[Air-L] CHE: Academics Are Biggest Trailblazers in Virtual Worlds

[Gerry Mckiernan]

Colleagues/

Academics: Big Virtual World TrailBlazers

/Gerry

Chronicle of Higher Education

May 8, 2008
Co-Founder of Second Life Says Academics Are Biggest Trailblazers in Virtual Worlds
Cory Ondrejka, the co-founder of the virtual world Second Life who is now a visiting professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, said in a speech today that virtual worlds are here to stay, and that professors are among the most active pioneers.

“I view the academy as having been the blazing trail of adoption of virtual worlds far more than gamers or industry,” said Mr. Ondrejka, who spoke at a conference at Case Western Reserve University called Collaboration Technology and Engaging the Campus 2008. 

[ http://www.case.edu/its/collabtech08/collabtech08.html ]

Naturally, the event was broadcast within Second Life, in Case Western’s campus in the virtual world. I attended the conference virtually, and was able to ask Mr. Ondrejka what the biggest challenge for Second Life was in being able to be more than just a passing fad in higher education.

[snip]

Mr. Ondrejka said that when professors first build a virtual campus, they usually try to exactly replicate a classroom in Second Life, with desks, chairs, and walls. But then they realize that the world allows different kinds of movement and communication than the real world. “You realize that in a world where you can fly, classrooms aren’t really that useful,” he said. So professors have built new kinds of classrooms online with no roofs. “Suddenly you see this explosion of classroom forms that matches what they’re trying to teach,” he added.

[snip]

 -Jeffrey R. Young

[ http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2983/co-founder-of-second-life-says-academics-are-biggest-trailblazers-in-virtual-worlds ]

OR

[ http://tinyurl.com/5epelp ]

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu 

There is Nothing More Powerful Than  An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Victor Hugo
[ http://www.blogger.com/profile/09093368136660604490 ]

Iowa: Where the Tall Corn Flows and the (North)West Wind Blows
[ http://alternativeenergyblogs.blogspot.com/ ]



---