Online Classrooms... Virtually Reality

VIRTUAL REALITY... it started off primitively in games like two-player Mario, and slowly became socialized in programs like The Sims, instant messengers and chatrooms. Now it's an Internet phenomenon, with whole online communities being set up & peopled by folks all over the globe.

Second Life is one such site. To be honest, I've never used it myself, since I don't tend to network online, and I always pegged it for a social networking site.

But a heap has been written about other possible uses of Second Life -- especially virtual classrooms. Gregory Lamb described in an article how Harvard University set up a Second Life classroom, attended by the students' respective avatars, for its "CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion" class. Some students were even taking the course from China and South Korea.

Suddenly, distance education can take on a new dimension. No longer would a student only be able to interact with their tutor online through email; now, you can interact with all your fellow students. There's also the potential for it being a great leveller. As demonstrated by this article, you don't necessarily have to travel to Harvard to do a Harvard course; anyone with a computer connection has the potential to participate (albeit with the university red tape). How would this affect fees? Would university become more accessible to more people?

And imagine the culture shift. Would we -- if we had the opportunity -- choose to commute to a bricks-and-mortar university every day, or simply go to our computers? Perhaps the advantages of time and cost would tip the scales in the Internet's favor. Having class in more comfortable settings are also an advantage, with students virtually able to "travel" anywhere. (Although the quote in the article of a teacher saying offhandedly that "we can have class with everyone sitting in a [virtual] hot tub" kind of freaked me out.)

And as an American, I'm also particularly interested with how this could affect the culture in the US, where travelling interstate for college is the norm, and to live on campus as soon as you hit university is the first great milestone of a person's independence. Would this change?

I can't say I'm fully in favor of online classrooms, above real ones. For me, virtual reality is more virtual than reality, and I'd much rather be with people face-to-face than with an avatar.

But if Second Life can make university accessible to people who wouldn't otherwise be able to go, or act as a substitute for some classroom situations, then I'm all for it. It will be interesting to see how learning changes and whether Second Life and similar virtual classrooms will take off.

What do you think? Would you attend a virtual class? Do you think it's a good idea?