Second Life: hype or hyperlearning?

The purpose of this article is to place Second Life within a learning theory framework.

The methodology of this article is to interpret and evaluate the characteristics of a virtual world for its learning potential.

This article finds that Second Life is not simply the latest online fad, but part of a continuum of instructional technology tools that corresponds to twentieth and twenty‐first century developments in educational theory.

Second Life has just started in the past year and a half to be used for educational activities, with just a handful of US higher education courses. Numerous issues are now being discussed in the media and education list‐serves about the value of Second Life as a learning tool.