Virtual Worlds

I have never been apart of any virtual worlds.  They have never seemed that appealing to me.  Besides that, I've always had a pretty busy lifestyle.  If I'm on the Internet, I'm already spending too much time on Facebook, so the last thing I need is something else that I'm sure is very time consuming.

I'm kind of on the fence about virtual worlds having a place in education.  Reading some of the examples the books, they seem like they could be useful.  There seems to be a lot of educational ones that can reinforce what the students are learning.  Some also include ways for students to publish their work.  In the schools I like they could be a good tool to have.  I just wouldn't want it to become something that kids find themselves spending hours in outside of class.  I think there is already a lot of enticing games out there that consume a lot of their time.  Sometimes it seems like kids have lost the fun of going outside and running around or doing whatever.  Anymore, it seems like they just want to be in front of a television, a computer, or some kind of hand-held gaming device.  I don't know, is see valid pros and cons of both sides.  I'm not sure what I'll think about it when I have my own classroom.