IOL Virtual School in Second Life

In contrast to education in real world classrooms, virtual classrooms IN iol educational program offer no physical limitations.

"I'm very excited to be part of this," says Nergiz Kern, the instructor teaching English in IOL'S Second Life school.

IslamOnline.net (IOL) launched on Wednesday, July 9, its educational program in Second Life's virtual world.

People from around the world can gather to share in the lessons and learn.

The program will have a wide range of classes ranging from language teaching to soft skills and counseling services.

The first class is English language course for pre-intermediate level students with Kern, who has a diploma from Cambridge in teaching English to adults.

Tens of people have already applied for the course.

The class started at 18:30 GMT on IOL's second virtual island inside SL.

It will last for 6 weeks, with two classes weekly on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

Besides Kern, Batoul Boutha, a professor in Halab University, Syria, will start teaching Arabic language to the English-speaking audience soon.

"I am looking forward to that because I would love to improve my Arabic," said Kern.

The virtual world of Second Life is entirely built and owned by its booming population.

Since it was created in 2003 by the San Francisco-based Linden Labs, Second Life grew exponentially and has over nine million subscribed users today.

In the animated world, real people use their avatars, alternative proxies in SL, to "live" alternate identities in a virtual community, complete with homes, cars, shopping malls and a virtual currency, known as Linden Dollars.

IslamOnline.net was the first Islamic media organization to host a full island inside the world of Second Life.

Different Education

According to Kern, education in SL is different when compared to real world classrooms in several ways.

"Language learning in SL is immersive," she says.

"It is similar to being in a country where English is spoken."

In contrast to education in real world classrooms, virtual classrooms offer no physical limitations.

Your classmate can be from different side of the world.

Instructors can also make use of the 3-dimensional capabilities of the virtual world to enhance their lessons.

"Role-plays, which are important for language learning, can take place in 'real' situations," explains Kern.

"If they are learning shopping language, we actually go shopping, practice ordering food in a restaurant, etc."

It is also a safe environment for someone to try out their language skills, especially to people who are too shy to speak face-to-face because they are insecure about their language proficiency.

But Kern says there is a downside as well.

"Planning lessons takes much more time in SL than in the real world. Everything needs to be prepared in advance," explained Kern.

"In addition to that, I do not see my students. I see their avatars but they could be away from the computer pretending to be participating!

"This is one of the reasons why the lessons need to be very interactive: students have to talk, work in different pairs and do role-plays".

Educational programs are shaping up to be one of the most powerful uses for the computer-generated world of Second Life

SL is now home to more than 70 different educational facilities such as the University of California and Cambridge University.

Needed

The educational program is the most recent of IOL educational tools set in SL.

Saed Badran has been giving Qur'an recitation classes on IOL's island for the past month.

"I found there was a real need to teach Qur'an recitation in this world," says Badran, a Palestinian living in the US and studying for a degree in computer science.

"There are many new generations of Muslims from the West on SL now," he explained. "I want to try to reach them."

Kern believes it is important to have more educational and communication programs to attract residents of the ever-growing world of SL.

"I think it is important to offer Muslims and non-Muslims good alternatives to other activities in SL," she said.

The virtual educational program is only the latest of the IOL projects in the computer-generated world.

The first IOL project in Second Life was launching a Ramadan tent during the holy month of Ramadan last year.

Last December, IOL launch the hajj educational program on the island that helped people who want to learn about the soul-searching journey.

The project was a huge success, drawing hundreds of visitors from all over the world everyday to visit the island.

IOL plans to expand on the course this year by upgrading the project to make it more immersive and accurate to its real world counterpart.

IOL is currently planning a center for lectures and fatwa sessions.

Using text and audio, the center will be the first stop for all new visitors to the IOL island. It will offer many of the website services to the residents of the virtual world.

To register in IOL educational program in Second Life click here.

To learn how to register in Second Life, you can read our detailed guide here.