Overview of SL
- Background of virtual worlds
- Other similar platforms
- Second Life and features
- Residents and communities
- What educators have been doing
Doug Anderson (Blackhole Hare)
First to receive Masters (of Science in Art Education) in SL from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Then got his HS students involved in the Teen Grid.
Pharmatopia
A collaboration among Monash University - Australia, Malaysia, South Africa & Italy.
- University of Queensland – Australia
- UNC University of North Carolina – USA
- Univeristy of Nottingham – UK
- Keele University - UK
Renaissance Island – The Alliance Library System, Illinois
UC Davis, Peter Yellowlees, MD – Bioterrorism Research Project: disaster recovery, workflow, and training
This project is a collaboration with the Department of Health to research disaster recovery training. Two sims will be used to create an immersive environment where patients will receive inoculations and health assistance after being exposed to a bio-terrorism outbreak. More about Dr Yellowlees here http://www.informationagehealth.com/index.php?page_id=22
Religion Bazaar, University of Queensland
This sim, run by the school of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics at UQ is meant to give students a unique perspective by allowing them to experience the details of various religions. Into on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0NTI7Wa2TA&feature=PlayList&p=96553649F2EDD4B0&index=5
Science Related
View this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfsSGBraUhc for a good introduction to science-related spots in Second Life.
Finding it harder to create learning activities around actual patients, second life has given students at Imperial College the opportunity to participate in new ways to experiment with various medical tests, patient evaluation and diagnostic processes, and participate in role-play learning activities supporting patients’ diagnosis, investigation and treatment. Students are given a combination of instruction and the opportunity made decisions based on information given to them on how to treat a virtual patient. Teleport to Respiratory Unit in Second Life
Created to give students a combination lecture/lab experience which is often separated into two meeting sessions in traditional college curriculum, Genome Island immerses students in a land to be explored and one that can be reacted to. As with other Second Life islands, there are separate sections: abbey and garden, animal models showing genetics and a garden of prokaryotic genomes, and area for molecuar and human genetics with a pathway with representative eukaryotic genomes, and the last area is home to the gene pool, popular genetics and a student work area where they can collaborate and create their own genetic models. Teleport to Genome Island in Second Life
A place where you can interact with spacecraft, see and be a part of live launching activities and NASA missions, as well as observing the planets and stars from a regional perspective. Explore the surface of the moon and interactive planetarium. Teleport to Explorer Island in Second Life
Synchoronous presentationd coordinated with NPR weekly radio show. Listen and interact with an international community. Teleport to Science Friday in Second Life
Visit Hurricane Ride, Real Time Weather Map, Tsunami, Science on a Sphere, Sea Life, and a Glacier area. Teleport to NOAA Meteora
Second Life in Education (even more examples)
http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses
Resources
These are additional resources for what educators are doing in SL. These are great places to begin looking, but certainly not exhaustive!
- NMC Blog - http://sl.nmc.org/
- SLED Calendar - http://sledevents.blogspot.com/
- SLED Alaska – http://sled-ak.ning.com
- InfoIsland - http://infoisland.org/
- Second Life Education Wiki - http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki
- Examples of how one might evaluate student work in Second Life (there are a lot of other teaching resources for SL on this site. I encourage you to look around) http://skills.eloisepasteur.net/assessment.php
- SalamanderWiki - http://www.eduisland.net/salamanderwiki - practical and theoretical applications, builds and designs in the Virtual World of Second Life for the purposes of teaching and learning. The Salamander Project is a collaborative project open to ANY Second Life educator and coordinated by staff at The Center for Advanced Technology in Education at the University of Oregon. This project is open to educators affiliated with K-12, higher education, not-for-profit and corporate teaching and learning institutions interested in creating a resource that frames and focuses the need for a Community of Practice surrounding the aims of teaching and learning in the Second Life MUVE.
- NASA Explorer Island - http://www.spacetoday.org/NASA/SecondLife/NASA_SecondLife.html
- Social Networking, the “Third Place”, and the Evolution of Communication - http://www.nmc.org/evolution-communication
- Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - http://jvwresearch.org/
