the little machine that could
Image via Wikipedia
I’ve been hearing about educational institutions strategically “building a presence in Second Life”. They are sceptical about SL but worried about being left behind if it takes off. There are big technical barriers to SL uptake: fast machines needed, fast broadband needed, the need for a client plugin, proxy server access issues etc. etc. If its going to mainstream they will have to overcome these.
However there may be a more fundamental problem with SL. To illustrate consider the fable of the Nintendo Wii – the little machine that could. Once upon a time Sony Nintendo and Sega were locked in a graphics arms race – each vying to put cram more polygons per frame, more pixels per inch and more colours per pixel into their games consoles. Sega collapsed and Microsoft entered the fray, all guns blazing, sinking hundreds of millions into making their bigger, faster, stronger X-Box. The macho contest for who had the biggest and fastest chip directly reflected the target market of the machines – young men.
Nintendo’s technology was the slowest – their consoles’ 3D capability was far behind the playstation and the X-box. However Nintendo suddenly came to dominate the market with their lowly Wii. They did this by focusing on games and game-play and by bowing out of the graphics race. People want fantasy not realism, fun not features. People want to play. All kinds of people. If SL can do this it will succeed. But it won’t make poor pedagogy good.
