To teach a class in the virtual Second Life world referred to as inworld faculty are renting or buying space, buying or building models of the subject they intend to teach, and inviting the class to meet partially or entirely in Second Life. Some professors are encouraging their students to explore Second Life and interview other residents about their experiences. A few students are developing thesis material from specific aspects of the environment.
Teaching inworld has many of advantages:
Teaching inworld has many of advantages:
- The professor can illustrate points visually as well as verbally with minimum effort. A chemistry professor's animation of an excited electron or a simulated discussion with a fictional or historical personage are two examples of the advantages of teaching inworld.
- Distance learning becomes much more feasible when students from around the world can log in and interact as if they were sitting next to each other.. When a virtual class requires a three-dimensional representation of a molecule, it can dispense with the chairs, tables, and elaborate decorations, to make the environment more accessible by remote users
One of the odd aspects of Second Life is the intuitive feel that one is face to face with the other people involved, to an extent unmatched by email, instant messaging, or telephone. Courses taught in Second Life capitalize on this togetherness and provide an online environment in which widely geographically separated people can enjoy an experience that comes as close as currently possible to replicating the social aspects of the classroom.
There are dozens of current classes and educational uses of Second Life. One example is Harvard's ground-breaking class, Law in the Court of Public Opinion. This unusual course is an attempt to create a class that includes Harvard law students, extension students, and the general public, all with different expectations and degrees of involvement. The multimedia nature of Second Life is used both to teach the class more effectively for students of all types, and to provide a number of easily available media through which to use the class techniques.
This class is being taught through Moodle, an online course management system, which has its own presence in Second Life, called Sloodle. The Sloodle system provides inworld classroom space, resources, and tools that connect directly to Moodle, adding a new dimension to the power of online education.
These visual demonstrations can range from the simple (a static image of a geometric solid for a geometry class) to the incredibly complex.
There are dozens of current classes and educational uses of Second Life. One example is Harvard's ground-breaking class, Law in the Court of Public Opinion. This unusual course is an attempt to create a class that includes Harvard law students, extension students, and the general public, all with different expectations and degrees of involvement. The multimedia nature of Second Life is used both to teach the class more effectively for students of all types, and to provide a number of easily available media through which to use the class techniques.
This class is being taught through Moodle, an online course management system, which has its own presence in Second Life, called Sloodle. The Sloodle system provides inworld classroom space, resources, and tools that connect directly to Moodle, adding a new dimension to the power of online education.
These visual demonstrations can range from the simple (a static image of a geometric solid for a geometry class) to the incredibly complex.