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Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World Cynthia M. Calongne (“Lyr Lobo”) The use of virtual worlds expands on the campus-based and online classrooms, enhancing learning experiences. Classes in virtual worlds offer opportunities for visualization, simulation, enhanced social networks, and shared learning experiences.

Looking to the Future: Higher Education in the Metaverse Chris Collins (“Fleep Tuque”) Beyond the capabilities that virtual worlds offer us at the moment, it is the possibilities that we can imagine for the future that may be the most compelling. Virtual worlds technology, like the Internet in general, is changing the way we access and experience information and the way we can access and connect with each other.

Drawing a Roadmap: Barriers and Challenges to Designing the Ideal Virtual World for Higher Education Chris Johnson (“ScubaChris Wollongong”) When using a roadmap, one can take many different paths to reach a desired destination. Similarly, institutions can take many different turns along the road to implementing an ideal virtual world for higher education.

Alan Levine, New Media Consortium: The NMC Campus P. F. Anderson and Marc R. Stephens, University of Michigan: Wolverine Island Mary Anne Clark, Texas Wesleyan University: Genome Island Chris Collins and Ronald W. Millard, University of Cincinnati: Galapagos Islands in Second Life Ben Digman, University of Kansas Medical Center: KUMC Isle Larry Dugan, Finger Lakes Community College, and Terry Keys, Monroe Community College, SUNY LIVE Michael Gardner and John Scott, University of Essex, and Bernard Horan, Sun Microsystems: MiRTLE Adrienne Gauthier and Christopher Impey, University of Arizona: ASTR202, Exploring Life in the Universe Anne P. Massey, Indiana University, and Mitzi Montoya, North Carolina State University: Managing the Services Lifecycle Janet Nepkie, James Greenberg, and Harry E. Pence, State University of New York at Oneonta: SUNY Oneonta Music Project Ulrich Rauch, University of Trinidad and Tobago, and Tim Wang, Marvin Cohodas, and Negin Mirriahi, University of British Columbia: Arts Metaverse Beth Ritter-Guth, The Hotchkiss School, Laura Nicosia, Montclair State University, and Eloise Pasteur, Eloise Pasteur Educational Designs: Literature Alive!

Third, a secure multi-age virtual world would provide educators with a rich environment in which to study instructional practices.

Individuals using computer resources belonging to The University of Arizona must act in a responsible manner, in compliance with law and University policies, and with respect for the rights of others using a shared resource. The right of free expression and academic inquiry is tempered by the rights of others to privacy, freedom from intimidation or harassment, protection of intellectual property, ownership of data, and security of information.” Although this policy seems fairly straightforward, the ten “Acceptable Use Guidelines” meant to clarify this policy instead introduce confusion. For example, Guideline 3, which instructs the computer user to “clearly and accurately identify one's self in electronic communications,” adds: “Do not forge or misrepresent one's identity. Concealing or masking the identity of electronic communications such as altering the source of an email message by making it appear as if the message was sent by someone else is a violation of this policy.”14 So a student knows that altering the sender of an e-mail is against policy, but what about creating an avatar? And what about the faculty member who asks students to create an avatar with a totally fictitious name? Are the faculty member and the students in violation of this policy?

an instructional technologist at the University of Arizona,was supporting the implementation of Second Life in a General Education class. She was concerned about the interesting style of dress, or lack thereof, that is often seen in Second Life and felt she needed to develop a dress code for the virtual class.15 But when the vice-provost for instruction and I were discussing the process for modifying the current dress code of the university, we discovered that the university does not even have a dress code for everyday life.16

For example, at the University of Arizona, faculty have expressed frustration because they cannot learn how to sit down in virtual worlds or because they cannot figure out how to correctly set the hair on their avatar. Because of these frustrations, they tend not to invest the time needed to explore the world as an instructional resource. However, as the NMC’s Levine has pointed out: “In our first life, it generally takes us maybe eighteen years . . . to get to be fully functional adults. It’s an evolutionary process. A virtual world that had a short learning curve would be something not very interesting. So I think an ideal virtual world needs some of that complexity.”17 The challenge thus becomes how to select a virtual world that has the necessary complexity to keep users engaged while developing strategies and structures to support them as they learn.

Even more important is that if an institution wants to implement a virtual world of any type, it needs to convince faculty that the early adopters are, in fact, not all mad and that the tool does have value. Instruction may just be in a form with which the faculty is unfamiliar. Therefore the institution must begin by offering faculty, staff, and students the time and support to perform simple tasks like learning how to navigate the environment. Faculty must then be assisted in visualizing something outside of their understanding of what it means to be a teacher.

Perhaps as important as setting goals and providing resources is developing realistic assessments of the project’s success. For example, in a virtual world such as Second Life, what are the metrics that will be used to determine the institution’s return on investment?