There's an ongoing debate about how best to monetise virtual worlds, but one thing's not in doubt: the flow of investment into the virtual worlds space from two sources: venture capitalists (for commercial virtual worlds), and research grants (for medical / educational applications). The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in New Zealand is the latest beneficiary of the latter, receiving $500,000 for a new project exploring educational uses for Second Life.
NMIT has partnered with Otago Polytechnic, the Wellington Institute of Technology, and the Open Polytechnic on the project, as well as bringing IBM in for technical support and consultancy. The project’s aim is to find out what teaching methods will work best within Second Life, if at all.
It sounds like NMIT - which has been in Second Life for 18 months already - isn’t restricting its thinking to pure virtual classrooms. Project leader Dr Clare Atkins talks about creating teaching spaces that are impossible in the real world, such as “within a beating heart, a nuclear reactor or a fuel pump”. She also plans to let contemporary music students put on gigs within Second Life and gain live performance credits towards their courses.
We’re looking forward to seeing how NMIT’s team spend that $500,000!
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