Dwight Schrute from NBC’s The Office first introduced me to the virtual world known as Second Life. As tempting as it was to create my own avatar simply to make him fly around town, I never took the plunge into virtual reality. I discovered today, though, that Second Life offers much more than an online playground.
Stephen Llano, the director of debate at St. John’s University in New York, recently announced that the first collegiate debate tournament on Second Life will take place on February 4 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on the university’s virtual campus. A two-person team from St. Johns will go head-to-head with two students from the University of Vermont. The topic will be whether or not colleges should limit tenure for professors.
While my first reaction to this announcement was that no online exchange could possibly replace the intense environment of live, interactive collegiate debate, Llano and others have made some good arguments for the use of Second Life in academia. First and foremost, he argues it will enable international debate at very low costs, widening the playing fields for schools that can’t afford to travel around the globe. He believes the combination of a voice-chat feature in Second Life and the gestures and animations of the participants’ avatars will provide for solid debate.
I may just have to join Mr. Schrute on Second Life next week to witness this debate for myself.
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