Age problems in using SL for education

I've nearly persuaded my college that it would be a great idea to use SL for teaching here and buying a sim to build its own virtual classrooms etc.
The biggest problem I forsee is the age group of our students - they start here at 16/17 and pass through 18 while studying. Many of my classes are a mixture of 17 -18 year olds.
So what course should we opt for? The teen grid or the adult one? The rules as they are would ban half my classes from either!

Get the open source server software and build your own grid.

cu
Aleco

Talk to LL, they do allow adults on the Teen Grid in controlled circumstances, at least according to some of the posts on here from people who say they have been allowed in for specific projects. There must be many educators in your position with classes that straddle the 18 year old line, they should be able to come up with a solution.

Well, this is one of the bad things about the teen grid.

It's good to know that our teens are safe in the teen grid. So to separate the grid from the teen grid is a great idea.

However ...

I am also a teacher who teaches adults, youths and kids in RL. I also bring RL classes to SL and teach for the official german sailing license for example, using the great 3D visualisation advantages of SL. I see SL as a great communication platform to teach stuff in the internet that before SL would not have been possible for online teaching.

Now the problem: I often teach RL groups of youths, that prepare for the German "Abitur", the graduation that allows to study at one of the universities.
My students are of the age 16 - 20, and there is no chance ever to bring them together in SL.

Sure I might apply as an educator on the teen grid, and I think that would not be a problem. However, I can meet my 16-17 aged students there, while those at the age of 18-20 have to stay on the adult grid, they are not allowed to all register on the teen grid.

So no chance to bring my classes together for great education experiences in SL.

Well, this is the age group that like to use the computer for learning, this is the age group that could benefit most from great 3D interactive classes on SL ... but we cannot bring them together. And I know, many colleagues have the same problem: great plans but some of them do not even know that they do wrong inviting their 16-17 yo to the adult grid for a class.

It's a pity that we cannot bring these student groups to SL, at least not together.

What we need are new ideas, maybe in the direction of a better age verification or about a third grid, where teen grid and adult grid overlap, of course controlled, all PG (or even safer) and maybe also with controlled access for educators and student groups.

The obvious solution would be to make the teen grid literally for teens - in other words, for 13-19 year olds inclusive.

Throwing people off the teen grid at 18 seems weird - there are plenty of teens on the adult grid legally (eighteen and nineteen year olds) who aren't actually allowed on the teen grid, even though they're teens!

That way there could be some overlap - you could register on both grids when you reach 18 and not have to leave the teen grid until you're familiarised with the adult grid.

This problem will be going away eventually