Introducing Second Life, a 3D virtual world, to students and educators

Abstract

Three-dimensional virtual worlds are multimedia, simulated environments, often managed over the Web, which users can “inhabit” and interact via their own graphical self-representations known as “avatars”. Second Life is the most widely used 3D virtual world in education. In this paper we discuss our experiences of introducing Second Life to students and educators and imparting to them the skills required to interact within the 3D environment. We also discuss the resources that we developed to support their induction and training.