First of all, I have little to no experience in game-based learning and I am looking forward to learning a lot this semester. I am only a second year teacher and I have found in just my fourth semester of teaching that my students respond very well when we play some sort of game in class. I have done anything from Jeopardy, to Who Wants to be a Millionaire, to simple versions of group games. I have found that as long as I keep a close watch on the students, they stay engaged in the game and are more drawn into the content. My concern in this area is that the students start caring more about 'winning' the game than the content itself. For this reason I usually use games as reviews for tests and quizzes as opposed to a traditional lesson.
This Second Life program is brand new to me and I think it is quite fascinating. I feel that students would be more attracted to distance learning as you can truly interact with your classmates. My first concern during our first lesson was how easy it would be for me to sit my avatar down, then just periodically come back to my computer and add comments. This concern was quickly answered when one of the instructors said he overcomes this by having the avatars stand up at random points of the lectures. This seems like a great way to give students a participation grade. Anyway, I hope to learn a lot this semester and look forward to getting input from you all as well!
