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WHAT KILLED TSL?

As a Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) participant and

a presenter, Experiential Learning Meets Market Research on the Teen Grid, the

wind in my sails was quickly taken out by Philip Rosendales keynote addressthat Saturday by his announcement that Linden Labs will be closing Teen Second

Life (TSL) this year (December 31, 2010), thus discontinuing a wonderfully

flawed version of a multi users virtual environment (MUVE) platform. Anyeducator involved in this virtual world will tell you that there are/were many

shortcomings to implementing the platform into the actual classroom learning

environment. Yet, it is/was the leader in providing a functional 3D MUVE

platform for in world virtual learning for 13-17 year old students, compared to

OpenSim, ReactionGrid, and a few other Second Life-like worlds. Online 2D

course 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 particular

institutions students and teachers. The availability to educators of such a vibrate world, rich in collaborative and

immersive learning possibilities, and then creating a walledgarden within an institution where particular students could interact within

the institution, thus restricting access to all others within this world, was a

contributing factors to the downfall of TSL.

Philip Rosedales primary concern with the closing of the TG was not creating a secure environment for teens, for that worked well. It wasnt that the

platform was restrictive by nature, for the creative possibilities were endless really. No, educators strangled the TG by not

convincing their local constituents, parents and ultimately the school boards,

that TSL is as safe of an environment to learn in as say, well, their own

middle school or high school classrooms, or a field trip to an urban or rural

landmark. By not communicating a total vision to their stakeholders of the

immersive educational possibly by creating an open sim, thus encouraging

collaboration between teens of many countries, and educators from many types of

diversified settings, the TG was suffocated, deprived of the rich educational

nutrients needed for growth - content. Rosedale understood this. He also

understands, as does Bill Gates now that the institution of public education is

difficult to change no impossible, in any larger context than displaying a

Barry Joseph or even a Peggy Sheehy and stating, See, look at what they are

doing; 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 their

successful program in New York City. The other few educational SLebraties within the TG needed to either blog about their escapades, and we

all know how bad educational blogs are, or capitalize off of conferences and

keynoting. While creating an interesting narrative for sure, and many are good

storytellers, no one has offered a fundamental idea on how TSL can improve student

learning 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 the

few activities shamefully marketed as being good pedagogy within TSL. By far, using technology like TSL in the classroom should

only be used when FtF is not available. For that matter, technology like the

sorts mentioned, should only be used when FtF is not readily available. Asking

students to log into TSL and then having them communicate with each other, at a

spitballs distance, is really the tragedy and outright failure of using

computer technology in classroom learning. Computer technology hasrevolutionized business because they actually do things differently than

before. Within a matter of 20-years an entire world economy, involving tens of

thousands of institutions hundreds of overnments and tens of millions of

Posted by James Fullerton on August 19, 2010 at 11:30am

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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 desks

in 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. Id rather heard

cats than coordinate and then create an extended collaboration with experts. Being a conductor of information and knowledge, rather than a sage in

the classroom, is hard stuff, if its done right. Yet TSL is/was a relatively

easy medium to use to bring teacher/students/experts together for authentic

learning experiences once Linden Lab support approved the adult in

questionweeks. 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 a

local 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 the

platform, we all failed to market its capability to change how students learn in school.

What Can Save TSL?

As Philip Rosedale bluntly stated during his keynote address to the SLCCs 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 the

entire school year. It also would have been nice of him to gather educators

around and gently announce Linden Labs decision last month. And in would have

been 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 stuck

in old world learning, not experiencing the necessary paradigm dialogs to move

forward.

For all the surprised passion of a few educational SLebrities, Rosedale understands that to change how public education does its business will take more

than the efforts of LL. Looking at his face during the day as he made his cursory stops through out the convention reminded me of a

line from a 2002 movie, The Mothman Prophecies - John Klein: I think we can

assume that these entities are more advanced than us. Why don't they just come

right out and tell us what's on their minds? Alexander Leek: You're more

advanced 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 its simply not carrying its own weight in

revenue support to justify additional scrums. Can you imagine a capital

investors meeting with the likes of Jeff Bezos types, Amazon CEO, trying to

rationalize the continuation of TSL with its average user-concurrency nearing200 at times, and on a good day, and maybe 1000 active teens. While a few

educational institutions might be bragging about their student enrollment in

the 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, lower

costs 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 a

theatrical set. And while were at it, allow educators to share entire

regions 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 to

focus on its

community, depressed economy, great Vivox voices, and mostly brand

recognition.

n Allow all educational TG sims to operate their own RegAPI, thus allowing institutions to created hundreds of limited accounts, bound to their own

island on the OpenSim-based TG. (My sim on the TG had a similar one a couple

years ago, and it worked easily. Sparta Island subsequently changed to an

open sim, and LL closed the RegAPI for lack of usage, so its very

doable.)

n Class 5 avatars for all educators it already exists. Allow educators to create their own educators access list for visiting teachers that they vouch

for.

While I have not used my class 5 status in the TG, for obvious reasons

mentioned earlier, this would allow teacher to collaborate. Education is

all about collaboration, not isolation.

n Sto Co Bottin of teen created content. Next to closed sims bein the hidden cul rit behind the death of TSL not enforcin a strict co bot olic

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acted as a cancer to the TG economy I was eyewitness to this for the

past year with an open sim. It would be as if all Americans were allowed

for copy and then print our currency at home, freely, and use it in the

economy imagine that economic mess.

Linden Labs has the potential of creating a standard for MUVE I know, dont laugh. Dissecting and cutting out a creative part of the educational

community can only do harm to the experience known as Second Life.As mentioned by Maria Korolov in her blog, the educational community folks help

drive innovation, adoption, and creativity. After gamers, educators were the

first to use personal computers, the first to switch to graphic user

interfaces, and the first to implement virtual world environments.

Historically, Apple, Inc. stuck with educators when there was little revenue

bumps available for that then struggling company. Now the educational community

is a large pie sector in their quarterly bottom line. As educators did with the

MAC, they collaborated, they shared, they created, and they slowly implemented,

both good and mostly bad pedagogical instruction (that is another article) into

the classroom-learning environment. It can happen with Teen Second Life aswell, or not.

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