End-user development and learning in second life: The “box” as multipurpose building block

This paper describes a case study of a distance education program for preservice and in — service special education teachers, using the 3D virtual world Second Life (SL). In the study, the “box,” a specific building block in the SL environment, became a multipurpose tool for end-user development (EUD). The research reported here addresses how the multiple functionalities of the “box” enable EUD among the participants. Results show that the professor of the course designed the learning environment by creating and combining 3D construction boxes and the most active users adapted information sharing boxes to personalize the learning environment to fit their learning activities. The analysis also demonstrated that direct invocation of builder tools from objects in the learning environment enabled EUD.