Can I buy a free island for educational use?

[Denovo Miami]

Greeting,

I am a professor at a university. I would like to open a course covering virtual worlds and distance learning. Second Life is an appropriate platform for my course. I wonder if Linden Lab offers a free island for educational purpose. 

Thank you,

Denovo Miami

[Freya Mokusei]

Nope.

An educational discount may be available if your institution meets the requirements, but it will not be free.

Not by quite a way.

[MartinRJ Fayray]

Hello and Greetings, Denovo,

Educational Institutions get a 50% discount on setup-fees and maintenance fees, see https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Education_and_Non-Profit_Discount_Terms_and_Conditions

 

To talk directly with a Linden Lab representative, please contact education@lindenlab.com or use live chat via this url: https://support.secondlife.com/start-chat/?type=land

 

Another option would be the third-party software solution "Open Sim" (an open-source Second Life-like server software for virtual worlds) together with Open Sim-capable Third-Party-Viewers (e.g. Firestorm), which is basically free, but you will need your own hardware (e.g. an off-the-shelf PC) to set it up. With tools like e.g. "Open Sim on a stick" it's pretty easy to do so.

[Lindal Kidd]

While you can't get a free region from LL, you may be able to make an agreement with a person or an organization that already has a region to use it for your classes.  Do a search in world and in Google for "education Second Life" tor some leads.

There's another option too.  If you are not challenged by computers, you can set up your own Second Life - like region or regions on your own computer or server, using the free OpenSim software.  You and others can then connect to your region with many of the third party viewers.  You can even place your region in a virtual world grid, such as OSGrid.  You can NOT connect a region you create in this way to the Second Life world....it is a "closed grid" in the parlance of virtual worlds.

For more on OpenSim see my blog post "Second Life for Educators" as well as Ener Hax's great blog.