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/29
83/co-founder-of-second-life-says-academics-are-biggest-trai
lblazers-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 iastate.edu
There is Nothing More Powerful Than An Idea Whose Time Has
Come
Victor Hugo
[ h
ttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09093368136660604490 ]
Iowa: Where the Tall Corn Flows and the (North)West Wind
Blows
[ http://al
ternativeenergyblogs.blogspot.com/ ]
---
____
2008 Annual Meeting
People Transforming Information - Information Transforming
People
October 24-29, 2008, Columbus, Ohio
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