Legal 391V 1st Blog Post

Response to the 100 Messages Read:

One of the most interesting things that I found on the message boards was the united feeling that there needs to be a virtual university in Second Life. This is such an interesting concept to me for two reasons. The first is that I am still somewhat skeptical (in a luddite-like fashion) of completely internet courses. I realize this is based on the fact that I am used to tangiblity when it comes to academics. However, I am aware that once something like an SL university comes into being, I would be more comfortable about it, but I find it hard to conceptualize. However, also as my participation in SL until now has been limited, I guess this would be less daunting and more realistic to me once I explore the world more. I am intrigued that there are many educators who are gun-ho about this idea and I cannot wait to see how it pans out.

An issue that I also read about in the interest in dress code. Again, not being accustomed to SL- life, I was intrigued to read about how attached people feel to their avatars and consequently the manner in which they dress them. There was a long thread about how to appropriately dress one's avatar for teaching a class and the concurrent idea of how must one present one's self in the online world. Do educators need to have two avatars , one for fun and one for work? Also, because of the level of connection that many feel between their avatars and their RL selves, is there the possibility that students could create an uncomfortable environment for their professors (i.e. running into one's professor in Amsterdam in SL or just harassing their avatar in ways that are only possible because of the Virtual Worlds).

My interest in the question of sartorial concerns in SL is relation to the RL line between student-teacher relationships. As students are more inclined in RL to utilize the internet as a means communications, it could be surmised that normal barrier between students and teachers might be compromised. Especially considering the means of talking in SL, namely "IM". I do not naively think that the authority figure loses power per se, i merely think that there might be some awkward moments and possible breaches of etiquette.