Utilizing the Platform of Second Life to Teach Future Educators

Instructors and students were required to redefine the role they take in the classroom, essentially being asked to manage a paradigm shift. The task required the abandonment of established ways of practice and the development of new constructivist strategies of learning. Based on our instructional experiences in a virtual world i.e. Second Life, we address the following questions: (1) What are the required pedagogical outcomes underpinning the curriculum? (2) How does the curriculum design redefine the habits and modes of experience that have previously been taken for granted as instructional best practice? (3) What are the results in terms of the distribution of authority and whose knowledge counts? Specifically, the intent of this paper is to identify how learning through a virtual world (Second Life) impacted opportunities for learning from the perspective of the instructors, the students, and the technologists providing expertise, support, and guidance.