Post-Modernism

One of the features of post-modernism that is present in the trailer “games of war” is “simulacrum”: the separation of signifier from signified (outer reality.) The plot of the movie is that a teenager hacks accidentally a government’s computer thinking that it is a video game.  The boy starts playing what he believes is just a game about thermonuclear war. On the other hand, the government receives information from their computers, which were hacked by the boy, indicating that they are under attack.  Broadly speaking, in the trailer we can see this impossibility to tell the difference between the video game (that would stand for the signifier) and the reality (that would stand for the reality). It is as if reality has no “real substance” which distinguishes it from a game.
  As for the video “the educational uses of second life,” there we can find several applications of second life in education. This video would be related to the Post-Modern idea that technology will determine social interaction in the future, and that any knowledge in order to be considered as such, must be digitalized. Another important Post-colonial idea reflected in this video is that knowledge must be functional. In second life, students can choose what they want to learn or what they think it would be useful for them.   In addition to that, students can experience learning in a more real (or virtual) way. For instance, instead of memorizing the name of certain battles in the past, they can experience them. Finally, it is important to mention that this way of learning in second life is a clear example of what happens in post-modern area: the individualization. That is to say, that one approach is not equally effective to everyone; different approaches can work with different people. And that is clearly what second life does: customize the learning experience to meet each student’s needs.