The new trend in online education involves students acting through animated characters, called avatars, mingling in simulated school settings and even rocketing off, via the internet, 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 created by Linden Lab in San Francisco.

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,” professor Jeremy Kemp says. “I can send a student in to have an experience in an unstructured environment, and then they come out and have a conversation about it.”

Thirty students signed up for Kemp’s 15-week virtual world class, which included learning about the application that drives 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.

“We’re experimenting with using Second Life to prepare students to face the terror of public speaking,” Kemp says. “That’s very difficult to do in any other way.”

While Kemp’s class simulations are unconventional, industry analysts say … Read the rest of this entry »