Second Life

This morning I heard a story on NPR about "Second Life." This has my mind in a jumble. I'm not exactly sure what to think about it, but it seems to me it is one more way for people to stop interacting in "real life." (See Robert Putnam's excellent treatise on social capitalism.)

It is interesting to be a student of college student life. One of the major points of discussion is the integration of students into the life of the university, involvement, leadership activities and how they lead to increased persistence and graduation. We talk about how we worry about the students that stay in their rooms, spend too much time on the computer, etc. Yet here is one more way for students to disengage from the real world of college. I wonder what is next? Second life college classrooms? And are we already a proponent of that type of study with distance education?

I sense there is much more here to delve into and I think it would make an amazing study on college life. Perhaps after the dissertation!