Case Western Reserve U. Builds Virtual Campus to Woo Prospective Students.

This post comes from the Chronicle of Higher Education. College students who give campus tours usually have to learn a few tricks, like how to walk backward while talking. When Mir Bear-Johnson, a freshman at Case Western Reserve University, was asked to give tours to prospective students in Second Life, a 3-D virtual world, she had to adjust to a whole new set of norms.
I
n the virtual world, she was initially a lot clumsier than in the real world. The good news: "You will not wake up with any bruises from running into walls in Second Life, thankfully."

Administrators at Case Western recently built a virtual version of the campus in Second Life, complete with several campus buildings, some athletics facilities, and a favorite diner. They decided to give campus tours there for those who could not get to a regular campus tour.

Ms. Bear-Johnson says she had long been curious about Second Life — in which users appear as cartoonlike characters in a virtual landscape where they can explore and chat with others — but had never used it before being asked by the university to greet prospective students there.

At first Ms. Bear-Johnson selected a character, or avatar, that looked much like she does in real life. Later, though, she tried purple and then green hair.

"We had one person come in who was a frog," she says. "He had the head, he had the feet, he hopped, everything. Which was pretty cool, if a little surprising." Click here to read the rest of this interesting article.