2nd Life

Link to online article on 2nd Life. Article will give you a good introduction to 2nd Life as well as information about how to join.

The essay is an excellent introduction to 2nd Life. While Stephanie Vie introduces 2nd Life to the neophyte, she also critiques the site and its social as well as educational uses, something I'm going to do briefly below. 

Two of the many illustrations in the article show avatars in 2nd life sitting in a re-imagined classroom. One classroom is a rock amphitheater under blue skies. The other is a set of red circles that I interpreted as mushrooms. Avatars are sitting on the mushrooms. The amphitheater looks like an open air lecture hall; the mushroom circle, a class discussion. I have to admit, I find the idea of simply moving a classroom from a physical to a digital space, then doing what you would have done in the physical space, a far from ideal way to do online learning, though I know some are using 2nd Life in more useful ways. 


http://www2.bgsu.edu/departments/english/cconline/gaming_issue_2008/Vie_Second_Life/