This blog post is a collection of thoughts and notes from two papers which discuss Secondlife.

 Notes from Paper 1: Pedagogy and Learning in the Virtual World of Second Life®

By Leslie Jarmon, Ph.D.

Second Life is an extremely dynamic online platform that offers its users endless opportunities. As Jarmon (et al) discuss:

"Teachers and students are creating ways to integrate other computer-supported communication and research tools into their SL activities. They are importing image collections from Facebook, MySpace, and flickr, forming study groups in Google groups, importing spreadsheet data for genetics class, importing PowerPoint materials, linking to standard web URLs in SL (called SLURLS), connecting with RSS feeds, creating video content, and streaming digital audio." 

The table below from Jarmon (et al) paper summarises the costs and benefits of SL.

Notes from paper 2: The Theatre of Performance: Potential for Role-Play Training in Second Life

Morse, Littleton, MacLeod and Ewins

Image: Holyrood Park in Second Life 

Study investigates the potential of role play within SL for use in employee appraisals.

• Standard avatar costumes provided
• Involved Students from MSc in eLearning
• Real life role play involves immediate interpretation of, and reation to signals from others
• Online text based role play allows for more time for reflection, and potentially the time to consult mentors or others during a scenario without others knowing,
• Virtual worlds may offer advantages in connection with motivation and play
• Online roleplay potentiall allows for greater suspension of disbelief during a scenario than in real life equivilents.
• Identity exploration takes us beyond the physical notions of passport, fingerprint or iris. Exploring one’s own identity and perhaps experimental identities, and thus being prompted to consider how others might react or think, is the essence of this enquiry. The ability to imagine the situation of another could be extended by rehearsing to be an ‘other’ personality. 
• Virtual worlds, including Second Life, offer opportunities to explore these different ‘ways of being’. One can create a new physical representation, character and, to an extent, skills and attributes. The environment can change over time. Both text and voice can be used to exchange and interact. For participants there is creativity and potential for experiment. What is the impact of creating such identities?
• A person’s ability to create, interpret, and evaluate the models underlying the simulations plays a large role in his or her ability to use them wisely (Prensky 2009, p4).
• Good initial learning should promote good practice, but poor skill and understanding may require both unlearning and re-learning (Lewin, 1951; Becker et al., 2006) – an expensive business for all concerned

• Potential participants were identified on the basis of having some employment experience and thus some possible direct experience of performance appraisal in the workplace, and were approached individually after class. Voluntary agreement to participate was secured from 10 people who indicated some such experience, either as appraiser or as appraisee

   

• The argument for taking role-play online is that the fantasy environment that can be created there can contribute to the realism of the role being played. The virtual environment can both augment the narrative of the exercise by the addition of an appropriate backcloth and props, and can remove the distraction of known faces and mundane surroundings.
• While our observations indicated a high level of engagement on the part of the participants in the task in hand, we also observed an important element of 11 disengagement which we would like to discuss, and which we intend to build upon in subsequent studies.
• person engaged in the role-play was able to react, out of character, to social interaction in the role-play without that reaction interrupting and contaminating the ongoing narrative
• Gee: Three Identities, real world identity, virtual identity and projective identity
• One future area for exploration and development will be to design approaches to online role-play that allow us to harness the potential of this projective identity.

Image: Role Play Appraisal 

 In my area of work in schools, SL is not a platform that we would consider utilising. The primary reason for this comes down to child protection. As you will see in the image below, *all* types of people can use Second Life. There is a lack of control, over who children potentially can interact with and means that it simply isn't possible to take such a risk. It could be argued that we are not teaching our children to be aware of online dangers and be responsible for their own online behaviour, but that is for another post and possibly my dissertation!

I

Image: Indecent man in Second Life  

I have begun the planning of the format for my review assignment. Here are a few images of this weekend's subjects hard at work! :-) 

Statement from the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s consultation document on a UK e-learning strategy: We believe that technology should follow the learning and teaching objectives and not the other way round. Cousin, G. (2005).

Cousin argues that statements such as these neglect the fact that the technology and the mediums through which education is conducted are themselves the pedagogy. Second Cousin argues that technology should not be considered merely to be in the service of humans. Statements such as these he argues block our view of the full potential of computer technology for education purposes.

