Jeremy W. Kemp, an instructional designer at San Jose State University’s School of Library & Information Science, takes exception to a philosophy professor’s recent criticism of college campuses in the virtual world Second Life. The professor, Peter J. Ludlow, of the University of Toronto, described digital campuses in Second Life as uncreative, because, he says, they merely duplicate the appearance of actual campuses.
In a recent e-mail message to educators in Second Life, Mr. Kemp offers several reasons for colleges to do just that. For one thing, incoming students need familiar surroundings when they enter Second Life: “The last thing I want to do is induce cognitive disequilibrium,” he writes.
Mr. Kemp also says it makes sense for colleges to reproduce the look of their buildings in Second Life if they want to promote their real-life campuses. Not all instructors, he adds, have the skills to create architecturally unusual buildings in the virtual world.
“You can call our campuses drab and uncreative,” Mr. Kemp argues, “or celebrate their usability and focus on learning.”—Andrea L. Foster
