The Information Technology Division recently purchased a Second Island to build a virtual MTSU campus for Web-based courses, and according to officials within the administration, the new program is designed to improve distance learning.
"We just bought an island," said Carol Ann Baily, director of Adult Student Services, who is a member of the Second Life virtual island committee.
The Second Island is part of Second Life, a website that offers virtual reality for numerous interactive activities, and one of those includes simulated classrooms. According to its website, it offers a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat.
The purchase receipt submitted by ITD to Procurement Services, which is a department within MTSU's Division of Business and Finance, bought the island from Second Life for $700. The receipt also included a $1,770 annual maintenance fee.
Tanner Eads, junior media design major, said students may be able to appear differently on Second Life and was not pleased with the idea that the university was spending money on the program.
"That is the most ignorant purchase I have heard MTSU make," Eads said.
Baily said she believed it would give students a sense of participation in the online community because students could create an avatar, a 3D rendering of a person, in their own image and have it sit in a virtual classroom.
Baily said this would allow students and professors to have "face-to-face" interaction.
Barbra Draude, assistant vice president of ITD, placed the request and is in charge of the committee that will decide how to implement this new technology.
"I had faculty who were interested in [seeing] what a virtual environment could provide," Draude said.
Draude said pilot testing will begin this fall, but she could not reveal what professors would be using the program because the list is still incomplete. After the testing, the plan is to make the service available to all students and professors who wish to participate.
Draude said students would not have to pay for the service. However, if students wanted to get on to other islands or recieve special avatar features, fees may be involved.
Some students have already experimented with Second Life.
Bri Patterson, junior theater major, said she encountered some issues with Second Life, and after dabbling with the program for two weeks, she decided to quit using it. She said the program caused her computer to lag and download slowly.
"I would get distracted and not go to class," Patterson said. "I wouldn't want to use it because it takes up large amounts of memory to install.
You had to have top of the line equipment in order to make the program work."
Baily said Older Wiser Learners, for example, could meet and socialize in a real time setting like a lounge. OWLs is an organization for nontraditional students who do not live on campus.
"My favorite place is the outdoor setting with the mushrooms to sit on," Baily said, adding that she also likes the beach, where her avatar floats on an inner tube while seagulls and exotic birds caw in the background.
Baily said she believed the biggest challenge the Second Life project has is informing students and professors of its existence and the benefits it could provide for online teaching.
Jacqueline Gilbert, management professor, said she is already using Second Life in her principles of management class. The assignment is to obtain an avatar, navigate through the virtual world and then write a paper about the experience.
"I have incorporated this new assignment because some companies have not only established a Second Life presence, but they now conduct interviews and training within the metaverse [a fictional virtual world that stands as a metaphor for reality]," Gilbert said.
Gilbert said IBM is developing a 3D Internet that she thinks could revolutionize the way business is conducted, and skills for Web collaboration, interactivity and social networking.
"I want my students to have relevant Web 2.0 skills that future employers will be requesting," Gilbert said.
Gilbert said she modeled the assignment after one that Melinda Korzaan, professor of computer information systems, has used to teach a graduate computer information systems class.
East Tennessee State University has already acquired an island and it is currently in use.
Barbra Knight, coordinator for Technology Development at ETSU, is in charge of their virtual island.
Knight said that while she thinks the program has made a positive difference in her university, she thinks that the technology can be too confusing for some of the users.
"I am a huge advocate of Second Life," Knight said. "We are having a few issues getting people to buy into it because the professors have a learning curve."
Knight said the program should be used for educational purposes mostly, but she believes there has not been enough interest and not enough people have used it yet.
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