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At Robinson, the virtual world provides opportunities
to teach students in a new way. “Today’s students
were born in the ’90s when the internet first took
off,” said David McDonald, assistant professor and
director of emerging technology at Robinson. “This
type of technology is very natural to them, and
using it helps keep them interested.” The College
uses Second Life as part of an introduction course
for undergraduate students, but the planning has
already begun on the graduate level as well. “This
type of technology begs for ‘out of the box’ thinking,”
said McDonald. “Schools who are already in
Second Life have a fairly conventional presence.
While our own Robinson Island is still in the
developmental stage, our goal is to allow students
to broaden their experiences using the technology.”
One of the ways McDonald hopes to use the virtual
medium is in the College’s Herman J. Russell, Sr.
International Center for Entrepreneurship.
“Entrepreneurship has really begun to take hold
in Second Life, and we are looking at ways of
incorporating that aspect of the technology into
our program.”
 But the technology is still in the early stages. “I don’t
think we’re using even 2 percent of the value being
created in the vir tual space,” said Kaneva’s CEO and
founder, Christopher Klaus. “Right now
most companies are looking at it and saying
‘wow this [is] cool’ but aren’t sure if they
should invest time and money in it just yet.”
But a recent study suggests that companies
may want to start investigating sooner rather
than later. According to Gartner Research,
Inc., 80 percent of active internet users, or
250 million people, are expected to participate
online in virtual worlds by 2011.
Klaus believes that most companies will begin
to explore virtual worlds over the next couple
of years. “Ultimately it comes down to
culture and strategy. Clearly, this is all at the
early adopter stage, with most cutting-edge
companies already thinking through what
a virtual world is and how best to use it. As
with most technology, it’s just a matter of
time before it seeps into the mainstream.”
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