Educational Gaming Commons

A week ago, Spanish language students teleported from the now familiar Hacienda Segunda Vida to the Al Andalus Caliphate Project, a sim that covers two islands and re-creates the largest historical site in Andalucía, Spain, the Alhambra. Basically, the Alhambra was the palace and governmental center of Islamic power during the years of the conquest of Spain, from about 711A.D. to 1492. The actual buildings are in Granada and command a large hilltop with gardens and intricately carved buildings with fountains, receiving halls and hundreds of rooms.

The Al Andalus sim, is a magnificent example of Second Life's ability to provide a setting, an atmosphere and a spirit of place. As I led students on a guided tour of the major parts of the Alhambra, I was struck by the authentic feel of the surroundings. Of course, there is no such thing as an exact copy of the original, but this sim is certainly faithful to the design of the Alhambra in many ways.

To get ready to visit, students visited the web page for the Alhambra in Spain and learned what it looks like and what the buildings represent. I also connected the Alhambra to the students' own experiences by noting that our American author, Washington Irving, spent some time living there when the Alhambra was in disrepair, and wrote a book of stories about his experiences called Tales of the Alhambra.

While exploring the buildings, the students visited a Mezquita, or mosque. They were instructed to take off their shoes before entering and the women put on veils, (which were conveniently located in a basket by the door), to show respect. The students were subdued and respectful during their visit and came to a better understanding of the place of Islamic culture within the Spanish tradition.

I teach in the School of Humanities and this type of experience is exactly what we want our students to have. But was it real? That depends on your definition of real. Perhaps to participate in Second Life, you must choose to "willingly suspend your disbelief," as Samuel Taylor Coleridge described one's approach to fiction. Having gone through that process of agreeing not to disbelieve, then we, at least for the time, believe. In exchange for our believing, we find ourselves participating in an internal, emotional way to the stimuli around us. What I am saying is that, though the Alhambra sim is not technically real, it does have an emotionally real aspect, and we give our permission for that to happen.

On our Spanish Chapter test a few days later, I included a page-long reading on the Alhambra in Spanish and followed with a series of questions on the reading. Approximately 98% of the class read the passage and answered every question correctly. In Second Language pedagogy, we call this kind of series of activities related to a lesson, "scaffolding." Nesting activities together provides a firm scaffold to support students when they risk reading, writing, or speaking a language. Second Life has an important place in that scaffold for student learning.