"If it just wasn't so hard..."

It is a conversation I see taking place every day in blogs and threads related to Second Life...someone concerned about how difficult Second Life is to learn and use. Sometimes it is a simple sharing of frustration, while other times it is a rant targeting those evil developers who could make it easier if they wanted too. It's a popular topic. So, now it's my turn.

Why is Second Life difficult to learn? Well, I'll just say now that I don't believe that SL IS more difficult to learn than anything else new we come to in life. I'll say more about that in a future post, but for now, I will state the one part of Second Life that I DO believe is very difficult to learn.

The hard part of Second Life to learn is the part about having to give things up. This is hardest for educators, business leaders, and other people who have built a profession around beliefs and practices that they "know". Second Life challenges you to give up those things, and open your mind to some very different possibilities that exist only in a virtual environment platform. To be as successful in the virtual environment, you have to be willing to give up some (maybe most) of those things you bring to it.

To create the most meaningful learning activities in Second Life, educators have to be willing to give up the idea of "classes", and "lectures"...and the other things that depend on a closed, top-down delivery of education. (NOTE: most of these things wouldn't be bad to give up in either world actually). Educators need to be willing to give up the traditional instructional design approaches, and be open to the possibilities that come from a global platform of brain-engaging experiences that can TranceForm learning.

Business leaders need to be willing to give up pre-conceptions about how 'business' is done...even if those practices have been very successful in the carbon-based world. The V-world is different. Different opportunities abound. Only by being willing to give up the old views will we be able to see the new ones that exist.

Note one very important thing. I said we have to be "willing to give up" those things...I never said we actually and fully HAD to give them up. We have to be willing enough to let our beliefs be questioned and challenged. We have to be willing to allow ourselves to enter the environment AS a learner, rather than as a teacher/leader. We have to be open to allow the experience to reach us...to spend some time feeling lost...to slowly and step-by-step create our new understanding of the environment, and of ourselves.

When we become willing to give up our pre-conceptions, we will see fewer empty buildings and classrooms in Second Life. We will see fewer debates over which platform is "best" for learning. We will see fewer empty shops, fewer failed attempts to "do business" in-world.

The hardest part about Second Life? It's not about Second Life at all, it's all about us.