Virtual Worlds Come Alive at AECT 2008 Convention

From the pages of TechTrends comes the following excerpts on the first AECT 2008 Virtual World Convention...
Thursday morning, November 6, 2008 began like most days at the AECT Convention with technicians frantically checking equipment, making last minute adjustments; presenters hustling to locate their rooms; and participants maneuvering to find a good vantage point, booting notebooks, and logging on to networks. But this was not just another session.After months of meetings, preparation, and anticipation, it was finally time to unveil the long-awaited venture into the unknown, to “go where no convention has gone before,” well, at least at AECT.

The makers of Second Life, Linden Lab, a San Francisco-based corporation, define their creation as “an online society within a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents, where they can explore, build, socialize and participate in their own economy” (Linden Lab, 2007). SL provides a collaborative, immersive, and open-ended experience where people create and inhabit a virtual world of their own design.