Students can 'fly' to live tutorials and field trips held in cyberspace on Asia's first virtual campus at Polytechnic University.
The virtual campus, which uses the latest generation of Second Life technology to create learning opportunities in live, interactive virtual reality, opened yesterday to all students and academics.
The HK$1.6 million virtual campus was launched by PolyU's president, Professor Timothy Tong Wai-cheung, at the opening of the world's first global research conference about Second Life applications, held at the university.
SLActions 2009 began in Hong Kong and is continuing non-stop for 48 hours at universities in the United States, Brazil, Portugal, Britain and Israel, with speakers timetabled in their local time zones.
Tong pressed a button on a remote control to 'cut a ribbon' in an image of the virtual campus displayed on a projector screen, while other colleagues cut a real ribbon before conference participants to open the novel learning environment.
Vice-president Professor Suleyman Demokan said: 'Today's youngsters really are digital natives. The traditional one-way teaching in the classroom no longer interests this generation of students. They are eager for more sensory inputs and expect to be engaged through multiple channels in their exposure to knowledge.'