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January 23, 2009, 03:44 PM ET
College Debate Teams to Face Off in Second Life
College debate matches can be physically intense — with participants rattling off arguments at top speed and gesturing dramatically. So it will be interesting to see if a debate contest can work in Second Life, the virtual world.
This week Stephen Llano, the director of debate at St. John’s University, in New York, announced what is billed as the first tournament debate held in Second Life. It will take place on February 4 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time in the university’s virtual campus (shown below). A two-person team from St. Johns will go head-to-head with two students from the University of Vermont. The topic will be whether or not colleges should limit tenure for professors.
The event will not be an official competition, but if it goes well, it could lead to virtual matches in the future that would count toward tournament scoring, said Mr. Llano.
He said the technology could be particularly helpful in letting students compete against teams in other countries. “Not everyone gets a chance to travel internationally to debate against universities all over the world,” Mr. Llano said. “We could have some international debate online where people could stay at home and particpate in an international debate at very low costs.”
He said he was not sure how well the technology would work. The plan is to use a voice-chat feature of Second Life so that competitors can hear each other. Meanwhile, the participants can use their cartoon-like virtual characters, or avatars, to gesture to emphasize their points.
Mr. Llano said Second Life was chosen for the event over other types of online chat environments because so many colleges have built virtual campuses there. In the past, some debates have been held online using Web cams rather than virtual worlds like Second Life, he said. —Jeffrey R. Young
Categories: Virtual-Worlds
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