Michael's Summary: virtues and challenges of teaching with SL

The educators that I spoke with have a variety of mixed feelings about the virtues of SL as a teaching and learning tool, but have no problems listing those that they appreciate, acknowledging that they may be powerful characteristics albeit with questionable instructional value. A student and teacher may find useful applications for distance learning, a sense of shared space, a social and emotional presence and co-presence, a feeling of connectedness, the ability to engage with others from different cultures in different languages in an un-sanitized environment, immediacy, designing experiences that would be impossible in a RL classroom, the immersion, role play, the ability to collaborate and build in a dedicated environment, shaping content to educational purposes, a lack of diversity issues, easy communication, a creative and safe space, interactive teaching, and flexible learning. These responses confirm my own conclusions regarding the value of virtual environments for teaching and learning. I’ve sat in classes, taken field trips, built new things, and felt that I was there, in a place with others, sharing the same experience at the same time.
The challenges inherent in using SL as an educational tool are not so numerous and provide problems to solve. The learning curve is a mountain that many students and some faculty would prefer not to climb. The time one must invest to be comfortable living and learning in a virtual world can be substantially more than finding a room number and an empty seat. The digital divide, varied levels of computer literacy and the technological requirements that an institution must meet are problematic. The infrastructure is often not up to the task. Gaining institutional support is a frequent challenge, where budgets and faculty resistance to change can be barriers to successful implementation. These challenges will, for the most part, be moot within a few years, as an institution upgrades to technology that supports the 3D web and students and faculty find more comfort in using the environments as tools