Virtual Worlds have been around for a while now and exploited by various educational institutuions around the globe. I was interested in investigating further to establish if places such as Second Life really do hold educational merit and potential. This seems a very pertinent inquiry at a time where distance learning is becoming increasingly significant due to intakes from all over the world plus an econimci climate that brings practical matters such as economy and efficiency (with a view to cutting travel and real space costs and our carbon footprint) to the forfront. My opportuntiy to carry oput such an evaluation came about when RSC West Midlands offered plots on it newly purchase island for educational use.
"Over the past few years, the RSC has been watching developments of virtual worlds with great interest, particularly the use of virtual worlds in education. Requests have been received asking if we know of available space in Second Life ™ that educators could use to experiment on. It was felt that the amount of requests warranted the purchase of some space by the RSC. Learning organisations will then be better informed to decide on whether they feel it would be useful for them to either rent some space in Second Life ™, buy their own space, investigate other virtual worlds or proceed no further." Quote from RSC West Midland