I believe that any college or university which accepts US federal dollars and requires students to use second life as a classroom space is in violation of regulation 508 because SL is not accessible to individuals who are blind.
The creation of an inaccessible school is a de facto violation of US laws governing accessibility including IDEA, and regulations 504 and 508.
The much bruited installation of “voice chat” as accessibility option is merely an indication of how very little the educational establishment actually understands the issue of accessibility.
Second, the main instantiation of educational activity in SL seems to be the recreation of the classroom in virtual space.
Third, efforts to introduce games and problem-based instruction as educational strategies have focused on adding a “game layer” on top of the SL environment rather than using the environment itself as a game.
I’ll be anxious to see how long it takes the educational community to realize that SL affords capabilities that transcend and exceed the capabilities of the classroom.
Fourth, my sense is that educators are generally tourists — outsiders looking in, just visiting — in the environment.
Few hold jobs. Comparatively few even “get off the island.” This is especially true of those educators who participate through the auspices of a private island. They’re very busy controlling the environment to suit their own purposes without really taking the time to understand the culture and environment. It’s no wonder they’re unable to recognized the inherent value of the space.
Fifth, everybody is interested in the space as an educational environment and almost nobody is looking at it as a learning environment.
They still think that there’s a direct correlation between teaching and learning in RL as well. That bias has been brought in world.
Conclusion: Teachers want to use the space. Most of them want to use it for the wrong reasons. Many don’t have a clue what it means to be “in the world” in any real sense, instead focusing on imposing RL constraints on SL constructs — even when those constraints are irrelevant.

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