Teachers, college students lead a Second Life - Beth Sussman, USA TODAY

On a Tuesday night, Beth Ritter-Guth joins her eight literature students for class. Next to a grave. Well, not a real grave. She teaches her contemporary literature course online, in Second Life. The class met on Willow Springs-Mama Day Island, designed around the novel that the class was reading, Mama Day by Gloria Naylor. The students visited the grave of a character, then wrote obituaries. "I build environments where students can really explore the literature," says Ritter-Guth, of DeSales University in Center Valley, Pa., and Lehigh Carbon Community College in Schnecksville, Pa. "It's the novel in 3-D."

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