It resembles a video game. But it's not. It looks like a whole other world. It is. And if Texas State Technical College West Texas has its way, it will be a tremendous part of the future of education. Second Life, a virtual world that exists only in the wilds of the Internet, is a separate, three-dimensional reality in which normal physics, and most vestiges of consensus reality, go out in the window. On-screen representations of users, called ''avatars,'' can fly, for example, and angels and robots recreate among the spires of towering virtual cities.

But in addition to being an infinite fantasy playground in which users can meet, talk and live out a separate digital existence, TSTC West Texas President Mike Reeser and others see a collaborative, ever-expandable classroom environment.

They aren't alone. A few dozen colleges across the country have already gone public with plans for Second Life-related projects, including Harvard University's law school, San Diego State University's college of education, Ohio University and the University of Southern California. Add TSTC West Texas into that mix. The college's virtual campus is designed to be graphically beautiful, as well as functional, with trees that wave in the wind and tiny details, such as shadows and reflections. One obvious function of such a lush online space is teaching, Reeser said.

''It will allow us to reach people across great distances in a venue that feels familiar because it is three dimensional instead of just two,'' he said. But Second Life is also a creative medium in and of itself, since every aspect of the online world has be crafted by users, from trees and buildings to a steaming cup of virtual coffee in an online ''coffee shop.'' Kevin Brown, who teaches digital imaging and design at TSTC, is one of the central designers of its Second Life project. Brown and others took great pains to create realistic lighting, decorations and other graphical niceties to give online visitors a real sense of being in actual buildings and wandering manicured, somewhat futuristic, grounds. He plans to kick off the educational use of Second Life at TSTC this coming summer semester with an online photography class, complete with virtual gallery of students' works. ''I call it a hyper-hybrid kind of class, which will also utilize what we would consider traditional online resources at the same time,'' he said. After the prototype class, entire programs will be offered via Second Life classrooms so that people can attend TSTC virtually in a variety of ways. By June, real-time voice chat is expected to be integrated into Second Life, meaning that people can talk in real time to one another in the virtual world.

Right now, most communication is typewritten, like in a chat room.While the colorful, three-dimensional space is impressive, it's how the technology can bring people together that's exciting, Reeser said. ''The important part about Second Life is that it is a new platform for the human community,'' Reeser ''It is a new platform for folks from around the world to congregate in meaningful ways.'' Second Life is up to about 5 million users worldwide. In November 2006, there were only a million. At the growth rate the simulation is experiencing now, it's entirely possible that the virtual world could eventually have hundreds of millions of users, Reeser said. ''It is that kind of scaling and the power of being able to teach in a three-dimensional world that has educators very excited,'' he said.

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