San Jose SLIS Embraces Second Life

By Lynn Blumenstein & Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 6/15/2007

The School of Library & Information Science (SLIS) at San Jose State University, CA, is embracing web-based virtual reality environments, such as Second Life. A summer class in Immersive Environments will be the first to devote itself entirely to the phenomenon. “We're very careful that we aren't teaching people how to use a particular piece of software,” said Director Ken Haycock, “but are using it to illustrate” new technological trends.

SLIS has had a presence in Second Life since last year, when a Soros Foundation grant enabled it to purchase a 16-acre site to create an “information island.” This spring, several SLIS classes included Second Life design laboratories, where students created young adult spaces. Summer classes will explore and build SLIS environments on several platforms. Besides Second Life, students will visit There.com, Open Croquet, Quest Atlantis, and Sim City. Students will be asked to keep a reflective journal, create an e-portfolio, and a blog. Future plans include using the environment to emulate reference experiences via a synchronous voice chat tool.

In May, Daniel Livingston, University of Paisley, Scotland, department of computing, delivered a colloquium on using Sloodle, a classroom gesture tool, to 30 faculty members.

SLIS assistant director Jeremy Kemp described Second Life as a Web 3.0 concept, or like Web 2.0 plus 3-D gaming. “It's not for everyone, that's for sure,” he said. “It's for students who aren't daunted by tech.” At a basic level, he said, such environments are “just decorative chat,” but an advance is “the ability to pass information between Second Life and the web.” Second Life also is a good place to teach young readers about databases, Kemp noted, as they can view them within the Second Life environment.

Haycock said that SLIS, a large program, may be able to use Second Life as another delivery mode for its students, some of whom are on campus, some who study via distance ed, and some who do both. “Our brand is: 'We're conveniently located everywhere.'” There are some hardware requirements, notably a 3-D graphics cards and broadband, both of which are standard with Macintosh computers and new Windows Vista configurations.

The work at SLIS, Kemp said, “might be attractive in developing a prototype of the virtual graduate school.” Indeed, Outsell analyst Mukta Ohri recently observed that an increasing number of universities in the United States and Europe are using Second Life for both on-campus and distance learning students, and, according to some estimates, within five years more than 80 percent of Internet users will be going to Second Life and other virtual worlds.