Mary-Margaret Crulcich likes to take out her helicopter to survey where traffic gets blocked after a mock emergency drill at Children's Memorial Hospital. Crulcich doesn't really fly. Her avatar does.

She is surveying the scene around a “virtual” Children's Memorial that is being built in the online world known as Second Life. She can decide to “see” from over her avatar's shoulder or through her avatar's eyes to be more aware of where she is. Children's Memorial has hired Chicago-based Centrax Corp. to help purchase an island -- that's computer server space in real life -- and build a three-dimensional hospital, complete with the exact streets and scenery of Lincoln Park.

Centrax designers took photos of Children's Memorial's interior and exterior to re-create the facilities in Second Life. “We're trying to make the environment as realistic as possible,” said Edward Prentice III, CEO and president of Centrax, at 180 N. Stetson. Judi Smith, virtual learning champion for Children's Memorial, used an element from one of her favorite movies, “Wag the Dog,” to set up the emergency. The movie starred Robert De Niro as a Washington spin doctor and Dustin Hoffman as a Hollywood producer who invent a fake war between the United States and Albania. A suspicious backpack, similar to the movie's suspicious suitcase, triggers the hospital’s emergency plans to play out in Second Life. “Someone will find the backpack in the virtual hospital. He or she will pick up the phone to call security. A command team forms and decides to call the fire department,” Smith said. “You cannot play this out on a tabletop, not from the context of walking down Orchard Street, seeing 10 ambulances sitting there and realizing they are blocking traffic,” she said. Mock accident drills are not as effective as virtual world immersions because they are expensive, one-time efforts that cannot be repeated or broken into segments, Smith said Crulcich, head of safety and emergency preparedness at Children's Memorial, said: “The virtual world of Second Life gives Children's Memorial an environment we can use over and over. Other scenarios will play out to help Children's Memorial leaders decide details such as the number of wheelchairs needed to evacuate safely, how the decision-making plays out in a crisis, and what happens when traffic gets blocked at Lincoln and Fullerton.”

Smith, who focuses on users’ learning experiences and technology's role in accelerating change, started writing a blog in April 2007 to share what she was learning about patient education and virtual learning. She and Crulcich spearheaded an application that won a $25,000 grant from the Chicago Public Health Department to conduct evacuation drills in Second Life. Smith invited Second Life guru Jeremy Kemp to lead a conference last fall on virtual learning and virtual worlds.

Kemp, assistant director of the Second Life campus at San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science, said the virtual reality scenarios provide a wonderful way to build community. Indeed, online virtual worlds, called “World 0” in tech speak, attract tens of millions of unique visitors. Second Life is reported to have more than 10 million accounts created by people who enter its virtual world. “This is a low-cost, high-leverage activity,” Kemp said. “Throw stuff up, see how it flies, and go from there. Get yourself an avatar, log in, and join groups. It's very organic.”