If you combine the open source Moodle.org learning management system with lesson plans that use Linden Lab’s Second Life you get something like Sloodle.com, a vision of how to use virtual worlds in the classroom.

“Sloodle is a project to integrate the VLE platform Moodle with 3D immersive settings such as Second Life. Imagine a Moodle course that, if you wanted, could turn into a proper 3D interactive classroom with all your Moodle resources available to your students in the virtual world. A growing community is using Sloodle.com to work toward making this happen. As is the ethos of Moodle, the code will be open source and so we encourage all users, no matter how IT-savvy to get involved and make this a reality. Its benefits to the global education community could be huge.”

Sloodle is the work of Jeremy W. Kemp, an instructional designer at San José State University and started teaching online in 1999. He keeps the official wiki for educators using the Second Life immersive environment — www.simteach.com. His instructional technology project connecting Moodle and Second Life has attracted hundreds of participants from around the world — www.sloodle.com. He is a doctoral student at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, CA working on educational and social issues in immersive environments.

If you’d rather watch the movie, Jeremy has posted several machinima videos of Sloodle on YouTube.