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Over the course of this year, virtual worlds got a lot of attention. More than a few businesses spent serious money trying to build presences in virtual worlds such as Second Life. But most of these efforts have so far been pretty big failures.

The question is, were these businesses going about it the right way and did they have the right focus?

One area that they may want to look to for guidance is higher education. A group called Media Grid is working on building a platform to use multiple virtual worlds, from Second Life to games like World of Warcraft, as a collaborative meeting space, providing what they refer to as immersive education. This focus on openess and collaboration shows a potential direction towards gaining real value out of virtual worlds.

I recently spoke to Aaron E. Walsh, Director of Media Grid, about their efforts in virtual worlds and education.