SL's need for education.

I think that Second life would be good for teaching classes, not just game based classes like how to build or how to get around the game. I always thought this was a good idea, even after my art class failed. Reason I think it failed was because it was something not done before, and a lot of people weren't sure. I think if there was more then one class that wasn't game-based, then it could succeed and be known.

I personally wouldn't mind having a language class. Since second life is so different as far as different languages. Why isn't there a language class?

Just a matter of organisation, I believe. Peek on down at the japanese forum. We've got no shortage of students, but we do have a perennial shortage of teachers. Scattered across the globe - as we are - it's nigh impossible to pick a time that suits more than a small percentage of your student base.

Even those of us who teach classes on game-skills often have more attendees than we can practically cover (I can usually manage my basic building class for about five...more than that and I can't give folks the sort of personal attention that I feel they deserve). Swamped classes lead to sterile material, and students being left behind

That said, while my japanese skills are, frankly, horrifingly inadequate, I'm always willing to share the little I know with anyone who wants to learn it. On any topic or subject, SL or RL. There's just not enough hours in the day to go all the teaching (and newbie helping!) that I want to do.

Just for the record, there is a mailing list for people teaching all sorts of classes, courses, and tutorials in RL using SL as a cyberlearning platform. If you're interested, ask Pathfinder to put you in the "educators mailing list".

Mind you, this list has lots of traffic! I don't know how many people — most are college professors — are subscribers of the list (I'd imagine several hundreds) but there are around 50-100 posts per day in that mailing list, from a quite large "core group" which is very strongly engaged in using SL as their platform of choice for education and training.

Also, Squagmire Stravinsky is setting up an island for teaching English to non-native speakers in SL. This should be a very interesting project to follow.

I went to a class on marketing in world. Can't remember who held it atm, and since I'm at work and can't log in, I can't see the well organized notecard with the instructor's name on it, (sorry to said instructor!)

That said, this class ROCKED. I am in marketing in RL and I still learned a thing or two in this basic marketing class. I would love to attend more classes like this...and I'm thinking of holding some classes of my own - of the relational type. (relating to others in a healthy way.) And before anyone scoffs at me teaching a class like that...I KNOW how to do this stuff and I do strive to practice it on a daily basis, but I am human and I make mistakes...don't you?

Anyway, more classes for stuff outside of SL is a good thing too!

Search on Campus Second Life. Either in this forum or on the SL website. You will find lots of information about courses offered by accredited educational institutions.

As to language learning specifically, I would not expect that to be successful until voice audio is available. At least two efforts on that are now in progress.

I am presently working on a project to produce demos showing the educational prospects of SL. The intent is to attract more people who have such objectives. If any of you are interestes in offering help, search this forum for EDMO. TM

That sounds like one of Persephone's Phoenix classes If yes, I can only recommend them — she's outstandingly good.