Second Life News & Events & Guides

Although this is not quite his reality, Atkinson is able to indulge his academic fantasy in Second Life.

Second Life is an online virtual world that resembles much of what exists in real life, including the people and buildings that populate it. Users of Second Life can create an alter ego, called an avatar, to explore the 3D world and they can buy land, build houses and structures, and trade in the virtual marketplace.

With millions of users world-wide and more than a hundred university campuses represented in Second Life, Atkinson says the interactive environment could change the dimensions of university classrooms and revolutionize distance education. He explored the possibilities of teaching and research in Second Life during a Teaching Support Centre workshop on Second life linden.

“This can be used as a supplement to a face-to-face course,” he says.

Although Second Life is a relatively new phenomenon – becoming publicly available in 2003 – universities such as Princeton have created exact replicas of their grounds where students can visit art galleries, attend classes and labs and drop by professor’s virtual office hours.

And Western isn’t that far behind.