Second Life, as defined by Wikipedia, is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. Participants in Second Life must create avatars in order to participate in the virtual world. Second Life functions in real time. In a YouTube video, Dr. Clayton Christensen explains disruptive technology or innovation. He states that disruptive technology transforms a product that history was so expensive and complicated to an affordable and more accessible that a much large popular.
Second Life can displace asynchronous communication, blogs, and wikis. Thus, it is a disruptive technology, because it can provide participants with real-time collaborative and communication abilities. I believe that telecommunication systems, social networks with skyping abilities, and face time have displaced second life. Although Second Life is gaining popularity in higher education, I found little research in to support Second Life implementation in K12 education.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future technology: Disruptive technologies. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Second life. Wikipedia (2012). Retrieved October 26, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life
Brenda McKoy and Daniel Oprish