Virtual worlds

With internet access speeds increasing, more complex virtual worlds can be used for collaboration. Conferences, art gallery displays, and even training regularly occur in virtual worlds that simulate the real world, such as Second Life.

Although text based Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs), Multi-User Shared Habitats (MUSHes), and MUD Object Oriented systems (MOOs), typically based on adventure games, have been used for entertainment and in education since 1975, graphical multi-user online games are being extremely popular (commonly called massively multiple online roleplayer games MMORPGs). Most of these games encourage teamwork and communication, and can be invaluable tools in a classroom to increase participation and allow the students to have fun.

Virtual worlds allow people who normally feel awkward or shy in social situations, to interact with others online, with less fear of being judged on how they physically appear or act. Their avatars (digital representations) move throughout the virtual world, and interact with both other avatars (controlled by people, or computer program robots), and items placed into the virtual world. This can encourage more active and natural participation in group discussions, or it can encourage bullying and other anti-social or aggressive behaviour. The virtual education field is steadily growing, virtual classrooms allow students to interact with other students and their teachers, even when they live in remote areas. Second Life Grid allows distributed companies to build virtual offices, allowing their staff to interact in the virtual world.

Most of the virtual worlds do not have stunning graphics (this would require much higher internet access speeds), but have been steadily improving over recent years. Many graphical virtual worlds require dedicated programs to be installed on the user's computer (rather than accessing the virtual world through the web), and limit the user to specific areas (geographically or server based, to share the computing load evenly). There is still much scope for improvements to be made, before virtual worlds are considered easy to use, feature full, and fast to access.