Diving into a virtual sea: exploring the philosophy behind and implementation of an academic second life model

• Authors: Johanna S. Brams
• Venue: Proceedings of the 38th annual ACM SIGUCCS fall conference: navigation and discovery
• Year: 2010

Why would a professor want to use a virtual environment like Second Life? How can a university effect a virtual, immersive, digital environment using solid, interactive and constructive pedagogy. We present a model for those interested in virtual worlds or immersive learning by discussing the pedagogical rationale and nuts-to-bolts narrative of how Lehigh University conceived of, designed, constructed and continues to evolve its own successful interactive island in Second Life. This paper includes a brief synopsis of the historical and philosophical context of Second Life, especially focusing on alternative pedagogical approaches. We continue with research we conducted before we began building, the rationale of our process of design and construction, how faculty became involved, the context in which we integrated their ideas, the method by which we chose the projects, and the tools we ultimately applied on the site. At this juncture, many people agree that some form of virtual immersive environment similar to Second Life will be key to the future of higher education. We discuss some of the research on virtual environments and its application to learning. Our paper will be applicable for those seeking to implement such a tool