Online learning goes 3-D - KIMBERLY MILLER, Palm Beach Post

Florida State University Professor Paul Marty's class tour of the virtual International Spaceflight Museum in SecondLife.com was a success until the very end, when a parting discussion was interrupted by flying students. Represented by online, human-looking characters who speak and interact with each other in real-time 3-D, Marty's students were offered virtual rocket jet packs by a museum director who had wandered into the tour. They all took them. No one knew how to operate them. "They put them on and they were rocketing all around the museum. They were just flying up and everywhere," said Marty, who is one of a few teachers tentatively stepping into SecondLife.com's brave new cyber world. "I'm not sure this is ready to replace traditional online courses, but universities are going to have to learn how to play in these multi-universe environments."

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