Pleased was I to come back from my travels to discover an article in techno-social-lifestyle online/offline mag Wired about the latest in virtual world Second Life's bid to take over the hearts and minds of the universe. Last week I blogged about an area in the online space which simulated the experience of schizophrenia for players who wished to explore visual and aural hallucinations from a safe but curious distance. This week the "game" is the medium for the latest in educational attainment.
Returning to uni after (cough) years I was both horrified and thrilled to discover how much learning and labour could now be done from the comfort of my office chair, far from the potential humiliation of behind-the-hands tutters of my fellow students at one of my regular academic gaffs. Personal issues aside, one of the greatest things the internet provides the erudite is incredible digital access to libraries, journals, papers, luminaries and unpublished (but still valid) research from across the globe. Indeed, distance learning - a phenomenon I'm still sceptical of - is now a valued method of educational exchange.
So it was almost inevitable that online spaces, like Second Life, could become areas in which pupils and professors could gather and interact...educationally. Hooray! It's not just research liggers like myself who recognise that such spaces could be valuable. Linden Lab, Second Life's creators are proactively promoting the practice by distributing free accounts to teachers at universities and colleges for their students to use, in tandem with classwork, homework and (ahem) eventual subscription fees.
Among those institutions who are already embroiled are top 20-standing US school Vassar College, Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, University of Texas at Austin and San Francisco State, and curricula includes urban planning. From my own slant, I can't wait until psychology is added to the list.
Considering Second Life has a thriving adult community, seminars could prove to be rather eventful.
