A few weeks ago, a friend of mine got me to sign up on Second Life, a digitally animated world where you can talk to all sorts of people, buy clothing and fly like Neo from the Matrix.

During my first few days, I ended up meeting a ‘digital dude’, at least he looked like a guy. We spent a good hour throwing a giant beach ball back and forth before we actually started to talk. Our conversation started around 11pm and by the time I tore my eyes away from the computer screen it was almost 2 in the morning.

I’ve never been a fan of the avatar world. I prefer the simple, type message, send message, receive message lingo. I can barely walk my avatar in a straight line without walking into someone… or a wall. I don’t think I could manage a Second Life classroom. I might end up sitting on the ceiling, or accidentally start doing the hula on top of my desk.

Professor Jeremy Kemp of San Jose State University created a classroom in Second Life that would allow students to participate in his class through the digital server. The 15-week allows thirty students to learn the workings of the Second Life and the various assigned tasks within the digital classroom.

For a technology dependent generation, a digital classroom makes complete, utter sense. The younger generation is prone to be sponges of technology savvy information, which makes programs like Second Life as easy to do as slipping on Cinderella’s glass slippers, but in our case the small feet reflects the ability to quickly learn the new technology popping up on the spectrum.

As interesting as digital, avatar learning sounds – I personally will stick to the Matrix-flying and leave the digi-learning to the professionals.
—Eming Piansay