of usingcomputer technology in classroom learning. Computer technology hasrevolutionized business because they actually do things differently thanbefore. Within a matter of 20-years an entire world economy, involving tens of thousands of institutions hundreds of overnments and tens of millions of
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individuals actually do things differently than before. A single institution,public education, still widely uses chalk on blackboards, still lines up desksin rows, still thinks a teacher is the content expert in a classroom.As an educator who has ever tried to involve “experts” in a long-term project-based learning assignment, 4-8 weeks, it is difficult. I’d rather heardcats than coordinate and then create an extended collaboration with experts. Being a conductor of information and knowledge, rather than a sage inthe classroom, is hard stuff, if it’s done right. Yet TSL is/was a relativelyeasy medium to use to bring teacher/students/experts together for authenticlearning experiences – once Linden Lab support approved the adult inquestion…weeks. To bring together experts from New Zealand, Kansas, Germany,and Pennsylvania, and then have these experts available to a small team of students who are involved in gathering data on preserving natural habitats in alocal wetlands area is powerful stuff!Who killed TSL? Educators killed TSL by not creating a collaborative environment for students and teachers to share ideas. Rosedale gave us all theplatform, we all failed to market it’s capability to change how students learn in school.
What Can Save TSL?As Philip Rosedale bluntly stated during his keynote address to the SLCC’s participants, concerning the closing of the teen grid on December 31, 2010 –content on the TG failed to grow as quickly as on the adult main grid (MG). Sure, it would have been nice of him to carry the TG through out theentire school year. It also would have been nice of him to gather educatorsaround and gently announce Linden Labs decision last month. And in would havebeen nice of him and LL, to create an educational sim, where educators of teens, 13-15 years old, can call their home – a sort of Grand Teen Archipelago.He did not. Probably because our pedagogical interpretation of the TG is stuckin old world learning, not experiencing the necessary paradigm dialogs to moveforward.For all the surprised passion of a few educational SLebrities, Rosedale understands that to change how public education does its business will take morethan the efforts of LL. Looking at his face during the day as he made his cursory stops through out the convention reminded me of aline from a 2002 movie, “The Mothman Prophecies” - John Klein: “I think we canassume that these entities are more advanced than us. Why don't they just comeright out and tell us what's on their minds?” Alexander Leek: “You're moreadvanced than a
cockroach
, have you ever tried
explaining
yourself to one of them?” Rosedale is no god, but maybe a demigod.
TSL was closed in part over revenue, of course, but as Rosedale stated clearly, the TG was a technological drag on the potential growth of the entire in-world community. It is difficult for LL and it’s investors to consider the TG when it’s simply not carrying its own weight inrevenue support to justify additional scrums. Can you imagine a capitalinvestors meeting with the likes of Jeff Bezos types, Amazon CEO, trying torationalize the continuation of TSL with its average user-concurrency nearing200 at times, and on a good day, and maybe 1000 active teens. While a feweducational institutions might be bragging about their student enrollment inthe thousands, how many are really active in the TG community creating content?So, what will save TSL? Here are a few summarized items pulled from the many blogging pudits thinking about what will save TSL.
n
Use an OpenSim-based Teen Grid platform operated by SL or use a trusted subcontractor that offers security, currency and grid standard, lowercosts to educators yet keeps them with LL.
n
Rewrite the licensing agreement to allow for region backups and archive retrievals. As instructional units pass, so do historical builds, like atheatrical set. And while we’re at it, allow educators to share entireregions – teachers are the biggest moochers.
n
Using OpenSim server software will allow LL to outsource the entire operation to a favored subcontractor – volunteers? Thus encouraging LL tofocus on itscommunity, depressed economy, great Vivox voices, and mostly brandrecognition.
n
Allow all educational TG sims to operate their own RegAPI, thus allowing institutions to created hundreds of “limited” accounts, bound to their ownisland on the OpenSim-based TG. (My sim on the TG had a similar one a coupleyears ago, and it worked easily. Sparta Island subsequently changed to anopen sim, and LL closed the RegAPI for lack of usage, so it’s verydoable.)
n
Class 5 avatars for all educators – it already exists. Allow educators to create their own educators access list for visiting teachers that they vouchfor.While I have not used my “class 5 status” in the TG, for obvious reasonsmentioned earlier, this would allow teacher to collaborate. Education isall about collaboration, not isolation.
n
Sto CoBottin of teen created content. Next to closed sims bein the hidden culrit behind the death of TSL not enforcin a strict cobot olic
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