In this respect I believe that Cousin makes a good point because education is no different from any application domain for technology. Many of the life style enhancements we have experienced over the centuries have come as a result of experiments or accidents that had unforeseeable results. If education policy makers make an effort to find out what technology experts are getting up to and creating, and consulting with them as to the potential benefits of latest developments for education, they will undoubtedly come up with ideas that would enhance pedagogy in ways that education practitioners wouldn’t even think of.

30 years ago when PC’s did a fraction of the number of calculations the modern PC can perform, and before someone thought of linking them all up using the telephone system so that information could be shared and retrieved on a global scale, I doubt that education policy makers included in their list of objectives, giving every teacher and student an email account where they could replicate documents, and exchange and share them in a manner that was more efficient than what was available using paper alone at the time.

The point is that technology can create teaching objectives that pedagogy hasn’t even thought of yet. That is why technology should work together hand in hand with pedagogy rather than technology being seen merely as a tool.

Rather than defining the objectives and then asking; Can technology help us achieve these objectives?  We should be asking: Where is education at the moment? Where is technology at the moment? Now what are our objectives taking into consideration what technology can do for education?

Keeping our identities everywhere, even in education:

This also relates to the question of our evolving identities. 4000 years ago, I would not have been able to learn anything because of my bad eyesight. My glasses or contact lenses today are an important part of who I am. In the same way as I wouldn’t have been able to do this e-learning course if it wasn’t for my digital identity though the internet. Cousin points out that:

Every kind of technology is an extension of our nervous system, which imprints out imagination with the realm of the possible.

By appreciating this concept of our evolving identities with technology, and that our identities should be part of who we are in every walk of life, and because our education is an important part of our lives, we should therefore develop our teaching practices to walk hand in hand with our identities. If I went back 4000 years into the past, my teacher might have said to me that those things on my eyes are witch craft and I have to throw them away! Similarly today, some teachers might frown on students having their mobile phones switched on in class today, even though they might be using them to take notes or even to record the lecture.

Our online Youtube and Facebook identities are part of who many of us are today. And instead of seeing them perhaps as distractions that have no place in the proverbial classroom, maybe we should see them as opportunities.

Shifting focus from the teacher to the student:

Our identities have expanded and they will continue to expand as we find new technologies to enhance our lifestyles. It is difficult therefore for an educational institution to be able to judge the most suitable method of education for individuals. Some students may prefer traditional learning methods at varying levels of tutor involvement, or some may prefer general guidance on learning requirements and goals and to be given a range of choices to achieve those goals.

If I were to define a student of the 1970’s, I would say:

Student (1970) = “Body(With everything included)+Books+Pen+Pencil+Paper+TV+Radio”.  

On the other hand:

Student (2011) = “Body(With everything included)+Books+Pen+Pencil+Paper+TV+Radio+Mobile Phone+ Laptop (MS Word+ PowerPoint+ Excel+ Notepad+ Mediaplayer+Computer Games + …..) +Notebook+Ipod+Ipad+ Internet (Facebook+Google+Twitter+WebCT+Email+Wikipedea +…..)”.

I could go on and the list is just going to get longer, the tools and options available to students to learn are increasing, and it is only natural that education establishments recognize this, and recognize that all this innovation cannot fit tightly into teacher led approaches otherwise teachers and student s would simply go insane.  Students must be allowed to make their own choices based on their own identities, and therefore learning has to become more flexible with student choice being at the heart of it.

 “Rather than integrate tools within a single context, the system should focus instead on coordinating connections between the user and a wide range of services offered by organizations and other individuals. Rather than interacting with the tools offered within the contexts supplied by a single provider, the PLE is concerned with enabling a wide range of contexts to be coordinated to support the goals of the user.”  Wilson, et al (2007).

 And of course this needs to be done with the guidance of the teachers because there is a great deal of information out there and students can easily become lost:

“The sheer abundance of idiosyncratic information on the internet can produce nomadic leaners who succumb to an endless search for a knowledge oasis rather than enter into the process of digging for one”  Cousin, G. (2005).

The huge variety of sources of information, and the ease at which this information can be found on the internet can easily lead to distraction. Whereas prior to the digital age when all that was available to us was our teachers and books, the learning process was a much guided one, confined by the learning material and methods at hand. It was more focused. I can find virtually anything about everything through my web browser today. Therefore self-motivation and teacher guidance we can argue have become more important than ever before so that students remain focused on what is important.

