Texas Trends in Art Education, 2010 Page: 31

                                
B Stephen Carpenter. II.
Texas A&M University,
bscarpenter@tamu.edu
Chih-Feng Chien.
Texas A&M University,
iorifeng@neo.tamu.edu
Jennifer Hartman. University
of North Texas,
ajhartman@verizon.net
Laura Lee McCartney.
University of North Texas,
Ilmccartney@aol.com
Ludovic A Sourdot.
Texas Woman's University,
Isourdot@twu.edu

Joni Tilton Nichols,
University of Virginia,
imn3tw@virginia.edu

Kristina Elizondo.
University of North Texas,
kristinaelizondo@gmail.com
Marissa Munoz,
Texas A&M University,
marissaisela@gmail.com

hat happens when students at two universities meet in the online virtual
world of Second Life to learn about visual culture? In what follows, students
and instructors share their reflections on their individual and collective
experiences in a visual culture course conducted exclusively in Second Life.
The January 2010 issue of Art Education takes on the notion that educators
must face the demands, challenges, and rewards of "new media art
education" in the contemporary era. Bastos (2010) acknowledges debate in the field of art
education around the merits of infusing computer technology within art education practice. Citing
Gouzouasis, Bastos (2010) encourages the reader to imagine "new media art education" as "creative
artistic applications of new learning and teaching technologies" (p. 4). During the spring 2009
semester, graduate students from two universities in Texas met online in the virtual world of
Second Life to learn about visual culture in a manner that falls in line with this conception of "new
media art education." This article offers a description of the virtual world of Second Life, the course,
and reflections from students and instructors.
Sc o      d  I ifc: Wh 1      t i s   it and     \\h uh       c  i t
(econd Life is an online three-dimensional virtual world created by Linden Labs and has been
available to the public since 2003 (http://www.secondlife.com). Millions of users inhabit this
virtual world through the identities of their online representations known as avatars. Second Life
(SL) creator, Philip Rosedale (2002) notes,
I'm not a gamer, and SL isn't a game. From the start, we/LL [Linden Labs] observed
that something like SL would have its first uses in entertainment, and then grow
beyond those uses as people became more confident in the capabilities of the new
platform/OS/whatever-we-want-to-call-it. So we focused on making SL very
exciting and visceral and inspirational, but not on making it a game.
The future that we are all most passionate about is creating a new version of the
world with a fundamentally different and better set of capabilities, and then see
what happens when we all move there.
Slattery (2006) contends, "The postmodern worldview allows educators to envision an
alternative way out of the turmoil of contemporary schooling, which too often is characterized by
violence, bureaucratic gridlock, curricular stagnation, depersonalized evaluation, political conflict,
economic crisis, decaying infrastructure, emotional fatigue, demoralization, and despair" (p. 21).
Why use Second Life as a vehicle and environment to teach a course on visual culture? Simply,
when used by art educators and students, this virtual world becomes an exciting, creative space
that results from the infusion of computer technology and art education. While Second Life is
designed for and populated by users older than 18 years old, Teen Second Life is a parallel virtual
world available for users 13 to 17 years of age.' In either format, Second Life offers "an alternative
way out of the turmoil of contemporary schooling" (Slattery, 2006) by enabling an environment
that is made entirely of its users and is defined only by the limits of the technology and the

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