Education for sustainable development through the use of the second life: The case of a virtual museum for sharks

Abstract

The present work investigates the virtual world "Second Life" as an educational tool. The work commences with the very first steps of using the software and it ends up at the construction of a virtual building for the study of a subject in the context of Education for Sustainable Development. The subject is the pedagogical treatment of sharks due to the danger of extinction. The use of the term "Virtual Museum" is the proper term to describe the entire effort. Further than the constructional process, the paper focuses on the investigation of how easy it is for any educator to use this software and how likely it is to be used in a modern classroom in an effective way. In order to achieve that, a few internet sites were developed, a number of on line questionnaires were published and a series of virtual meetings were held. The entire effort was attempted through Internet exclusively. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.