Journal Article 5
Real-life Migrants on the MUVE
Stories of Virtual Transitions

By Ross A, Perkins
And Cathy Arreguin
Learning and Leading with Tecnology
May 2007


Muve is a multi-user virtual environment. Developed in the 1970’s Muve allows participants to communicate and work together with their “avatars” to create environments that can be explored or built at will. An avatar is an animated character controlled by the user.
One of the more popular Muves is Second Life created by Linden Labs, with hundreds of thousands worldwide users. It has caught the attention of educators, who see great possibilities. Universities and colleges use the main grid to teach traditional and distant learning classes. There are grids sets up for different age groups. One of the most popular with educators is the grid set up for 13-17 year olds. In this grid a teacher can go in and set up islands, then give her students instructions on what to develop on each island. They can recreate a time, event or lifestyle from the past, or develop what their own world would look like.
Second Life is one of the easier programs to use. With a little help and some practice students can be developing their own “worlds” in no time. Some of the assignments that have been successful are to have the student go in and develop a timeline of a particular event such as WWII. On the time line the student can recreate places and objects from that time frame that the average student would not have the ability to see or experience. They can use their avatar visit another student’s world and ask questions on how and why they came to the designs that they used.
Students who have used second life in their education experiences have claimed a new wider understanding of the world around them, and social causes. They also feel a sense of control over their own learning. This seems like an amazing teaching tool and has endless possibilities for students.


Question: What are some of the advantages to using this program?

Answer: The program has endless possibilities. A good educator can come up with a wide variety of different aspects to use it for, History, Math, Social Studies and Literature to name a few. The best part is the student is completely in charge; the project can be as in-depth and detailed as the student wants. Like in any assignment the level of effort will vary with the students, but most teachers who have used the system have been amazed at the results they see in their students work.

Question: How safe is the system?

Answer: Whenever a student has access to the computer and through it the world, safe guards need to be in place. From my understanding of the system it is restricted system. Restricted in the sense that only people who the educator or teacher has approved can have access to the “island” or materials set up for their group.