Second Life, in my opinion, allows for the best user experience. However, the Lindens do not value education and many educators have left to explore other SIMs.

Yes, their attitude has been really disappointing. I'm actually trying to Jibe by way of comparison.

I have first-person virtual environments (where learners enter and explore a virtual world through their own eyes rather than an avatar) very effective in orientation learning. In orientation learning, the learner is mastering the learning the spatial lay-out and content of an environment. This can be done very effectively with screen-based or "desktop" virtual worlds.

Some years ago, I coined a word -- "virtuality" -- to represent the experience of a person while engaged in participation of developing a virtual environment. I started a blog http://virtualityhighschool.blogspot.com/ to record and reflect on some of the remarkable experiences. In looking around for like-mindeds, I found few and far between, and joined RG to help in understanding what the thing was. I needed a way to engage unengaged high school students in considering their future college/career desires, giving them a forum for conception and expression of what they could visualize about their desires and unrealized competencies. I started with a simple game -- a blend of "Monopoly" and "Sim City" and inspired by the development of "Roller Coaster Tycoon", without the knowledge or time or resources to go further. Simply, I created a blank street grid, and asked my students: If given a city block, and unlimited capital, what would you put there? They used the Internet, and any other resources, to develop the city block in their own fashion, producing a wide variety of what I called "scenarios", using details of real world information. Outcomes were not digitally recorded, but I conducted quite satisfying classes wherein information was shared. Classes reached rather sophisticated levels of development beyond mere economics to civil debate, getting feedback from teachers of other subjects that students were using what was being taught. A number of students successfully carried their scenarios into their post graduate lives. I have not updated the blog recently, but the anecdotal information forms my basis for my further research. At this point, still a very independent researcher, I welcome any comments or input you can offer.

Jonathan, that sounds like a really interesting project. I'll take a look at your blog. I'm always inspired by educators looking for innovative ways to enagage students (and at the same time realising that many current methods don't!)

Sorry about the blog experience -- I haven't done much towards maintaining it, as I have been a lone voice in the woods., for a long time On the basis of my success with secondary students, my administrators did launch a half-hearted examination of Second Life. We deemed it inaccessible to teen agers: just getting up to speed on learning navigation, keeping track of who was going where, and just plain instilling and maintaining motivation meant class time -- already precious for gaining basic, real life skills -- just too expensive. I believe the most fruitful research should be on what happens when an engaging "scenario" is presented to a late adolescent. Sounds obvious, but combining that with the technology of purposeful internet accessibility seems to amplify a complex of things that are good about the sociability factors of "school".

Today, we are developing researches using the Virtual World OpenSim to create educational activities. It allows you to create several different objects and virtual agents that can be directioned to the development of educational tasks. I consider a great option to create simulations in many different areas, like chemestry, physics and informatics.

Here we are in the midst of a huge disruption in the modern educational process. I was discussing the situation with a young teacher who is caught in the brutal transition from the old to the "what's next?", and I brought up virtual reality as a platform for long distance learning. This new teacher hadn't spent much time in virtual reality consciousness, and things I was saying kept clicking, as solutions to problems in re-tooling in a pandemic. All educational resources have suddenly become scarce. Engaging students in imaginative "play", at all levels and age groups...what could be simpler?