The virtual university was high on the agenda at Sun Microsystem’s three-day Worldwide Education and Research Conference, held earlier this week in San Francisco. (I would have said “the university in cyberspace” rather than “virtual university,” had I not recently read erelevant’s recent lamentations about the death of the cyberspace concept and agreed with many of his points). The ZDNet report on the conference notes that:
Virtual worlds are already beginning to change higher education, according to several educators.
For example, more than 70 universities have built island campuses in Second Life, according to Stuart Sim, CTO and chief architect of Moodlerooms, which builds structures in virtual worlds and offers course management software. Sim said his company is currently developing tools to help universities better manage students and courses delivered in Second Life. That way, universities can have an application to control adding or removing a student avatar to the island campus, he said. The project is dubbed Sloodle.com.
Gerri Sinclair, executive director of the master’s degree program for digital media at the Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver, Canada, said her group is building a Second Life virtual campus alongside its physical one. “Our students are digital natives, and they don’t want to be reached in traditional ways. So we’re creating a virtual campus as we’re building our real campus,” Sinclair said.
Jane Kagon, director of UCLA’s Extension Department of Entertainment Studies and Performing Arts, also announced during the conference that the university has opened a Second Life island for its digital-film students.
“It’s an interesting time” to be part of gaming, noted Chris Melissinos, Sun’s chief gaming officer. “There’s an opportunity to grab this technology and new modes of communication and use them for a greater purpose.”
It’s starting to sound like universities are going to need to get a presence in Second Life. Which frightens some of us who are struggling to even get a first life.
Via Wired Campus (link).
Andy writes! 