References:

Cousin, G. (2005). Learning from cyberspace in Land, R. and Bayne, S. (eds) Education in cyberspace. London, RoutledgeFalmer. pp. 117-129.

Wilson, S., Liber, O., Johnson, M., Beauvoir, P. Sharples, P. & Milligan, C. (2007). Personal Learning Environments: Challenging the dominant design of educational systems. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 3/2.

Intro

There are certain domains in which virtual experience seems of little comparison to an in-world one (consider on-line confessions or learning how to skydive). And yet, some of our learned contemporaries never cease to prove us wrong.

Having heard of schools of languages offering classes in Second Life (such as the Lingualand school in Krakow, Poland), I decided to explore a less obvious example of SL use. Inspired by an idea in the Warburton’s text (the briefly mentioned PREVIEW project) and a number of other articles discussing e-learning in nursing and medicine (for a fuller list of my findings please check below) I decided to locate the Second Life PREVIEW project facility. And indeed, I had no problem finding it and was allowed to run a quick trial.

Please note that simultaneously a number of related projects are already available, including Second Life Medical and Consumer Health Libraries (Healthinfo Island—funded by a grant from the US National Library of Medicine) and VNEC (Virtual Neurological Education Centre—developed at the University of Plymouth, UK), as well as HABITAT, MOOSE and PLaNET projects.

About the project

The PREVIEW Project, provided by the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences (a partnership between St George's, University of London and Kingston University) aims at training future paramedics in contextualised environments. The island is located here, and the project’s website with a more exhaustive description can be found here.

Provided with a nice welcome pack (including the ER outfit) the student is free to roam the training area between a number of locations (a street, an underground station, etc.) in which a variety of possible health-/life- threatening situations have occurred.

The PREVIEW experience

When a student approaches the emergency site a short text appears providing details of the circumstances (e.g. the cause of the accident, if the casualty is breathing or if there is any visible bleeding, etc.). What follows is a series of possible actions to be taken by a paramedic, the choice of which is briefly followed by another set of changing circumstances or new options to choose from. The accident site is often accompanied by a media-tutorial screen. Fret not, dear disciple, for there is no time limit to take appropriate action nor patients’ screams to be heard. What there is, however, is a fantastic opportunity to visualise the emergency situations in life-like contexts and practise various life-saving strategies individually or in a group.

More in PREVIEW

Apart from the Second Life interface, the project is supported by the blog, a dedicated Youtube channel, student experience surveys, related academic journals and links to useful/related websites.

Advantages

My short list of advantages of learning a medical profession in SL will inevitably map those of Warburton’s, with visualisation and contextualisation in the lead. With a number of various pre-loaded actions that a paramedic may take, experimenting and making errors poses no real threat. I can imagine that the SL training may greatly help in automating responses in at least the most common of circumstances. Through immersion and multiple repetitions a paramedic novice may practise ad nauseam, with the feeling of actually performing treatment.

Disadvantages

To the catalogue of potential drawbacks listed, unerringly, by Warburton (e.g. the Identity problem), I would like to add some specific dangers I perceive in learning paramedics online. Namely, the already mentioned comfort of no time limit to perform an action, or the potentially misleading selection of choices, while in real life these may be strictly limited by the very individual circumstances. I dread to think what possible harm could be done by sticking to the routine and ignoring other pieces of information that had previously been ignored by the virtual world builders.

Related resources

• Kamel Boulos, M. N. et al. (2007). Second Life: an overview of the potential of 3-D virtual worlds in medical and health education. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 24, 233–245. (also available from Google Scholar)

• Skiba, D. J. (2007). Nursing Education 2.0: Second Life. Nursing Education Perspectives, 28, 3, 156-157. (also available from Google Scholar)

• McCallum, J., et al. (2010). Exploring nursing students' decision-making skills whilst in a Second Life clinical simulation laboratory. Nurse Education Today, doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2010.03.010 (also available from ScienceDirect.com)

• Honey, M., et al. (2011). Teaching With Second Life: Hemorrhage Management as an Example of a Process for Developing Simulations for Multiuser Virtual Environments. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, Vol(X), 000-000. doi: 10.1016/j.ecsn. (also available from ScienceDirect.com)

I might have made an impression since the last entry that I consider philosophers to be an annoying lot. Leaving that for a separate discussion I must admit they are definitely good at one thing, asking questions. The seemingly annoying (again) question “what do you mean by this?” is the key to the right understanding of things. Only this will allow us to form a specification of a given idea so that once it is clear it can be understood in the same way by everyone. Let’s take ‘freedom’, for instance. It can represent living without any constraints brought on citizens by governments (e.g. freedom to speak), or it can be a feeling of being able to act in possibly any way we wish to at any given time (I choose to switch on the heater now).

