$30,000AUD for studies in religion
Doctor Helen Farley (Lecturer in Studies in Religion and Esotericism) and Doctor Rick Strelan (Senior Lecturer in Studies in Religion) were awarded a $30,000AUD Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant by the University of Queensland (Australia) in October of last year to construct an island in Second Life for Studies in Religion.
Dr Farley has already had practice teaching meditation via Second Life, and used it successfully for student work thus far. The new University of Queensland island will be attached to the New Media Consortium region, which has over 250 educational institutions involved.
Farley sees the effectiveness of Second Life for students who are geographically remote, handicapped, or do not have English as a first language.
'I supervise a PhD student who lives in Melbourne and we have regular meetings at different places in Second Life,' Farley told us, 'We've scheduled meetings between that student and my other postgraduate students in Second Life and RL to try and overcome the problems of distance. I have a microphone in my office so the inworld students can hear the discussion that's taking place and then can contribute as well.'
The project is starting out with just the one simulator, but Farley and Strelan hope to expand, 'We're building a church, a mosque, a synagogue, a Zen Buddhist Temple, a Hindu temple to Shiva, a Greek Temple to Athena, a Freemason's Lodge but also some forest spaces for the re-enactment of various pagan and magical rituals.'
Dan Walker, a postgraduate student is conducting research into the key essences of the structures to be constructed, while Kim Rufer-Bach [Kim Anubis - ed] and the Magicians are doing the primary build at the outset. 'In the future, we'll have students helping out with the builds, doing scripting, etc,' offered Farley.
The plans don't end there, however, 'We've also applied for extra funding to build a sophisticated Blackboard site to fully leverage the educational benefits we hope to derive from the island.'
