continued

It seems that the choices we make in SL about how we are represented in-world are an important ingredient in the recipe for the social context of living a virtual existence, and contributes to a great extent in a sense of ownership and connection that a driver has with his av. There is a moment, after a time traveling in SL, that one can believe the rest of the avs and their drivers when they say that SL is not a game, and as a result of a personal and shared experiences, is a real world. The av then becomes an extension of the self, and the membranes between worlds and lives become permeable.
The sense of place offers students a suggestion that they are “actually there,” but may or may not influence their engagement in learning. In and of itself it is not as significant an influence as educators using SL might think or hope. Some educators believe that the comfort offered by the familiar surroundings presented by a campus replica can be comforting to students, while the believability of such environments are usually less than desired. A place in SL, like a college campus that is designed to be familiar, a replica, or a classroom with a roof and chairs in a world where they are completely unnecessary, may increase a student’s level of comfort and feeling of safety. When I return to my cottage on the island of Necros, I know that I have a home base at which to log off, a place that I’ll remain until I log back into SL. There is familiarity and ownership that is comforting. These effects, at Necros or in a in a learning context contribute to a feeling of being somewhere with others. In this I have lots of company in the body of scholars and researchers that work and play in SL. In an environment designed for learning, this feeling of being somewhere with others will influence students’ engagement in learning.
I’ve found that the terms “telepresence” and “co-location” more accurately represent the praxis of the senses of embodiment and place that contribute to the knowledge that one is present and in the presence of others. A feeling of co-location does enhance engagement in learning if the learning objectives are written to embrace the social context. Telepresence is a hot topic that is worthy of future research, one that is rich in a growing body of academic literature.
The educators I interviewed were as generous with recommendations to their colleagues as they were with their time. SL is far from the edge of the envelope, nor is it representative of what resident generated virtual environments will be in a few years. It may be a sample of the experience of living and learning in virtual worlds, but is not the model. It is important to push the boundaries of creativity in order to reap the benefits of the 3D web for education. The status quo, no matter how familiar and warm, should not be a template for how we will teach in synthetic worlds.