Dear Janice, I am no expert on Second Life, but have always held the  position from semiotic theory that pedagogic discourse creates virtual subjects, if not complete worlds. So I would look beyond the level of technical or gaming skills brought to the university to the  that course designers translate their already recontextualised materials into the simulated interactive world of Second Life. 

I'm not sure if this helps, as I do not know what your research topic or your disciplinary background. 

Best wishes

Bill 

Hi Janice, to be honest I dont think many students know what to expect when using SL for the first time. Given the steep learning curve such systems incur its often a challenge just to get them connected and in the right place to start with!

Given that however, I think many 3D virtual worlds (I only have experience of SL) do offer opportunities to expand research and teaching. In our studies, we found educators using SL for a wide range of subjects (including astronomy, art and design, history, fashion and others) carrying out activities that would just not be possible in real-life. As always, its a balance between a positive learning experience and the technical challenges involved. Mostly though - the benefits are greater.

Article Designing learning activities in Second Life for student engagement

Hi Janice, I would like to show you two littles articles about your "topic". I think, as A. Reeves said, that the benefits of using this "virtual platform" like SL are greater.

Best wishes

Juany

Article Entorno virtual como contexto de creatividad

Conference Paper Recursos y escenarios virtuales: innovando en la coordinación

Upsss, and I add another one...

These articles will show you the use of SL by students and teachers...

Best wishes

Juany

Chapter "Profesores sin muro: trabajando en la distancia (La coordin...

Thank you William, Ahmad and Juana-Rosa for your perspectives and advice. I am teaching an emerging environments for learning course at Masters level, and finding that postgraduate students bring such a wide range of experience (or none at all) to engaging in virtual worlds for learning. As William points out - we create virtual subjects (by gathering together concepts and constructing curricula around these)  - and the physical and intellectual challenges of learning to navigate and enjoy social and intellectual engagement in Second Life can be problematic (but worthwhile as Ahmad and Juana-Rosa show). I would welcome ideas from colleagues on how to help adult newcomers to find their way around the interface and etiquette of virtual worlds. Thanks for sharing papers - much appreciated!

Dear Janice,

I am working on virtual worlds in science education in my PhD research  and I believe that  virtual worlds  will have a great development in University education in the future. Now a lot of Universities use virtual worlds, my University use Opensim (like Second Life but opensource), in this experience we can simulate environments and case studios,  creating assessments in a context as reality.

Dear Janice, Juana-Rosa and others,

Thanks for the acnowledgment of my recent post and the theory that inspired it (post-s my take on basil bernstein's later writings on pedagogic discourse) . I am very interested in how great teachers first recontextualize the most difficult of theoretical subjects in simple terms and how graphic artists can translate these into easily-understood illustrations without the mumbo-jumbo that clogs  up the so=called "knowledge-based" curricula. I liked Juana-Rosa's articles but have not a full grasp of Spanish (are they available in English?). Janice's project also fascinates me  (I am now living near Kingaroy, Qld, in the ambit of US!), as I have struggled recently with theorising Indigenous pedagogies of place ("Learning on Country") in the post-assiimilationist era ( I am still working with Charles Darwin University) . Any ideas on how Second Life might provide some insights for theory and practice would be welcome. Cheers. Bill Tyler.

I think that a good contribute could be a look at online conference opensim http://conference.opensimulator.org/2014/program/

lisa

Minocha, S and Reeves, A.J. (2010).Designing for Learner Engagement: Relating pedagogical and learning-space designs in 3D virtual environments In Journal of Learning, Media & Technology Special Issue: Learning and Researching in Virtual Worlds, Volume 35 Issue 2, pp.111-137.