Blog Post # 5 - Second Life

Prior to October, I had never heard of the term "second life." Yet after beginning my Internet Fundamentals and Design class here at Dominican University, I was amazed. Second Life is, in essence, its own world where you can create your own digital person (also known as an avatar). You can talk with other people from around the world, buy real estate and construct buildings. In fact you can also attend classes.

An article entitled Real Learning in a Virtual World talks about students coming together in the virtual realm of Second Life. The article comments that over 60 schools and universities and 800,000 people are learning via Second Life. The typical distance education class usually consists of visiting a website, watching videos and then emailing the teacher or posting to a discussion board. With Second Life, people can actually meet together in one space while still being miles and countries apart.

Harvard University students are even meeting in a replica of the school's law Austin Hall. Students who are registered with the school can take a class in second life for credit, but people may also take some of the Second Life classes from Harvard for free. I might just do that to say I went to Harvard; at least it would look good on a resume!