Second Life®: A 3D Virtual Immersive Environment for Teacher Preparation Courses in a Distance Education Program

Many colleges and universities rely upon online programs to support distance delivery of personnel preparation programs in special education and related services. These distance education programs enable individuals who live or work in rural communities to access training programs to earn teaching certification and assist rural schools in providing much-needed professional development opportunities for preservice and inservice personnel. Instructors have begun to use real-time online formats, such as voice chat, teleconferencing, and virtual reality applications, to increase learner participation in online courses and promote a sense of community across individuals at multiple sites. This article describes promising practices for creating and implementing learning activities in Second Life®, a virtual world, in a teacher education program that serves prospective and practicing teachers in many rural communities. The authors present a rationale for using this virtual reality application, explain how it has been implemented in a distance education program, and outline future directions for using it with other emerging technologies.