BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – There are worlds where dinosaurs can talk with tigers, and gravity is only a suggestion to those who fly from island to island. This is not a world of literature, but a virtual world, accessible to anyone with a computer.
One of the most successful virtual worlds, Second Life, recently announced a new interface that could offer a more user-friendly door into these computer-generated worlds. That development could mean more educators will be able to take advantage of the virtual world with much greater ease, said Sascha Vitzthum, Illinois Wesleyan University’s assistant professor of business administration.
“Right now in the virtual world, everything has to be done by key strokes – every gesture, every move,” said Vitzthum, who teaches a course on emerging technologies and working on creating the information systems concentration in business administration at Illinois Wesleyan. “Whether the virtual world becomes user-friendly enough to let people behave the way they want to behave will be the key, but I believe it is going to get there.”
According to Vitzthum, there are around 80 virtual worlds currently operating on the Internet, which allow participants to create an online version of themselves, known as avatars, and interact with one another in the computer-generated world. People from across the globe “meet” in virtual worlds, such as Second Life, where they can talk, play, shop and learn.
