We all have a second life online

Secondlife did surprise me with its 3D virtual world and the communicative methods. I believe one of the original aims of SL is for education which cost 815billion dollars. According to the introduction video, the educational objectives of SL are as following: to explain pedagogical relevance of SL; to overview the educational locations in SL; to show use of educational tools in SL; and to explore use of learning archetypes in SL.
There are sth. we cannot achieve in the real life, or I should say sth. we cannot take full advantage of. Such as, role playing, like you can choose a real role with prepared actor's lines and well-made scenes as well as costumes in Shakespeare's plays. Another example, the tutorials, like you can visit the Ohio University SL campus, which is attractive to those who want to experience the university life.
But what students show their enthusiasm in SL should be the virtual world. Once they are attracted in it, they will naturally learn how to communicate with others, collaborate with others. They need to build up their social network, and to find resources and information. That is how they will be learning from practice.
It is a pity that till now I can't play freely in SL, but I look forward to gaining more from it.

how to work in a virtual environment

Roed (2003)

As language teachers, we try our best to give students opportunities to speak out and to express their opinions in target language. And students are also clear about the best way of improving their proficiency is to practice speaking or writing the target language and to take the initiative to use the target language when given the opportunity. However, what is stopping them is their acute sense of self-awareness. This usually causes an unexpected silence or long-time pause in class because nobody wants to take the initiative. As a result, this kind of opportunity for students was reduced since teachers have to take the class efficiency into account. I think that is why we need a new approach with the computer assisting language learning, which brings the learners to a virtual environment.
In Roed’s research on text-based online communication, the most obvious benefit is that chatting online allows everyone to speak out without less anxiety about their accent and behavior in front of monitor; also no worries about being interrupted and judged by teachers and other classmates, so that students’ participation in online discussion is much greater than in face-to-face classes.
However, we are in a task-based chatting, which means there exists an invisible push behind the easy chatting. Therefore, we have some problems to face when working in a virtual environment. First, although the less-speech students act more actively, the extrovert students still play a dominant role in such an environment and they are likely to be more organized and clear about the task. Secondly, without a guide from teachers, students tend to be off the expected procedure easily, which requires the teachers to consider more in designing the task. Thirdly, it is more difficult to control students’ behavior when they get bored and anxious as long as they cannot get the answers or response from others immediately during the chatting. Last, how can students use their limited vocabulary to discuss with others and to work out the task? Also, it is impossible for teachers to correct their misusing language in forms and vocabulary.
A virtual environment in language learning is really a new word to most of us. It can encourage students to use target language, but in meantime, many problems appear. In my opinion, teachers should create more virtual environment instead of waiting for a lagging response in class, especially to the students who have few chances to open their mouth in class.