We quite often hear, not least because I write about it, about what the teachers think of Second Life. But how about what the students think? I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to interview Daliah Carter, who took her English 105 -Technology in Education - course in Second Life in the Poe House, used for a different college english course by the same professor. Daliah was a little nervous about being interviewed, and so I'm editing her answers together rather than giving direct quotes.

Daliah first came to Second Life in February, directly as a result of her course, where it was a required element. She was a little worried at first, not about learning in Second Life, but because she thought it would be seen as frivolous - "like MySpace" to potential future employers and she was a little scared because she felt she didn't know what SL was all about and what the people would be like.
Daliah had prepared a list of benefits she'd seen from learning in SL:

1. Students could always find someone in SL whether it was another student or professor.
2. SL made it easy to keep up with the assignments. Everything students needed for class could be found in SL as well so if you couldn't make class, you could still do the work and hand it in on time.
3. SL was not just an educational tool it helped students learn more about computers than any computer class we had taken in the past because they were actually using them directly and intensively.
4. SL gave us the opportunity to chat with students from other colleges as well as fellow classmates so we could all help each other, and to research people from all over the world.
5. Students could meet at one location. There was no need to exchange phone numbers or e-mail address. Using open chat everyone can communicate with every other student there which enabled much better working together and helping each other when you got stuck because you could get a range of views very quickly.
6. Students did their homework on notecard and sent them to the professor who could correct them and send them back right away, which made it easy to do corrections.

Although, in theory, these students could have met regularly at college, in practice their varied schedules meant it was easier to meet in SL from home at a time that was more convenient for them.

When faced with the acid test - if you had to go back and do your college time again, would you like more of the teaching to be done in SL, Daliah replied with a resounding "Yes."

Daliah has overcome her initial worries and is still in SL some four months after her first visit. She is here most days, and has introduced her RL husband to SL as well. Of her original course only 3 are still here. They are all "non-traditional" students - older than the norm.

I will finish with Daliah's words about being in SL and learning in SL.

I just think that education in sl had great benefits for me and most of the other students. It made learning fun. Plus we could all work together more easily. We could always find someone willing to help and find the professor of course with any questions we had. We did not have to wait till we met again in rl class.

Eloise: If you were writing a sentence for next year's prospectus about your course, what would you say?

I would tell the students to give sl a chance that it would be an experience that they would never forget.