CEDAR FALLS - The mostly gray-haired crowd seemed in contrast to the vibrant, animated hosts.

The hosts guided a tour through handicapped-accessible houses and experimental farms. They walked from building to building, then needed more speed, so they leapt into the air and flew to the next destination.

The guests sipped coffee and finished their breakfast because they were grounded in the real world at the Holiday Inn. The hosts appeared on a projection screen and were in the Second Life virtual world.

Leigh Zeitz, a University of Northern Iowa information technology professor, introduced Second Life to his fellow Rough Risers Kiwanis Club members last week.

He sees Internet-based Second Life as a great new tool for education. So does LuAnn Phillips, an extension educator from New York who co-hosted the presentation with him. Phillips, whose Second Life character is Thynka Little, and Zeitz walked through some possibilities.

"A lot of people dismiss Second Life as play," Phillips said. "They say 'I've got too much to do to play on Second Life.' But research shows play is a very effective way to learn."

Second Life allows people to spend time in a virtual world, complete with shops, museums and most anything else you would find in real life.

Zeitz already uses Second Life for some of his classes at UNI. He believes educational opportunities will expand in the future.

"I think the important thing is it's making resources available," Zeitz said.

For example, Phillips lead the tour to a University of Nebraska site for soil science. It showed how pesticides affect a field and how they spread. Zeitz said such sites can link to information on the Internet or PDFs with more information.

Second Life also gives its users a chance to recreate themselves in animated form or create a whole new identity. Phillips showed a location on Second Life dedicated to services for the disabled.

"If you are a wheelchair-bound person, you are kind of defined by that in real life," Phillips said. "But in Second Life, you can be free from that."

The audience, while interested in the presentation, didn't seem to meet the target demographic. Most of the club members are 60 or older; some of them prefer to avoid computers altogether.

"For someone like me who grew up with a manual typewriter, then went to an IBM Selectric and eventually got dragged into a little e-mail and Internet at the end of my career, I don't really see using it," club member Nick Teig said.

But Teig volunteered that his wife may like it and his grandsons definitely would.

Larry Loenser, a retired Iowa State Extension agent, said new ways of delivering information are always cropping up.

"It has its place," Loenser said. "Does it replace personal contact? I don't think so."

At the end of the presentation, Zeitz presented Phillips' with the customary coffee mug the club gives to guest speakers. It contained only pixels, as it was given in the virtual world.