This month Harvard held a conference devoted to immersive education - learning in virtual "worlds" such as Second Life. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that demonstrations included "face-to-face" classroom interaction using life-like avatars and course field trips to ancient worlds. Here's a blurb:
"Immersive Education [is a] multimillion-dollar project to build virtual-reality software exclusively for education within commercial and nonprofit fantasy spaces like Second Life. The project combines interactive three-dimensional graphics, Web cameras, Internet-based telephony, and other digital media.At the meeting, Aaron E. Walsh, founder of the nonprofit endeavor and an instructor at Boston College, and two other researchers showed a gathering of about 40 people how virtual spaces can do more than entertain.
Their goal is to build three-dimensional, interactive lessons that will grab students' attention in the same way that popular computer games like World of Warcraft do - but without the violence and titillation associated with many online games."
Immersive education may be a positive experience for people who enjoy the virtual realm. As one who gets bored after the first five minutes in a video game or virtual world, give me a website or book any day.
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