Caltech is among the very best universities in the world, famous for being the home of Richard Feynman and other science legends. (And perhaps even more famously, for being the setting for Big Bang.) Now it's helping drive a rebirth in educational uses for virtual worlds with Virtech:
Virtech is an interactive, social, and private space inside Second Life, designed to furnish the Caltech community with an alternative to in-person interaction. Through the use of avatars, participants can visit a rich virtual space furnished to enable engaging experience as well as seamless social interaction. Virtech is a safe, pleasant space to socialize, create, collaborate, and learn. It is open only to the members of the Caltech community and their approved guests, and the members of other academic communities by a special arrangement. It is operated by the Virtual Reality Lab, which is a part of the Center for Data-Driven Discovery at Caltech.
Virtech's launch is led by Caltech astrophysicist George Djorgovski, a longtime advocate of virtual worlds for pedagogy. (Unsurprisingly, his Second Life avatar name is "Curious George".) While virtual worlds for universities peaked and declined about a decade ago, COVID-19 has once again brought their potential value to the fore:
"The pandemic has taken away an important component of the student life," as Professor Djorgovski puts it to me. "In the normal times, the incoming students have to establish new friendships and networks, learn from the older students, and collaborate. The older students are also affected, and this is becoming a critical issue for their social and psychological well-being. Standard social media or videoconferencing apps are a poor substitute for the interpersonal interactions, but Virtual Worlds offer a qualitatively superior experience."
More here. As a first goal, he and the Virtech team are planning to give students a 3D space for social interaction and collaboration. "Later on, we plan to use it for educational activities, such as the lectures, office hours, discussion groups, etc."
And no, notwithstanding SL's somewhat sordid reputation (or for that matter, what Big Bang might imply), Virtech has restrictions on Adult-rated content, privacy protections for students, and is barred from outside visitors:
Avatars created through our portal by a special design cannot access any adult rated sites or content in Second Life. No adult content or activities are allowed within Virtech, and the same rules and protections as on the physical Caltech campus apply here. No outsiders can come to Virtech.
For more on the thought process behind Virtech, and the value of SL versus other virtual worlds (OpenSim, Sinespace, etc), watch this very professorial lecture (above) from Curious George, recorded in Virtech.
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