Foundation Studies (Bridging Education) is a cool initiative to help jobseekers in New Zealand to learn the skills and steps it takes to find employment. In this economic climate, anything that can help you get a step up is surely welcome.
An initiative of the Second Life Education New Zealand Project, Foundation Studies is intended to "provide the basic building blocks and the scaffolding to enable students to enter and succeed in their selected career pathway." Learning activities include selecting the proper outfit for your interview, running through various interview scenarios, and developing a strategy for job hunting.
Looking at the video, it's unclear to me what the value of using a virtual environment is over doing these activities in person with your students and facilitators. Are these students connecting virtually with actual experts in their chosen fields who are doing the trainings and running the interviews? Are there job seeking scenarios that would be difficult to replicate in the real world?
I'd love the facilitators to chime in in the comments section, if they can clarify. And if there are other job search resources in the virtual world, I'd love to hear about them.
Update and reply after the jump...
YouTube User Briarmelle, who seems associated with the project, replies to my question about the added value of Second Life as a platform:
There are a number of advantages using SL for these exercises.
Firstly, there is the ability to have all the students actively involved in role-plays and interview practise at the same time. Then there is the advantage of being able to link classes of students, pairing students off with interviewers they don't know, inviting in guest interviewers.
A huge advantage is the relative safety that students feel when they first role-play in SL - their avatar allows them to be just that bit more confident, more prepared to take a risk and open themselves to the experience. Students have commented that the experience seems very real and this is hard to achieve in the classroom.
Interesting how a simulated environment in Second Life can "seem more real" than a real life classroom. I get it, though.
