Actually, it was Dennis Newson, one of the most active members of or SLexperiments group, who got me thinking about this.

I firmly believe that we can all make a difference together.

Prensky’s point is an interesting one and I agree. You do have a feeling of real presence in SL. This is quite different from online virtual classes (although, conducted well, these can give participants a real group feeling, too).

I have a bit of a problem with the widely used terms “digital natives” and “digital immigrants”. My problem is actually not so much the terms themselves but the underlying definition that “digital immigrants” have more problems learning and coping with the new tools like SL or Web 2.0. According to my age, I belong to the immigrants but I do not feel handicapped because of that. My generation has the advantage that we do know the pre-digital times and were there when everything developed. The digital world and tools didn’t suddenly materialise, it was a development.

To give you an example, of what I mean: I trained as a photographer and when I started with digital imaging, it was much easier for me to understand how things worked because I knew about the underlying principles, I knew what happened to a film when it was developed, etc. I could transfer this knowledge to digital imaging because the software was based on these principles. The only thing I needed was to learn how to use the new tools. Some of the young trainees in our digital imaging company, the so-called “digital natives” were fast in learning how to operate the tools but because they had no background knowledge it was difficult for them to produce good results. So we needed to teach them the background to help them understand the tools.

I believe teachers like you, who are experienced professionals and use new tools can guide the digital natives to make good use of these tools.

But I totally digressed from the topic now

So, what you are saying is that in a teacher training course for SL it is important to talk about the advantage (strengths) an disadvantages (weaknesses) of using SL for teaching.

I absolutely agree with you. Simply using a new tool, which SL is for me, because it is available will not lead to improved teaching or learning.