Abstract
How do we engage our students to actively learn? That is a question that educators are asking more and more often. New techniques and philosophies are constantly being developed and tried in the classroom yet we still come back to the same observations. Students are generally unprepared for college level studies and often seem unwilling to put in the required effort needed to succeed. Perhaps one reason students seem disengaged is because they may not see the value of what they are learning. The connections between their studies and how they will benefit them later in life may not be clear. To this end I explore the use of Second Life in the classroom and how it can be used to clarify the links between what students learn and how these lessons can help them in their future. In this paper I explore the nature of education in Second Life and how it might best be employed based on lessons learned from using it in the classroom over the past six years.