By ANDREA L. FOSTER
Harvard University plans to hold its first class in a “virtual world” this fall, using a video-gamelike environment called Second Life.
Charles Nesson, a renowned professor at Harvard Law School, is teaming up with his daughter, Rebecca Nesson, an instructor at Harvard Extension School, to offer a course on argument in cyberspace that is open to the public through the extension school.
Second Life, a virtual world in which many people assume the identities of animated characters and roam around socializing, building virtual houses, and trading virtual goods, has become a popular teaching tool among professors because it allows students to experiment with architectural design, to study monetary policy, and to do sociology research — to name just a few educational uses — in an enclosed, relatively risk-free environment.
Read the complete Chronicle of Higher Education article.
Posted by Lorene Lavora
So how do people earn money in this virtual world? do they have to "work"
You can't Just trade goods , someone has to manufacture them, deliver them install them, if this is to be a realistic portrayal and a useful teaching tool there has to be a manufacturing base!
Do people get 'virtual sickness' and go on strike and skive off work like in the real word?
i run a basement waterproofing business and often wish that it could have the clinical cleanliness of a digital virtual reality.
Could we program the water to stop leaking into the basement?