RIP Leslie Hope Jarmon 1952 – 2009, Second Life Innovator
Leslie Hope Jarmon, UT Austin Faculty member and instructor, pioneered instructional uses of virtual worlds in educational environments, co-founding the Educators Corp virtual community of interdisciplinary educators, researchers, and libraries from around the world. She was instrumental in a $250,000 Grant for “Building Immersive Instructional Experiences and Learning Communities in Second Life” initiative at UT. But that’s not all:
She was designated principal investigator for the first-in-the-world project that includes 16 academic, medical and health science university campuses. Hosting almost 200,000 students and 7,500 faculty, the UT System has funded the creation of a virtual 49-island archipelago in Second Life (SL), with three islands per campus and one central island for System-wide collaboration and administrative activities. It is designed to foster extensive collaboration within and among the UT System’s campuses by means of an open, online virtual platform that can be networked, customized, adapted and expanded.
Let us hope that someone else will pick up her torch and keep innovating on uses of virtual worlds in education.
Randall Hand on 
VizWorld.com 