Abstract

As educators, it is our responsibility to learn and adapt to changing times in society. Even in the last ten years there have been fundamental changes in how instruction is delivered. In the late 1990’s, the boom of the Internet created online classes, discussion boards, wikis, blogs, and many other new methods of communication. It is a decade later, and some believe another fundamental change is on the horizon. This paper posits virtual worlds such as Second Life as a possible avenue for a potentially fundamental change in how people communicate through the Internet. The paper also discusses how such a change will affect the educational community, including virtual classrooms, online collaboration, and 3D manipulatives.