Thing #10 teaching with second life

This thing has left me on the fence, I'm not sure if I am totally convinced that "pretending" to live in another life is good for children. I agree that we all grew up pretending and that stimulates the imagination, but Second life gives children images in which to pretend. I was completely sold against the idea, but wanted to give it a chance so kept searching. When I found the educational side of second life, I found myself seeing the value of using it in the classroom. After clicking on the link and seeing all of the environments to visit I thought it might be just the thing I had been looking for in connecting with a scientist. That's when I unconvinced myself again...why would I settle for showing my kids a location what is virtual when we can connect with the real location and people? The times I have used Skpye and videoconferencing to connect with places like the Grand Canyon have left the students with the same feeling. I feel like Second life "cheats" us out of the real experience. I do agree it has it's place, but not in place of the real thing.