Virtual Learning Community and Second Life

"A few months back, at the beginning of the semester, National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) made an award to Babson College and the Sloan Consortium to develop a virtual (business) incubator in Second Life. Students in this class would engage in research and development that had the potential of making a significant difference in the field of entrepreneurship globally."

Building a community of learners can be especially challenging when working with online and distance education students. By using social networking tools like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and Second Life, we can begin to construct a community of sharing and participation that leads to enhanced satisfaction and a true sense of belonging.

Imagine designing a learning space where physics is not a barrier, or where weather, terrain, and daylight can be controlled. How about being able to change a learning space into something completely different with a mouse click? This session will look at the "Mildly Wild West" that is virtual environments.

The use of virtual worlds expands on the campus-based and online classrooms, enhancing learning experiences. Classes in virtual worlds offer opportunities for visualization, simulation, enhanced social networks, and shared learning experiences.

Virtual worlds can become an important tool in an educator’s arsenal. But using this tool requires a shift in thinking and an adjustment in pedagogical methods that will embrace the community, the fluid identity, and the participation—indeed, the increased conversation—that virtual spaces can provide.

Literature Alive! in Second Life creates immersive literary environments that have redefined the ways literature is shared in virtual environments.

Beyond the capabilities that virtual worlds offer us at the moment, it is the possibilities that we can imagine for the future that may be the most compelling. Virtual worlds technology, like the Internet in general, is changing the way we access and experience information and the way we can access and connect with each other.

The SUNY Oneonta Music Project started with a simple goal: to give students in Oneonta’s music industry major the opportunity to organize concerts in a virtual world.

The New Media Consortium (http://www.nmc.org/) Campus in Second Life represents the largest educational project in any virtual world, comprising the efforts of well over 120 institutions. The NMC Campus landmass includes 91 sims (islands) that the NMC owns/manages as the NMC Campus, plus another 46 that represent the work of leading educational organizations that have chosen to collocate with the project.