Do Educators Need a Second Life? Exploring possibilities for enriched technology-based distance learning Anita Zijdemans Boudreau, PhD College of Education Pacific University United States zijdemans@pacificu.edu Scot Headley, PhD College of Education, Distance Education George Fox University United States Robin Ashford, MLIS Portland Center Library George Fox University United States Abstract: This paper reports outcomes of our first Action Research study involving implementing Second Life [SL] in a graduate distance course on exploring community online. Participant blog entries and transcripts of ‘in-world’ class sessions were analyzed to determine: how well the participants learned to be successful SL residents; whether observations and meeting discussions reflected themes of community and experiential learning; and how participants evaluated their experiences and the educational potential of SL. Results indicate that SL is a complex environment requiring much practice to develop competencies for navigating in- world. Once accomplished, however, participants reported that although SL did not replicate real life, they experienced personal and emotional connections with the communities and residents they engaged with. It was also agreed that SL has potential for a variety of educational applications. The affordance of SL to sustain community and actively engage participants – crucial elements for collaborative and experiential learning – warrants further investigation. Context & Motivation Web 2.0 has generated growing interest amongst educators; its inherently collaborative tools can be seen as being ideally suited for supporting learning communities and constructivist approaches. Amongst these, Second Life ® (SL) is an immersive 3D virtual world imagined and created by its users that has grown to millions of participants worldwide since its launch in 2003. This research explores the affordances of Second Life for supporting community and experiential learning in the context of distance learning. Second Life is considered by some to embody the true spirit of Web 2.0 in that resident-generated content comprises an essential part of activity ‘in-world’. Here is a world entirely imagined and constructed by its participants, and it is this feature that has attracted a host of institutions, universities, colleges, and libraries to use SL as a platform for distance learning, K-12 and higher education teaching and learning, professional training, and virtual campuses (De Lucia et. al, 2009). But what is it exactly that Second Life has to offer? Can it support learning communities? Does it truly enrich the learning experience? Is it a viable educational medium or just another passing trend? Do educators need a second life? As a research team with varied backgrounds – in teacher education, technology-based distance learning, and library sciences – but a mutual interest in distance education, we were interested in studying the capacity of Second Life for enhancing rich community, experiential learning, and recreating the richness of face-to-face interaction. This paper reports our first study involving implementing Second Life in a graduate level distance course on exploring community online.