The fourth episode reflects on the class based aound Ursula K Le Guin’s short story ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’. The discussion follows the lecturers’ breakdown of the text and the reaction from students.

The third episode of The Deep Dive podcast looks at a community in Second Life known as Virtual Ability Island. Developed by former academic Gentle Heron for people with diabilities, their families, carers and friends, VAI has become an essential, and very real, place for its members.

The second episode of The Deep Dive podcast explores virtual identities and the philosophical nature of self. The guest speakers on the module share the nature of their avatar’s identities while exploring how identification with online presence can influence real life personalities in the ‘natural world’.

This first episode of The Deep Dive podcast gives an overview of the award-winning university module offered at Technological University Dublin since 2009. “Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?” introduces undergrads to the art of working collaboratively online. All classes are taken in the virtual world Second Life so that participants are immersed in practice from the begining as they explore topics ranging from the development of online communities and relationships to virtual identities.