Education & Nonprofits?

Teach and reach across boundaries to make a difference

The Second Life® world enhances distance learning, collaboration, demonstrations and simulations. Early on, universities and libraries staked their claim in the virtual world and have since been pioneering uses of the unique Second Life tools to reach — and remain relevant to — a new generation. Nonprofits are also making their mark in-world and out. Both national-level and grassroots organizations conduct successful fundraising events and information campaigns in Second Life that impact the lives of people everywhere.

Educators teach better, reach farther
Current adults would refer to the digital world as being full of distractions, but younger people have established neuropathways we do not; for them it's the norm, not 'multitasking'.Close Quote
— MLani Montgomery. Quoted on NMC Campus Observer, Feb 24th, 2007
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Hundreds of universities, schools and libraries have already found that Second Life offers a confluence of teaching tools not available through any other medium. Learning is interactive and social, in real-time or at a student's own pace.

Distance Learning
Classes may take place in a venerable Ivy League hall, an ancient Greek amphitheater, a space station or scruffy sandbox. This environmental context grounds far-flung students and teachers in a shared reality. Personalized avatars and gestures provide visual cues that enrich communication between people who've never met face-to-face. The endlessly customizable Second Life environment and interactive capabilities allow for boundless creativity in the classroom.

Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society opened a campus extension in Second Life. In Fall 2006, professor Charles Nesson's class CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion met in-world to study the persuasive qualities of internet communication media . The Berkman Second Life campus has also hosted a moot trial of a real-world federal court case.

Collaboration
Students share ideas and stay in touch through multiple communication channels — voice, instant message, chat and group notices. Real-time building tools allow groups to create projects together and make modifications on the fly.

Architecture students at Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, meet at their virtual office to share designs that explore the potential for merging reality and representation. University of Texas at Dallas art students display their latest real-world and virtual world creations in floating studios.

Self-directed Learning
Students learn on their own time and at their own pace, browsing information kiosks, interactive objects, virtual libraries and museums.

Real-world service company Alliance Library System opened Information Island to facilitate the entry of dozens of smaller university and community libraries into the virtual world. Visitors to any of these virtual libraries may find browesable catalogs, information about real-life services, discussion and reading groups. secondlife.com

Attend Conferences and Events
Academic and professional conferences can be expensive to attend, but now universities are broadcasting conferences, panels, and lectures in-world using streaming video. Remote audiences are able to ask questions of the speakers as well as chat and network amongst themselves in these "mixed reality" events.

Teen's Learn Together
Teenagers from around the world congregate in Teen Second Life to build together, run businesses and socialize, and educators have seized this opportunity to connect with kids through this new medium. The leadership organization Global Kids offers workshops on topics like racism and public diplomacy and conducts an ongoing Power of Citizenry program in Teen Second Life.

Nonprofits raise funds and awareness
Now, more than ever, we know that a virtual community can be engaged just as effectively as a real community to help fight cancer.Close Quote
— Michael Mitchell, American Cancer Society, National VP and Executive Director of the Futuring & Innovation Center.
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The Second Life platform offers nonprofits a powerfully interactive way to reach out and mobilize the public. Dozens of nonprofits have already built their headquarters in-world including the MacArthur Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation, International Rescue Committee, Boomer Esiason Foundation and Friends of the Urban Forest, among others. The nonprofit service organization Tech Soup offers a listing of nonprofits in Second Life and a HUD that allows one-click teleporting to many nonprofits' headquarters.

Raise Funds
 The American Cancer Society holds an annual "Relay for Life" virtual walk-a-thon. In 2006, more than a thousand participants raised US$40,000 in 24 hours, walking their avatars through simulations of real-world locations. Unlike the real-world event, people with immobilizing disabilities were able to participate fully in this virtual fundraiser. The Second Life micropayment system allows nonprofits to accept donations from people in any country without having to set up credit card processing or an external currency exchange — all transactions are made in the virtual currency of Linden Dollars (L$) and deposited directly into the nonprofit's Second Life account. In 2007, more than US$82,000 was raised before the walk-a-thon event.

Public Education
Like a 3-D website, a nonprofit's headquarters in Second Life operates as an educational center that residents can visit at any time. Visitors learn about your organization through informational videos, notecards, images, interactive demonstrations and lectures. The alternative copyright organization Creative Commons hosts a gallery that displays mash-ups by artists using freely licensed images. Their headquarters also has an auditorium and "donation jar". Build Community Second Life provides the ideal location for events to bring together employees, volunteers, benefactors and recipients from across the country and the globe. Inworld meetings and working groups stimulate collaboration and information sharing. And the parties are great — with no clean up afterward!

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, resident ReallyRick Metropolitan set up a memorial and donation site for the disaster relief fund of the American Red Cross. His gesture snowballed into a grassroots movement. Residents created a virtual copy of New Orleans' French Quarter and hosted several live fundraising events, including a Mardi Gras parade.

The Second Life platform is a powerful communication tool that educators and nonprofits are putting to good use — to connect, inform and change the lives of people who would otherwise never meet.

Resources

For more information about current educational and nonprofit activities in Second Life, contact Lewis PR at secondlife(at)LewisPR.com.