Towson University President Robert L. Caret was standing in the middle of a sunny atrium in the school's virtual online campus, holding forth on student life, when he was attacked. An avatar - or online representation of a person - in a blue dress walked right into him.
"An avatar just attacked me, I think," Caret said, laughing. "I'm hoping it was unintentional."
Caret holds monthly "study breaks," where he meets with students to answer questions and hear their concerns. Last week, for the first time, he met with students in the virtual world of Second Life - an online program populated by its own world of animated people and places. Towson University has built an "island" in Second Life, and that's where Caret met with more than 30 students and faculty.
"I thought having one of the study breaks in Second Life, we'd probably get a different group of students," he said. Caret also blogs and has a Facebook page and online podcast as a way of reaching out to students through new technology. He first tried Second Life last year and asked his tech staff to help him create an avatar to represent himself.
In the virtual Towson, he looks remarkably like himself, in a gray suit and with swept-back salt-and-pepper hair. But he joked that the staff made him a little too svelte.
"My wife thought he looked really good and wanted to know who this guy was," he said. "I had them add a few pounds."
Towson has embraced Second Life in its classrooms, using the technology to take students on virtual world tours. A jewelry and metalwork class created marketing campaigns in Second Life for their products. A business professor has students designing and selling T-shirts in Second Life, which has its own form of currency.
"It gives students an opportunity to apply the theories they're learning in class in a low-risk, no-cost or little-cost environment," said LaTonya D. Dyer, an instructional designer/trainer at Towson. She said some professors are holding office hours in Second Life to meet with their students online.
Second Life was created in 2003 by Linden Lab, based in San Francisco. Hundreds of universities have set up a presence in the virtual world, to connect students and professors and offer long-distance learning programs. Second Life has more than 1 million active users. They can own land, start businesses and interact with each other.
