The Good, The Bad, The Ugly... of Second Life

Second Life is a virtual reality software that allows you to have a second life. Second Life is along the lines of The Sims but is a little more sophisticated. Second Life allows the user to be creative. You can create a version of yourself and change their appearance to anything you like. Also, you can build things and create new inventions. Another feature of Second Life is that there are real business and universities on Second Life. IBM and Dell have virtual business environments that can train employees long distance or can introduce a three-dimensional rendering of a new product. There are also some universities, such as Notre Dame, that use Second Life. These universities can use Second Life as a way to have virtual classroom and as a cost effective solution to distance learning. In Second Life, as in the real world, the user can get a job or open any kind of store they want.

The Good:
Second Life fosters creativity and challenges the user to take their imagination to the next level. Second Life also provides an outlet for communication between peers. Also, the universities classrooms allow for students to learn from practically anywhere in the world. The business aspect of Second life can also teach the user proper money management.

The Bad:
One bad aspect of Second Life is that it takes away the personal feeling of a classroom. Also, Second Life users can have a non-educational motive to play Second Life, which is fine but encounters with such players must be approached appropriately. Also, in regards to the corporations on Second Life, there can be a feeling of a lack in legitimacy.

The Ugly:
Although the fact that Second Life is available to can be useful there is still the chance that some people that use Second Life might have other motives. When encountering people the user must take things with a grain of salt and try to make sure the people they are interacting with are the people they are interacting with. There is no really way to monitor students appropriate use.

So, although Second Life can be used as an educational tool with a business application educators must closely monitor their students to be sure that they are using this software appropriately.