‘Second Life,’ 2nd campus?

Educators are beginning to explore the idea of virtual worlds like Second Life as learning environments, CNN reports. People socialize, buy and sell products, advertising, and real estate, build stores, design clothes, and even operate news bureaus (e.g., Reuters in Second Life) in alternate-reality games like Second Life and Entropia – why not take classes? “More than 60 schools and educational organizations have set up shop in the virtual world and are exploring ways it can be used to promote learning. The three-dimensional virtual world makes it possible for students taking a distance course to develop a real sense of community,” CNN cites one educator as saying. The article is referring mostly to educators at the college level, it appears, which is probably good, because virtual worlds often include red light districts. Second Life’s parent Linden Labs created an ostensibly safer Teen Second Life for that reason. Who knows? They may also see some virtual (or real) regulation at some point, at least where minors are present (see “Lively alternate lives” and “Games’ shadow economy”). [One thing’s for sure: virtual worlds and gaming community need to be part of the online-safety and -privacy discussion.] Back to education: In the K-12 area, a writer at Wisconsin Technology Network considers the question: “Is it realistic to expect educators to adopt video games in the classroom anytime soon?”; the article has all kinds of links to in-depth discussions on this. And here are a teacher’s thoughts on where teachers can social (and professional) network right now.