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Passion communities exist, according to Gee, to “give people status and control, not always money.” He recounted the story of a young girl who began making clothes for her Sims characters. When she wanted more textures than the game provided, she taught herself to use Photoshop to create her own. Eventually, she moved to Second Life and began selling her own original designs. When asked if she planned to pursue her interest in fashion, she said no. “I want to work with computers because they give you power.”

“This is an alternative learning system that teaches more effectively than most schools,” Gee observed. “We need to learn how to organize a learning, passion system community. Game designers know how to do this.”

“Education isn't about telling people stuff, it's about giving them tools that enable them to see the world in a new and useful way.”

Gee sees broad implications for students in this regard. “Give students smart tools and let them use them and modify them to suit their purposes.” Such self-motivated learning moves students away from merely consuming knowledge and encourages them to produce knowledge and apply it in meaningful ways.

Gee clearly situates video games within an overall theory of learning and literacy with genuine power to transform students and equip them to address complex problems.

Finally, as students become active participants in virtual world classes, the student who is on “cruise control” is at risk. Students shift from being passive listeners to engaging in group interaction and activities and demonstrating that they understand the course content via the completion of projects, papers, labs, and case studies. Many classes that include case studies use role-play, putting learners in roles and contexts in which they explore the content and make decisions based on the forces and constraints placed on them. One example of a class role-play is shown in Figure 2, which depicts Ramapo’s immersive literature activity in which Suffern Middle School students enact the courtroom scene from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. The students’ exploration of the content benefits from this social learning environment.

In their “lessons learned” papers, the students noted that the virtual world classes enhanced their learning experience and their perceptions of self and gave them new skills to demonstrate their mastery of the course content. The sense of presence and the customization of their avatars were high on their list of priorities for learning and participating in virtual world classes.

Classes in virtual worlds offer opportunities for visualization, simulation, enhanced social networks, and shared learning experiences. Some people learn best by listening to the course content, others by seeing and visualizing the content in context, and the rest by using a hands-on approach to demonstrate course competencies. In virtual worlds, we can leverage a mix of content and activity to support all learners: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Virtual worlds support these different learning styles and give students opportunities to explore, discover, and express their understanding of the subject. Naturally, the tool’s capabilities do not guarantee a great learning experience. The success of a course depends on effective course design, delivery, and assessment. Course designers, instructors, and IT professionals are challenged to create stimulating content, deliver it reliably, and ensure a stable virtual world learning environment. Do the benefits outweigh the risks associated with venturing into a virtual world educational platform? For me, the virtual world is my preferred learning and teaching environment. And I am not alone. Over 400 universities and 4,500 educators participate on the Second Life Educators List (SLED).1 All of us are studying how to leverage the benefits of learning in a virtual world in order to assist our students in today’s educational frontiers.

The estate must be purchased by the final owner of the estate, not by a developer - because of permissions and other issues, an estate cannot be transferred in the Teen Second Life. In addition, if you are building for an educational or non-profit organization, if a developer buys it, they'll be billed the full rate rather than the education rate.

Linden Lab does not do content creation. We recommend you use a developer listed in the Teen Second Life Directory who has prior experience creating projects in the Teen Second Life.

You can request one online at ascertainsi.com. Or, contact : Ascertain Screening and Investigations, LLC 110 North High Street, Suite 201 Gahanna, Ohio 43230 614.858.0100 Dee Igo -- [Digo@Ascertainsi.com] There is a fee, which must be paid by the developer. It's about $40 in the US and $70 outside the US (fees subject to change).

If your instructors are members of bona-fide educational institutions, they've already been background checked by the institution, and we can substitute verification from the institution for background checks by our agency. Otherwise, each instructor needs a background check.

Linden Lab automatically will list any Developer who is already in the Directory; if you are not already in the Directory, you need to submit a Directory entry. Teens may submit a Teen Second Life Directory listing at any time.