The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology will receive a $500,000 grant from the New Zealand government's Encouraging and Supporting Innovation fund for a new project exploring the potential of virtual worlds as an educational platform, according to a report from daily newspaper The Nelson Mail.

NMIT will be conducting its research through Second Life, where the polytechnic has maintained a presence for 18 months. The organization purchased an island in the virtual world last year, christening it Koru and renting out the land to five other polytechnics and Massey University.

Though NMIT will be leading the project, Otago Polytechnic, the Wellington Institute of Technology, and the Open Polytechnic will make contributions as partners. IBM will also provide support and advice as the groups study the educational possibilities for audio and visual interactive presentations.

Speaking on whether virtual worlds can offer value to education, NMIT information technology tutor Dr Clare Atkins predicted, "We believe that they do, even though it's early days and no one knows how to use it best. It's a brave new world ... The big part really is identifying the teaching methods that are likely to be most suitable to Second Life."