Some places to look at in virtual worlds

I have been looking at some of the builds and sims in SecondLife that are dedicated to indigenous cultures, and contacting some of the creators of the content. I am curious, about what they think the risk/reward ratio is of putting this material out into a very public and sometimes disrespectful venue. Also, I want to know their thoughts on the educational value of a presence in cyberspace before I get too deeply into academic papers.

For those of you who are interested, these are two of the places I have found (I won’t post any pictures until I have permission)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Native%20Lands/101/128/508  North West Coast Cultural Centre (under construction, but the future home of the immersive indigenous languages project, and the North West Coast Cultural Centre)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Native%20Lands/13/135/24 Red Rock Mesa, at the “Squaws and Cigar Store Injuns” exhibit. The sim (or region) also has a market, a wind turbine and solar panel store, and several educational and ritual spaces.

I find that most people in this class are involved in k-12 education, but as I work in adult education I seem to be focusing more on that and also informal education. I would be interested to know if others feel that this could/should be a part of this course at all.