My Thought about Social Constructivism Theory

Social constructivism means that the student joins a knowledge-generating community and in collaboration with others solves real problems as part of their study. In a social constructivist environment, the teacher will himself be  facilitator to his students, as the generic skills of collaboration, problem solving and creating new knowledge are important goals by themselves.

Some Thoughts about Second Life

Second Life which is form of online social networking group  immerses users into a 3-D virtual world where the student himself  is able to create virtual objects and view simulations and exhibits, visit replications of real or imaginary places, play games, communicate with others, obtain jobs and make a virtual 3D group. Communication is through the instant messaging system to all members in the group. White boards can be used effectively for presentations. Second Life allows for many evaluation opportunities such as discussions, observations, and project-based creations.  Teachers can observe students acting out situations, participating in class, and giving presentations. Teachers can ask students to reflect upon their Second Life experiences (simulations, exhibits, interactions, etc.).  Teachers could provide students feedback by instant messaging or using an outside tool.  This type of learning environment would be supportive of the social constructivist and relativist pedagogies.  The objectivist could use Second Life to have students attend class lectures, view exhibits, and experience simulations, but they are not able to evaluate students with tests and quizzes solely using the Second Life environment.  However, teachers can post quizzes/tests in Second Life by using the Sloodle software; this is however an improvement on tapped in. I feel that the greatest obstacle here would be the technological know how as the users need to be educated on the various tools available. Every concept of second life is useful provided users know how to search. The learning environment allows for free community chatting interface. It is not a very useful learning platform for children though it presents very many challenges for the mature learners. Everything can be conceived through an avatar. Navigation into the virtual world would seriously disturb the learning environment. It is still an advanced technology and would take sometime for educators and students to get used to the simulations and 3d effects of second life. 

Some Thoughts about Tapped In

Tapped In is a virtual campus which provides online learning environment. The system is powered by a text chat tool that is very effectively used for social learning; this tool allows copy paste and other projections for a chat section. Each user and his group are provided with a chat tool, whiteboard, forum, and shared spaces for files .these can further be designed into folders. This is a very useful tool for general study but a very poor tool for objectivist as there is no linear delivery of learning patterns, any assessment tools, tests and quizzes. This can prove exciting only if the teacher makes something different with the limited virtual space given to him. The communication and information exchange and social support can be through synchronous and asynchronous medium .the absence of knowledge management is visibly seen. Since no outside interaction is possible I feel that tapped in suffers from serious limitations in the form of content and context. But It may sound very well as an excellent learning environment beyond conception and is true to the technological advancements of social networking, it cannot satisfy all aspects of a true learning platform.educatiors find this platform to be a great source of learning and developing their professional skills. Tapped In provides free online distance education programs for educators thereby allowing them also to learn the latest tools of education. It is a very useful and a good source of online learning for those who are members and are used to such learning outcomes. Traditionally this suffers from serious language barriers being one of them.