Defining ideas that are subject to constant change is even more difficult. That is precisely the case with virtual worlds. Should we maintain a basic and most generalised (ageless?) definition or should we amend and expand it on a regular basis?

Warburton (2009) rightly (or so I believe) opts for the former, repeating Schroeder’s (1996) definition of virtual world as one which: 1- is computer generated, 2- gives sense of being somewhere else than we really are, and 3- allows users to interact with each other or the environment. This definition is very straightforward.

I will refrain from analysing/polemicising with Warburton’s ideas of applying Second Life (SL) as means of learning/teaching as I have no sufficient knowledge or research history in this field. I do, however, have a few observations and comments after reading his article.

Warburton concludes that there are three major components that make up the Second Life experience. As we read we find out that each of the three components has certain limitations. The difficulties with the SL’s technical infrastructure – the first of the three components – are posed among others by the 3D visuals. These are running on the Lynden Lab servers, thus posing a substantial stress in the user’s bandwidth. In fact the big upside is that the downloadable interface (initially 24MB) is in fact minute in comparison to, for instance, most game installations. The stress placed on the user’s bandwidth should, in my opinion, be one of the determiners of SL’s minimum requirements. The simple fact of the matter is that SL cannot be used, understood and fully appreciated with slow internet connections and long lags caused thereby. Tightening the minimum internet speed would surely not diminish the number of SL users any more than a failed first impression could.

           I do not understand the author’s mention of “educators’ limited resources” as a barrier to SL use, since both the engine, use (to a large extent), and update downloads are all free of charge. The supposed ‘burden’ of installing new client releases has been a part of the software industry ever since and is more and more often overcome by automatic (often without user’s awareness) updates (e.g. such services are provided by Google’s Chrome).

           Speaking of current trends and developments in MUVEs (Multi User Virtual Environments) I admit to be particularly optimistic about the work on open standards and portability of identities. I would risk a claim that moving between various platforms/virtual worlds with only one avatar/virtual profile would allow these platforms to become more specialised and focused in their domains. Users as such would be able to experiment with different experiences without wasting their time on creating new profiles or learning how to move around in the new worlds. This could even lead to a fantastic surge in course taking by those who have already done it once (starting with an on-line Spanish course a student may want to try to learn some Hungarian next spring, or a 5-week course in cooking, followed by an improver's photography course, etc.).

... and elsewhere. I'm finding this blog platform restricting, especially in terms of embedding multimedia (or maybe I'm just too much of an immigrant to explore the possibilities?) To treat the subjects of the first few weeks of the course, namely the digital natives fallacy and the Dreyfusian concepts of distance learning, I have created a wiki (screenshot of the home page below).

Since I am slightly more familiar with this environment (I have used it before in projects with my learners and I am going to use it again hence my need to remain conversant with the environment ) the technology is more transparent for me, which allows me to delve deeper into the discussed issues. I can also experiment with multimedia more and thus give vent to my creativity. It all started with Dreyfus' text which stirred quite strong reactions in me, to an extent I decided to break down the text into different themes which I tackled in a series of postings. Due to its chronological nature, the blog was somehow imposing a linear/vertical way of presenting the thoughts whereas I was more interested in verticality,a web-like presentation that can grow unrestricted in all directions. A wiki lent itself more to this. It also gives more freedom to the reader as they can decide in what order they want to explore the topics. The wiki is also public (that was not planned as accidentally I chose the non-education version of the wiki where I cannot create guest accounts; to make access easier for tutor's feedback and later assessment I opted for the 'public' in the accessibility settings), which makes it an additionally interesting experiment in terms of online presence, identity and visibility.

When making a decision to switch to the wiki, I was aware that I was being slightly anarchic and thus might be overstepping the mark. I knew the reasons why we were asked to reflect on our learning using this particular blogging platform and the consequences it might have in terms of assessment (although I hope that creating links between the two platforms will let me bypass any potential problems). At the same time I believe that as an adult learner I am and can be more self-directed and autonomous in achieving my learning goals. 

