Showing Results in Virtual Worlds

I’ve written before (and here) about the value of Second Life and other virtual applications including simulation training, asking whether it improves outcomes â€" or in other words, results in better decisions and results. Well, my Tech Insider colleague wrote on Wednesday in her blog, The Agile Mind, about some emerging research showing that it just may.

She mentions a blog item by Erica Driver, a former researcher at Forrester Research, citing a "new study suggesting that work-related teaching and learning, collaboration and meetings all can be done effectively in Second Life." Also, as mentioned before, Laurent cites the Stanford Medical School example, in which “researchers have found that ‘virtual [emergency department] environments fulfill their promise of providing repeated practice opportunities in dispersed locations with uncommon, life-threatening trauma cases in a safe, reproducible, flexible setting.’”

Still not all that convinced. But . . .