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In another session Shailey Minocha and Rita Tingle discussed the importance of a sense of presence and a sense of place which are harder to achieve in a 2D environment. They also suggest from their research that activities in Second Life don’t actually enhance learning in themselves but by creating a sense of community and common purpose they can build motivation in learners which then leads to better learning.

it’s amazing how included you feel…I would never have been able to take part in the activities offered by the OU if they hadn’t been in Second Life…everyone joins in and really helps me learn

The avatar becomes an extension of the self and people in her Glasgow evening classes call each other by their avatar names. Kath feels that people’s identity is more real in Second Life somehow than in their Facebook presence.

If you thought Facebook represented the mainstream face of newsfeeds, 3rd party identity authentication, etc. just imagine what Yahoo! could do. The only question is whether the giant company will move fast enough - Facebook is very close to having stolen its thunder already. Yahoo! has been talking about "opening up" and integrating social data across its sites for months, Facebook tends to be much, much faster at taking action and innovating.

And so, we should teach this new generation to move beyond embarrassment and fear. This is not to condone manifestly insolent behavior online, rather in teaching the qualities -- the unique qualities -- of the globally connected public square, we should be instilling in students both a strident determination to take part in the unadulterated public debate and yet have humility.I think both are achieved through the crucial practice of critical thinking and earnest self-analysis. And no where, if sincerely met with daily conviction, can both be better employed than in the practice of blogging.

And so, I firmly believe that all teachers should be bloggers. Because if Descartes is wrong, then the thrust of our identity is determined not by our inalienable and essential state of being but by the differences in idea and sense that we demonstrate through our interactions with others.