CCC prepares to give its students a Second Life using software program

A dozen Craven Community College faculty members spent three days this week learning about software that will allow them to take their students into an alternate Internet universe for distance-learning classes and social networking.

The faculty members participated in a workshop to learn about Second Life, a five-year-old Internet program that allows people to create a character, known as an avatar, buy objects and interact with people around the world. The program is much like the Sims, a computer game that has allowed people to create their own worlds for more than a decade.

The college plans to use the tool to reach and teach distance-education students who are immersed in technology, said Page Jones, the associate dean of distance and learning technologies and the vice president of the North Carolina Computer Instructors Association.

"We're putting an emphasis on technology at Craven," Jones said. "You must be 18 to use Second Life. You can have it downloaded, an avatar created and be in this other world in five to 10 minutes. For distance learning, it will cost students nothing to set up, and it puts you in a three-dimensional space."

That's what makes Second Life better for education than other social networking Internet sites like Facebook, said D.I. von Briesen, who led the workshops and is an information technology employee at Central Piedmont Community College.

Von Briesen said people who use Second Life can buy things such as lamps, own pieces of land called islands, watch lectures around the world and wear headsets to talk to each other. He said people use real money to buy things. A third of a penny in real money equals $1 in Second Life.

"Unlike where you're just chatting, it's like you're actually there with the person you're talking to," von Briesen said. "There's proximity and a feeling. It's psychological, and we do things to make us comfortable much like we would in the real world. You wouldn't get those on Facebook."

Betty Hatcher, an English instructor at Craven, said she believes Second Life will be useful for networking and learning from other community college faculties across the country.

Murdina MacDonald, a Spanish instructor, said she sees Second Life as a place for her students to practice the language with people who speak it in other parts of the world. MacDonald said people have created Spanish city replicas on Second Life, and she could take her students to those cities without leaving Craven County.

"It's a great cultural tool," she said. "And I'm always looking for pen pals for my students. We could have that and so much more here."

Bambi Edwards, a business technology instructor, and Page Jones said some instructors have already shown Second Life to their students. Jones said she first saw the program at a conference. Colleges can buy Second Life islands, pieces of virtual land, for $500 to $1,000 and pay a $150 monthly fee to maintain it.

Von Briesen said Princeton University owns nine islands and East Carolina University owns five. He said accounting students are using the program to learn to manage money. People must have a personal computer, a MacIntosh computer or a Linux operating system to use Second Life.

"Our vision is to begin meeting regularly about the program and get the students involved," Page Jones said. "Second Life is wild, but it will make students enjoy learning."