This 4 minute and 24 second video serves as a nice introduction to what learning in SL can look like. It would help to persuade those skeptics who aren't sure a virtual world education can be challenging. The short video shows many different SL environments and what class could look like in them.

The above link is to a paper written about the ways in which high schools can use virtual worlds to educate students or as part of supplementing high school students' education. The article addresses the value of role playing and social learning in the classroom. The author also asks teachers what has worked for them and their professional opinion about virtual worlds in the classroom. The author also addresses how video games can be educational.

My design document included an idea of connecting my senior students in Multicultural Literature class to students in another part of the country or even another part of the world. The goal of the class is to learn about other cultures and SL allows teachers to collaborate with other teachers to do this--inexpensively. The link above is to an article entitled "Student Exchange, Without the Jet Lag: Educational Collaboration in a Virtual World." The article details how students in Modesto, California connect with students in Kyoto, Japan -- it's called the Pacific Rim Exchange. They meet in Teen Second Life on a group of private islands. Eventually, these students will meet in person, however, they get to know each other virtually before they do.