It is a beautiful place with fantastic piano music, and a location of SL that is a definite must if you like music, gardens, and friendly folk talking about philosophy, art, and science.

Be warned though, the music can be addictive, it kept me there much longer than I intended. It was a welcome relief after trying to remember the names of all the drugs at the VMD location! Of Warburton’s categories, I would say that this is an example of innovative use of SL through establishing a community presence, and through creating social rich interactions.

There was a group discussion going on in the garden area, and it is interesting how real life like I acted. I kept my distance, and sat a little further from the group so that I didn’t disturb them. It didn’t feel right to just go up and sit among them as they seemed to be in class mode. If I recall correctly, they were talking philosophy trying to prove that they are human!

Anyway, because of the serious discussion going on, I was very aware of my “Self”. Maybe now in my 30’s I’m getting older and wiser, but I was tempted to go over and dance on their table just for a laugh, so just maybe …

The location was very organized with a welcome package, and a map of the entire area. There was also a schedule of weekly activities, so I have taken note of that and will be visiting every once in a while to enjoy the music, and listen to what’s being discussed. An interesting benefit of using SL I’ve noticed, is that even if you’re a complete stranger, and not officially a member of a community, no one seems to mind if you sit somewhere nearby and just listen to an interesting discussion, something perhaps which you wouldn’t do in “real” life.

Yes, it was the first time I heave ever used Twitter in a conversation. And as much as I appreciated the new experience, I disliked the fact that it is so difficult to actually follow the course of discussion.

Unlike chat, unlike the discussion forum even, this most asynchronous of all means of communication (well, I’m exaggerating, perhapsJ) is difficult for a partaker not only because it is so stretched in time, but also because it is linear in the way that each new post appears after a previous one (so unlike in a discussion forum where related posts can be grouped together), because a substantial number of various threads/topics may appear all in one discussion, and finally because each and every entry is subject to a character limit, making utterances abbreviated or cut into parts.

Contrary to what I had thought, Twitter threads proved to be very personal (words often spoken directly to someone specific rather than the whole group) and what fascinated me even more was an article by Jutko et.al. where a number of additional advantages of using Twitter were revealed (including but not limited to: high students’ engagement in the study process, extending classroom conversations, expressing personal feelings, revealing one’s shortcomings, mentioning extra-curricular content to find common interest, etc.).

I admit that to fully engage in a 3-day long discussion, a regular check of a few times a day would be necessary, probably.

Yes, I do believe Twitter has its place in the e-education process and I wish to continue my exploration of it starting from reading the bibliography positions from the two Twitter-related articles.

There is something solemn and awe-inspiring about famous people voicing their opinions in public. It is even more so when famous authorities in a given field voice their opinion in their book, with the bibliography section full of learned texts and a few intellectual heavyweights in the list of people thanked. I see something gravely dangerous, however, when an unquestionable scholar gives his/her private opinion on a subject only roughly related to his/her field of expertise. The danger, obviously, being wide acceptance of the scholar’s authority in the new subject based solely on his/her fame.

This, I truly believe, is the case with Hubert Lederer Dreyfus, professor of philosophy, particularly renowned for his insight into phenomenology, existentialism, Martin Heidegger’s understanding of “Being” as well as the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence (http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~hdreyfus/). And it’s this last bit that can make some believe incontrovertibly in prof. Dreyfus’s expertise in whatever subject connected with computers. The bigger, then, was my relief to read an academic article by Burbules, Professor of Educational Policy Studies, supporting my few concerns and adding many more of his own. From overgeneralizations, through ignorance of certain benefits of on-line interaction, through demonization of the internet as such, Dreyfus builds a very grim future for e-learning. What is perhaps the most striking to me as a teacher is prof. Dreyfus’s readiness to criticise matters of education while it is clear his views are based on elaborated comparisons and philosophical assumptions rather than classroom experience and knowledge of pedagogy. It is no wonder, than, that Dreyfus is reputed as a Luddite (http://www.beingintheworldmovie.com/ph-dreyfus.html), trying to oppose not only the inevitable but also the beneficial.

It is true that as a representative of a 1983 generation and a student of this course I am to a large extent biased by my conviction of the importance of omnipresent technology. And I acknowledge the fact that critique of the new is as needed as producing experts in the field. Still, I find more restrained commentaries such as Ray Land’s much more acceptable.

