To help educators get over the virtual hurdles, Georgia State Technology Project Manager Paula Christopher is creating a first-of-its-kind instructor support island. On a large whiteboard on the wall in her office, Christopher is laying the framework for her island, labeling offices and auditoriums and more unique meeting places such as sandboxes and bird nests. "Teaching in this kind of a world is different than just going in front of a lectern and teaching to your students, so we want to make sure they know what they're getting into," said Christopher, who works in the eLearning Group of Georgia State's Educational Technology Services.

Christopher plans to purchase the island by the end of the year and have it completed by summer. It will include tutorials on where to get teaching ideas, what islands to visit, how to dress an avatar, and how to build and manipulate objects, among other Second Life topics. Professors like McDonald will also be lending their experience to the project. For example, McDonald this fall asked his students, about 13 classes of 45 students each, to develop a list of covenants to govern behavior during class sessions. That list will be available on the island as a guide for other educators. "When you have a large number of students and you have no code of conduct and no orderly way of doing things, everyone talks at the same time," McDonald said.

Although more than 300 universities already have a presence in Second Life, Georgia State's instructor support island could be the first of its kind, Christopher said. It also could end up being one island in a Georgia State archipelago that will eventually make up a virtual campus. Stephen Harmon, chair of learning technologies in Georgia State's College of Education, is working on a virtual K-12 school island and hopes to have it running by the summer. There, Georgia State pre-service teachers would take turns as the teacher, while their peers assume the role of students. "We hope to focus on particular problem issues and allow the pre-service teacher to experience those before they get into a classroom," Harmon said. "We hope to cram a decade's worth of experience into a semester."

Similarly, the Robinson College of Business now has two Second Life islands, one purchased through a grant and the other donated by a faculty member. In the future, Georgia State students may have an opportunity to build businesses on the islands, gaining real-world experience without the financial risk of the real world, McDonald said. As they work to develop their islands, Georgia State educators like Harmon will continue to take their students into Second Life and show them the educational opportunities already in the world. For example, Harmon and his class this spring will visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's island, where students can learn about meteorology by grabbing onto a weather balloon and floating above the atmosphere. "The idea is to put learning into a real context," Harmon said. "Second Life allows people to build things in a simulated context, so learning can occur in a meaningful way. You learn by participating."