Second Life - a Virtual World Experience

Second Life is what appears to be a collection of fantasies created by people around the world. The introduction article says there are no manufactured conflicts and no set objectives to the scenes in Second Life. So, it is what you make it, or what you experience as you move around in the virtual world. The experience is totally open ended. The users of the program, called residents, create or build everything. Changes can be made at any time to any part of the virtual world. When you log in, the world you were in before you left could have been destroyed or changed many times. The cost of building things in this virtual world range from just a few Lindens to thousands of Lindens. You can change the look of your avatar and participate in all kinds of activities, your imagination is your only limit – as per the writers of the article.
I have been experiencing Second Life now quite a bit and still am not able to maneuver very well in the scenes. It is a totally different experience than what you expect from a game. I am not a gamer, but I guess I am not a virtual world participant either. I do not see introducing this to any classroom, and certainly not for students to experience individually. I believe the visual content is not regulated enough and not age appropriate for young or high school children. Under strict supervision I could see a short video presentation of a few minutes showing students how it could be used to do research. Using a virtual world may provide a variety of research platforms for testing that would not involve the use of animals or testing on humans. I will continue to experience Second Life as the semester progresses and see if my opinion changes.