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Intelligence
Exploring Second Life

Intelligence

Exploring Second Life

Apr 03, 2007By Michael Stoner

Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins from Ball State University could be the best-known academic teaching in Second Life right now. For the basics, here is a story from the Ball State Daily News, and there is much more detail on Robbins’ own blog.

Karine Joly has written a number of posts about Second Life over at CollegeWebEditor.

Some other examples of ways in which colleges and universities are experimenting with a presence in Second Life:

Harvard Law School offered Law in the Court of Public Opinion at the Law School and in Second Life. Here’s a CNN story about this course; it offers some comments from students and other educators who are using Second Life.

Ed Lamoreaux, a professor at Bradley University, conducted a three-week multimedia course in research methods in Second Life. More here.

The azaleas are blooming at the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill. Visitors start at a virtual version of one of Chapel Hill’s best known landmarks, the Old Well.

Ohio University maintains an extensive presence on SL, with weekly podcasts, games, a student center and a beautifully staged art presentation. YouTube video promotion here.

The University of Cincinnati offers podcasts on Second Life as part of its Distance Learning and Outreach program on SL’s “EduIsland.” Other tenants include George Washington University, Johnson & Wales University, the University of Delaware and Cochise College, and Empire State College (SUNY), although some have little more than an online billboard to announce their presence.

Can a virtual fundraising event work? The American Cancer Society held its Relay for Life in Second life and mare real—almost $40K. There were more than 1,000 virtual participants. More here. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Make a Wish foundation also have a presence in Second Life.

Finally, I highly recommend the classic novel about avatars, True Names, which was first published in 1981 by mathematician and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge. A new edition was published in 2001 with essays commenting on its effects on science and fiction. Like William Gibson’s Neuromancer, this is one of the works that anyone who is seriously interested in learning about life online should read. It’s also worth taking a look at Howard Rheingold’s work, particularly Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds – and How It Promises to Transform Society.


  • Michael Stoner Co-Founder and Co-Owner Was I born a skeptic or did I become one as I watched the hypestorm gather during the dotcom years, recede, and congeal once more as we come to terms with our online, social, mobile world? Whatever. I'm not much interested in cutting edge but what actually works for real people in the real world. Does that make me a bad person?