Second Life could be a wonderful tool for educational purposes, though students might not like the ramifications it would have on them. If schools across the country adopted a Second Life classroom they could use that to reach ill students, like those with the flu or chicken pox, who tend to miss much time recuperating. By allowing these students to actively partake in the virtual extension of the class it would alleviate the stress that goes along with coming back to school and having to play catch-up. For older college students, it could add an unprecedented dimension of realness into online taught classes. Though the professor or teacher for the class would need to have some sort of master control over who would be allowed to leave and control over the audio chat capabilities of his or her students.
Even though these possibilities seem like a good idea, there is a major factor hindering Second Life. While the program is open to anyone who wants to signup and download the program, the program requires the user to have an adequately powered computer and a fast Internet connection. The majority of college students use laptops, which by and large use “integrated graphics” chips which are not very powerful, and the laptops that do have dedicated graphics cards are often large, bulky, and poor battery life. (The notable exception being the Macbook Pro, which is thin, fast, and has a good graphics card, though the starting price point of $1999 during a recession makes it not an option to many college students.) However, looking into the near future, companies like NVidia, Intel, and AMD are creating newer breeds of integrated graphics solutions that would make Second Life more capable and realistic on affordable laptops.
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