I am in awe of the facilitators - Jillian and Chris - you did a great job.  I was the evaluator for the SLENZ project, and found the whole project fascinating - from the dynaimcs of the project team right through to the responses of the midwifery and foundation studies students who used the project builds. The environment of Second Life is highly engaging and immersive, and gives a sense of being ‘really there’. Some of the students seemed less inhibited and more ‘out there’ than in the real life situation.

One example was a mature Muslim woman student who dressed for face-to-face classes in traditional Muslim dress, complete with burka. Her avatar was a fully fledged young punk woman, complete with face studs, spiked hair etc. When I asked her why she chose this avatar, she said that ‘It makes me feel more free’!

However, for me the environment has disadvantages of being fairly cumbersome, taking a long time to get the hang of building one’s own avatar, and having high demands in terms of hardware specs and broadband connectivity.