An internet fantasy universe teeming with faux worlds devoted to socializing and video games is expanding to include virtual classrooms and universities. A new trend in online education involves students acting through animated characters called “avatars” mingling in simulated school settings and even rocketing off, via the net, on quests for knowledge. San Jose State University in the heart of Silicon Valley has built a campus at Second Life, the popular virtual world. The virtual university spans 16 digital acres dotted with school buildings that Library Sciences Department students use for classes and experiments. “When I teach with Second Life, I think of it as an experience generator,” university professor Jeremy Kemp said. “I can send a student in to have an experience in an unstructured environment, and then come out and have a conversation about it.” Thirty students signed-up for Kemp's 15-week virtual-world class, which includes learning about the application driving the Second Life program. “I ask them to volunteer on (an in-world ) reference desk, or take a tour of Second Life with snapshots,” he said. “Students can even design a library program with a speaker and invite the public.” Kemp is trying to simulate real world experiences by building virtual buildings and audiences so students can learn in realistic, but safe and controlled, settings. The University of Phoenix specializes in long-distance learning in the US and is among schools that invested in virtual property without developing it, according to Provost Adam Honea. “It's not that we don't think Second Life is good, it's that we can't fit what we've already done into it,” Honea said. Instead, the University of Phoenix has created its own immersive environments, such as a fictitious company websites that contain realistic documents for business students to analyze.
