FEATURE
PAPER
Using Second
Life to Teach Entrepreneurship: Adapting Technology to Pedagory
The
following paper was witten by Howard Van Auken, Brian Mennecke,
and Lesya M. Hassall of the Iowa State University
and was presented at the
2008 United
States Association for Small Business and
Entrepreneurship (USASBE)
.
Abstract
This workshop will present a collaborative effort at Iowa
State University that leverage technology (e.g. Second Life)
to teach entrepreneurship in e-commerce courses. Students created
avatars and participated in a number of learning activities
in Second Life to understand ecommerce processes and products/services
as well as the role of human behavior. The workshop will include
the process used to build
infrastructure and deliver content. This workshop will be of
interest to members who want to learn about collaborative university
efforts to use technology to teach entrepreneurship.
Background
Second Life (SL), publicly available since 2003, is a 3-D
virtual world where content is built and owned by its residents.
SL is inhabited by over 8.5 million residents from all over
the world.
About 43,000 avatars are logged into the grid at any given
time. The SL marketplace supports millions of US dollars in
monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world
unitof-
trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars
at the LINDEX, the online Linden Dollar exchange operated by
the game operator, Linden Lab. SL offers a fully-integrated
economy in that residents create their own virtual goods and
services and retains the intellectual property rights for their
creations. Linden Lab reported over 73 million meters sold
by residents and over 14 million transactions in June 2007.
The Iowa
State University (ISU) strategic plan recognizes innovation
(a key aspect
of entrepreneurship) as a key aspect
of the university’s
mission. The ISU entrepreneurship program
is now entering its tenth year. The program was designed to
integrate and encourage entrepreneurial activity on campus,
ranging from coursework to assisting students and faculty
starting businesses. The entrepreneurship program at ISU includes
undergraduate and graduate courses in all colleges. Pedagogical
innovations and curriculum initiatives are encouraged strongly
by the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship and from the supportive
university infrastructure.
Read
the Entire Paper...
TIP
OF THE WEEK
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Entrepreneurial
Small Business
Jerome Katz and Richard Green. Page 519.
Copyright 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies.
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SBI
Journal - Request for Papers
The Small Business
Institue is now requesting papers for the Small Business
Institute Journal. If you are interested in submitting a
paper, please let us know. The first issue is to be printed
April 2008. For more information please click
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