Pedagogy and Learning in the Virtual World of Second Life®

Second Life® is a computer-based 3-D virtual world environment that is accessible over the Internet and that features massively user-created content. Second Life (SL) involves multiple users, called “avatars,” who create and interact in a spatially-organized ecology of virtual 3-D representations of people, space, time, motion, sound, objects, topography, and tools. First made publicly available in 2003 by Linden Lab®, this 3-D virtual world environment is an emerging convergence of technologies. It represents the robust creative nature of human-centered computing with a rapidly growing population from 100 countries around the world (Linden Lab, 2007). Open virtual world platforms such as SL (that are not games, although games may be played within them), are still in their infancy, and extensive research, development, and investment are on-going as critical challenges continue to emerge.