Students log on to learn in Second Life

A PIONEERING educational project which will see students embark on a 'second life' on the internet has been launched in Plymouth.

Technology and education experts have joined forces to create a new learning area in the burgeoning web community, called Second Life.

Students, lecturers and other project leaders launched the initiative at Stoke Damerel Community College.

It is hoped the site will help to promote reading and writing among the 13-to-17-year-olds on the junior version of the website.

Darren Towers, a media advanced skills teacher at the college, said: "We are trying new ways of looking into teaching to adapt to how young people spend their time.

"During these lessons, which will run for the whole term, students will venture onto an island, create their own characters and in doing so an air of mystery.

"They will get to develop their characters and learn how to communicate in their own virtual world."

Mr Towers said the students will meet various other surprise characters on the website.

City communications company TwoFour and Plymouth City Council bought space in the web-based three-dimensional world where users can create their own characters or avatars.

The firm's Second Life developer Andrew Jinman has been working with Darren Towers, and students to develop the island.

He and colleague Claire Ashton came into the Stoke school to explain how the website worked as part of a day looking at the creative industries.

The idea is to encourage youngsters to get involved in creative writing.

One of the ideas is that young people's avatars could meet the avatars of famous authors and have 'face-to-face' conversations in real time.

TwoFour has already teamed up with the University of Leicester to create the web-based 'island' as part of the worldwide virtual environment Second Life.

The university has said that in five years, students should find learning online through the website as normal as attending lectures.