Education in Second Life

I was presenting at a conference last week, talking about Web 2.0 and other emerging (or emerged) technologies, where one of the other presenters was a specialist in Second Life and virtual worlds in general.

The audience was universities and business schools from around Europe, some already undertaking some kind of e-learning in Second Life, with others unsure as to whether or not they should start.

There are, I think, three areas where a business school or other educational establishment can gain value from Second Life:

a. by getting residents of the virtual world to sign up to courses in Second Life (etc.) and for all the classes to take place within that environment (of course there is a huge issue of how one can be sure who they are teaching/assessing/examining?)

b. by using the virtual world to hold some (all?) sessions/conferences/classes that have been signed up to in the real world. This option allows the possibility of conferences, etc., to be held without the need for participants to cross the globe physically.  But what value can be gained from this compared to using a simpler 'WebEx' facility, with VoIP communications?

c. marketing - simply to have a marketing representative and/or marketing collateral in the virtual world to help sell the real-life services to people who are inhabiting the virtual world.

I can see the potential of all three options, but am not endeared to undertaking classes in that way myself. One of the problems is that my perfectly good computer is unable to show Second Life (I've tried. It crashes).... and I am not keen to update the computer for the sake of one application which is by no means critical.

And perhaps I am out of the age group (the digital natives, or Gen Y) who will eventually adopt virtual worlds as completely natural obvious things.   I have a real life.  I like to meet my real friends (such as they are) in real spaces to drink real drinks, eat real food and watch real theatre or other shows.  I spend all day in front of the computer, do I want to spend my free time in front of the screen?

No.

But when cheap TVs also are able to adopt the role of computers (wireless keyboards etc.) and one can indulge easily (i.e. without buying the latest kit) in exploring virtual worlds as a leisure activity - as something you can do with others (two people using the same computer from the same sofa?) - then I think things will change. 

At the moment virtual worlds encourage the paradoxical situation of deliberately isolating yourself in the real world to be able to mix with people in the virtual one.  If you're already alone, fine, but if you're not, what on earth would bring you to play in such an environment?