Educational institutions are increasingly exploring the affordances of 3D virtual worlds for instruction and research, but few studies have been done to document current practices and uses of this emerging technology. This observational survey examines the virtual presences of 170 accredited educational institutions found in one such 3D virtual world called Second Life®, created by SanFrancisco...

a r t i c l e i n f o Advances in network infrastructure and computing technology have made 3D virtual environment increasingly popular and less costly. Many education institutions have shown interests in its application in teaching and learning activities. In this project, we evaluated how the 3D virtual environment can facilitate students in achieving learning outcomes. To provide students wi...

Virtual Colonialism (Ameli, 2011) is reflecting a new trend of colonialismin the virtual space parallel to the physical space. According to Ameli(2007), withthe “Dual Spacization” of life,the imperial powers like the United States of Americatake the advantage of the synchronization and translocality of the virtual space toexpand their realm of imperial power through the “attraction” and “persua...

The need for a concise definition for life has been accentuated by recent interest in computer based Artificial Life (A-Life). We attempt to apply conventional approaches to defining life in the domain of computer programs. Chemical autopoiesis in the physical space is accepted as necessary and sufficient for life. This forces us to make a distinction between physical and virtual entities. From...

virtual water adds a new dimension to crop trades and provides a new way of thinking about water scarcity. a systematic analysis of virtual water flows requires integration of all critical drivers of virtual water flows under a single consistent framework. the aim of this study was to assess virtual water flows related to trades of grain crops (wheat, corn, rice, and coarse cereals) and their i...

Second Life, a participant-created multi-user virtual environment (MUVE), gained sudden media acclaim in 2006. Prior to that, the world was developing many of the characteristics that have come into their own today, such as virtual fashion lines, a thriving virtual economy, scripted interactive furniture, vehicles, and toys. Perhaps not surprisingly, much of the early content was adult in natur...

This study explores the link between blog use and global quality of life satisfaction as subjective well-being. This study posits that blogging enhances social interactions between online users, which will develop their own virtual social identity. It is also proposed that developed virtual social identity will motivate people to expand their online social networks which will result in their gl...

This hybrid review-case study introduces three-dimensional (3-D) virtual worlds and their educational potential to medical/health librarians and educators. Second life (http://secondlife.com/) is perhaps the most popular virtual world platform in use today, with an emphasis on social interaction. We describe some medical and health education examples from Second Life, including Second Life Medi...

Virtual worlds (VWs) are computer-simulated environments which allow users to create their own virtual character as an avatar. With the rapidly growing user volume in VWs, platform providers launch virtual goods in haste and stampede users to increase sales revenue. However, the rapidity of development incurs virtual unrelated items which will be difficult to remarket. It not only wastes virtua...