Second Life

Without joining Second Life and setting up an avatar it is hard to really understand what is transpiring there. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do that at present. I have spent some time investigating Second Life and specifically how it is being used in an education setting. I found an article from a college in Canada that is using Second Life interactions to train future border guards. Previously, they had the students shadow real guards on duty but, since 9/11, this is no longer allowed. The college has found that the real-time interactions on Second Life provide valuable experience resulting in much higher test scores for the students.

This link is to a wonderfully instructive Voicethread presentation on Second Life and how it is being used by educators. Incidentally, the Voicethread technology is very cool and a great collaborative tool.

I don't understand how the libraries operate in Second Life other than connecting to their "first life" catalogs and web-sites. I am not sure how this particular piece of 2.0 technology would be useful in a public library setting.