Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

There are many different ways virtual world can be used. For instance, it can be used in game field. Many people are now playing "second life" games as a way to accomplish their imagination or dreams. In second life, users can do things they cant do in real life, such as flying. Virtual world can be also used for job training. According to "IBM Learning Programs Get a Second Life" by Ed Frauenheim, corporates like IBM are now using virtual world for employee training. It helps to bring new IBM employee that is being separated by thousands of miles to be able to mingle, interact and share ideas with others before their first day on the job. Also, it helps new employees to learn real life working skills, so they can apply them into real life situation. Virtual world can be also used in medical education. There are now medical schools adopt virtual world into surgery practice. In real world, Students don't have much chance to practice surgery. However, in the virtual world, they can practice as many times as they want in order to be familiar with all the processes and be proficient in it. The dark side of virtual world is it reduces social interaction. Since people tend to spend more time on playing "second life", and they will probably has less time to interact with others in real life. In the future, I think some of the colleges will adopt virtual world for online education. In that way, students and professors can have their own virtual classroom and communicates with each others like the way they did in real classroom.