There is an increasing awareness among RL educational establishments that the already well established "on-line-distance-learning" programs will evolve eventually into full virtual experience... thought, sadly, those institutions have been looking away from Second Life in recent years because of the complete breakdown of Linden Lab's support for such projects. Some of the education-oriented Second Life people tell me that there are other institutions probing the Second Life platform with projects different than those explored in past years. But I haven't seen these yet, and it will be interesting to see what form the projects take.
I am 1000% in support of Beathan's vision here. But it's very important to understand that the obstacle to the vision is not the technical capacity or the design of the sims themselves. What you propose, Beathan, as far as technical capacity, can easily be done now in NFS using the classrooms of the existing School. Any design for the new sim could easily incorporate grand educational facilities while at the same time preserving the economic basis which Trebor's and Rosie's plan provides.
What we lack are working relationships with professionals in these RL educational programs. The idea that CDS could host a major educational institution in SL is essentially a no-brainer... what better place for something like this to exist than in SL's only truly democratic community! Whether we are aware of it or not, the CDS is an extraordinary experiment in ideas, and an educational establishment couldn't be more suitable. But as we know from past efforts to organize educational programs, educational organization is not a volunteer activity. It takes knowledgeable people with connection to the RL education world to create and sustain successful programs. We need to find and incorporate those people into our community.
One step might be to reach out to people already in SL who have been involved for years now in education. As noted, many of the large education programs were dropped some years ago as LL consistently demonstrated an utter lack of interest and support in their programs and needs. But many SL-ers are still around who participated in those programs, and they might provide a link to the RL institutions, such as the project, Beathan, that you point out. It would surely be a major turning point in CDS history if such a affiliation should get formed.
Sudane...............................