To finish my short disquisition I wish to reveal a comparison that comes to my mind when thinking of Dreyfus. Namely, I picture him as an experienced and mature sports journalist and a commentator. No matter how great his authority and expertise in the sport is, however, he still has very little chance of becoming a famous footballer or even a football team manager.

I appreciate Dreyfus’s book nonetheless, mainly for reassuring me why I want to be involved in e-learning at all.

 Over 80% of UK universities and at least 300 universities around the world teach courses or conduct research in SL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Second_Life).

After doing some research on the World Wide Web, on the SL website, Wikipedia, and a few other blogs and websites, I’m ready to leave the comfort of Holyrood Park, and do some exploration. And being a complete SL newbie, I’m not too concerned with finding a location in a subject/issue/discipline that is necessarily part of my repertoire of interests! I want to find a place that can show me what SL can do, and also what its benefits can be.  

I stumbled around a few interesting and some not so interesting locations (Mostly from http://secondlife.com/destinations/learning), and finally found a place that grabbed my attention. Address:  http://secondlife.com/destination/virtual-medical-doctor

The Virtual Medical Doctor (VMD) is a SL space released by MadPea Productions. It takes you to a time in the future when “Surgery is so minimally invasive that all you have to do is take a pill”. The aim is to learn about the human body, its vital organs, and how various diseases can be cured.

(Warburton, 2009) talks about how a SL experience can facilitate innovation in pedagogy, through: Extended and rich interactions, Visualization and contextualization, Exposure to authentic content and culture, identity play, simulation, Immersion, community presence, and content production. Of these activities, I would say that the VMD fits nicely into the Visualization and Contextualization, and Simulation categories.  

The first thing I noticed when teleporting here was that there is no stumbling about aimlessly as is the case in many SL locations. For someone who isn’t very familiar with SL, this was a welcome because I am still very much in SL learning mode, and therefore happy to find structure and direction in the learning activities where possible.

When you teleport to the VMD, you will be greeted by Poseidon!  The environment has a futuristic and very “Let's get to work” kind of feel to it.

Poseidon assumes nothing about your level of SL expertise. After Touching Poseidon, he will provide you with 4 different options:

If you’re completely new to Second Life, then the Basic Tutorial is the place to start, and after you’re confident in your ability to do a few simple things like walk around, sit on chairs, and interact with objects and characters by “Touching” them, you should be ready to begin with the VMD Tutorial.

Medical education happens on the training level where you learn about the vital human organs (Heart, Lungs, Stomach, etc.), and about medical problems that can occur in these organs.

Next comes the hard part; learning about drugs. I did try my best to understand as much as possible, but I'm not a medical person and found this section somewhat difficult!

Despite the fact that I gave up the drug section fairly quickly, I can see how interesting this kind of environment can be for medical/pharmaceutical students, looking for creative ways to help with their learning.

So after studying and learning at your own pace, and when you're somewhat confident that you've digested enough information about drugs and the body, you can move into a section filled with patients, and where you will find a number of quizzes to test your knowledge.
 

The real fun starts next. It's time to teleport to the hospital on Tupol Island. At the hospital you’ll board one of the 3 different Cheirons.

 Each Cheiron is designed to deal with a different set of medical problems. These are futuristic vehicles, which you enter, and in which you are miniaturized before you begin your journey of exploration inside the human body!  

There are scenarios and challenges, which you’re presented with while inside the body, and where you have to treat different ailments.

In the following scenario I’m faced with an ulcer inside the stomach, which I have to treat before I can progress.

And after completing my first mission I realized that in the same way I was happy to get a sticker for doing my homework when I was at primary school, I’m still very happy to get a reward after doing my homework and completing a mission in Second Life.

Overall, I found this experience a fun example of how virtual environments such as Second Life, can be used to enhance the learning experience in a very practical field such as medicine. The quizzes, the Cherions and the miniaturization process give students the ability to look at the body and its medical problems, through a different set of tools. And although there is no substitute for real practical experience with real patients, I certainly enjoyed the VMD, and I think that games such as these can make learning some very tough subjects allot more enjoyable.  

I explored this SL location on my own, but there is room in the Cheiron for a second passenger! which I can imagine would make this experience even more fun.
The VMD was only released on the 15/January/2011 so it will be interesting to find out a year from now how popular this programme is going to be.  Here's the official trailer for this SL location: