RT Journal Article
T1 The Second Life Metaverse and Its Usefulness in Medical Education After a Quarter of a Century
A1 Sendra-Portero, Francisco
A1 Lorenzo Álvarez, Rocío
A1 Rudolphi Solero, Teodoro
A1 Ruiz-Gómez, Miguel José
K1 Innovaciones educativas
K1 Realidad virtual
K1 Enseñanza asistida por ordenador
K1 Medicina - Estudio y enseñanza superior
AB The immersive virtual world platform Second Life (SL) was conceived 25 years ago, when Philip Rosedale founded Linden Lab in 1999 with the intention of developing computing hardware that would allow people to immerse themselves in a virtual world. This initial effort was transformed 4 years later into SL, a universally accessible virtual world centered on the user, with commercial transactions and even its own virtual currency, which fully connects with the concept of the metaverse, recently repopularized after the statements of the chief executive officer of Meta (formerly Facebook) in October 2021. SL is considered the best known virtual environment among higher education professionals. This paper aimed to review medical education in the SL metaverse; its evolution; and its possibilities, limitations, and future perspectives, focusing especially on medical education experiences during undergraduate, residency, and continuing medical education. The concept of the metaverse and virtual worlds was described, making special reference to SL and its conceptual philosophy, historical evolution, and technical aspects and capabilities for higher education. A narrative review of the existing literature was performed, including at the same time a point of view from our teaching team after an uninterrupted practical experience of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in the last 13 years with >4000 users and >10 publications on the subject. From an educational point of view, SL has the advantages of being available 24/7 and creating in the student the important feeling of “being there” and of copresence. This, together with the reproduction of the 3D world, real-time interaction, and the quality of voice communication, makes the immersive experiences unique, generating engagement and a fluid interrelation of students with each other and with their teachers. Various groups of researchers in medical education have developed experiences during these years, …
PB JMIR Publications
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/39564
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/39564
LA eng
NO Sendra-Portero F, Lorenzo-Álvarez R, Rudolphi-Solero T, Ruiz-Gómez MJ. The Second Life Metaverse and Its Usefulness in Medical Education After a Quarter of a Century. J Med Internet Res 2024;26:e59005 URL: https://www.jmir.org/2024/1/e59005 doi: 10.2196/59005
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 20 ene 2026