Second Life can offer students attending universities and colleges many educational treats. Some of the best benefits of using Second Life in education include the ability to role-play and see concepts actually happen. Second Life is a virtual 3D world that allows its residents almost total freedom to create the world they want with endless possibilities. Anything that can be done in real life (building, going out) or not (fighting monsters) can be done in Second Life. Such an environment creates new learning opportunities that can be applied supplementally to many forms of education. More personal than distance learning, this avatar-based virtual environment offers a highly interactive setting for non-traditional learning. [1]
 
As of March 2008, more than 250 colleges and universities are in some way involved in Second Life[2], such as education professionals incorporating Second Life into their curricula.  Even Ivy League schools are involved. Princeton has its own island in Second Life, which has a conference area and an art museum.[3] Michigan University, Central Michigan University, Bowling Green State University, Ohio University and Ohio State University are all active in Second Life. Through the virtual world, these schools are able to hold a communications course (which includes PowerPoint presentations), classes, and meetings. [4],[5]
 
Additionally, education professionals use Second Life for professional development. [6] The Educators Coop is a Second Life community consisting of university faculty, librarians, and K-12 teachers. All currently teaching or researching in Second Life, the 42 members from 32 different educational institutions share teaching strategies for the virtual world and create virtual world research projects, among other things.
 
More Educational Uses of Second Life
 
Second Life can be used for medical education. [7] Through role-playing in the virtual world, students can switch between different roles (patient, nurse, and doctor), seeing the encounters from different perspectives. Medicine aside, any other fields where person-to-person interaction is essential would benefit from role-playing in Second Life. For classes that teach design and building, such as architecture and engineering, problems can be simulated in Second Life, with the students then creating their own solutions in the virtual world. [7] Also business students can use Second Life to sell products or services to real people, since Second Life has an internal economy. Second Life can be used to create models of real-world events. For instance, users can program interactions (i.e. two tectonic plates colliding), and observe the results.
 
To build a virtual campus in Second Life, land must first be purchased. It costs $1,675 to buy about 16 acres (a small island). [8] Universities/schools and non-profit organizations have to only pay half. Per month usage fees are $295. [8] Building a virtual campus is similar to building a website, in that it requires development. Development costs for a virtual campus range between about $15,000 to $25,000. [8]
 
There are some downsides to using Second Life for educational purposes. [9] For one, Second Life has a steep learning curve. It can take up to a couple of weeks to feel comfortable using it, not including anything really complicated. Also, those students who can't afford a high speed internet connection and a high-end computer will have trouble taking courses in Second Life. Using computers in school labs that run Second Life may not be practical as it takes time to learn the program and space in the labs is usually limited. This problem may be mitigated if universities or colleges were to provide students with adequate computers that could run Second Life. Using Second Life in education could also diminish one of the reasons students go to college- to acquire social skills. Social skills are very important when it's time to look for a job and spending less time around actual people may not help in developing them (at the same time, those students who have social disorders can practice speaking to people in Second Life, using the computer screen as a buffer).
 
It appears Second Life has the potential to offer numerous quality educational opportunities to universities/colleges. And it's not done growing. Mark Kingdon, the new CEO of Linden Lab (creator of Second Life), says Second Life's interface needs to be, "more enjoyable and more usable for current residents and prospective residents."[10] Kingdon also says he sees Second Life providing a 3-D experience in the future. [10] In order to utilize Second Life to the highest possible extent, administrators need to make sure they have the resources available to provide the technology that is necessary to use Second Life to students (on-campus or at home) who are interested in learning via the virtual world. Education professionals must also make sure students' schedules are balanced with enough "real world" classes, so they can develop the necessary social skills needed to succeed in the workplace and enjoy the college experience. Because Second Life has a "novelty" factor, students will most-likely be enthusiastic to explore it. That combined with adequate support in Second Life and the real world from educational professionals, will open new doors through which students can gain knowledge. Second Life's positives outweigh its potential negatives when properly put to use, and every school should at least seriously entertain the idea of incorporating Second Life into their curriculum. A small financial investment for most major universities, Second Life can provide students and education professionals with a new, interactive way to learn curriculum and broaden their educational experience. 
 

[1] Theodore Wright, Second Life Education: Second Life as a Virtual Learning Environment (2008) http://www.dokimos.org/secondlife/education/
[2] The Pennsylvania State University, 7 Things You Should Know About Second Life at Penn State (2007) http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/gaming/7Things
[3] Princeton University, Second Life at Princeton University (2007)
http://etc.princeton.edu/sl/
[4] Heather Newman, Michiganders make a living, meet and study in 'Second Life' (Detroit: Free Press, 2008) http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080304/FEATURES01/803040391.
[5] Meghan Gilbert, BGSU embraces Second Life with 'island' in the virtual world (Toledo: Blade, 2007)
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071109/NEWS21/711090352/-1/NEWS
[6] Educators Coop - A community of Educators in Second Life (2008) http://www.educatorscoop.org/
[7] David M. Antonacci and Nellie Modaress, Second Life: Educational Possibilities (University of Kansas Medical Center) http://www2.kumc.edu/tlt/SLEDUCAUSESW2005/SLPresentationOutline.htm
[8] Linden Research, Inc., Second Life Land:Islands (Second Life, 2008) http://secondlife.com/community/land-islands.php
[9] Nicholas Johnson, The Educational Potential of Second Life (Digital Union, 2006) http://digitalunion.osu.edu/showcase/virtualenvironments/Second_Life.pdf
[10] Erica Naone, A New Vision for Second Life (Technology Review: 2008)
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20678/