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Making the virtual world learning experience better (Part 5)

What learners love about virtual world learning (Part 3 + 4)

What learners hate about virtual world learning

Second Life objects are written in a language called Linden Scripting Language (LSL). For more on how to use this language, refer to this wiki http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Portal.

A good tutorial on LSL can be found in this Dr Dobbs Journal article using the Linden Scripting Language.

The Second Life framework Drupal module interfaces with Second Life using the llHTTPRequest() function.

See details here for llHTTPRequest.

In order to write a Drupal application that interfaces with Second Life, you need to create a new module. See the sltest module in the samples directory for an example.

The app is the application name, and is also the module name. The cmd is a command that your module/app must handle. The args vary from one cmd to the other.

The $sl object contains the Second Life info you need to know, such as region, location in the grid, user name, user key, ...etc. The $args is an array that is passed from the LSL script to you.

This article, which follows a presentation at the West Virginia Law Review Digital Entrepreneurship Symposium, is the first to consider whether virtual worlds provide a rule of law that sets expectations for virtual business. Many consider the rule of law a catalyst for economic development, and there is reason to believe that it will be equally important in virtual economies, despite differences from the real world. As more people turn to virtual worlds to earn a livelihood, the rule of law will become prominent in encouraging investments in virtual business. The article finds - unsurprisingly - that virtual worlds now lack many of the elements of the rule of law. Which aspects fail is more surprising, however. Provider agreements and computer software, the sources of regulation that are most often criticized as "anti-user," provide the best theoretical hope for achieving the rule of law, even if they currently fail in practice. On the contrary, widely proposed "reforms," such as community norms, self-regulation, and importation of real-world law face both theoretical and practical barriers to implementation of the rule of law in virtual worlds. Part I of the article describes virtual worlds and their connection to business. Part II defines a framework to measure the rule of law in virtual worlds. Part III discusses the various types of regulation in virtual worlds, and Part IV critically analyzes how these regulations measure up against rule of law requirements. The article concludes with some suggestions about how providers might enhance legal rule in virtual worlds.

'Virtual property' is a solution looking for a problem. Arguments justifying 'virtual property' lie among three common themes - Lockean labor theory, theft protection and deterrence, and market efficiency. This paper goes beyond those who advocate for or against the creation of 'virtual property.' First, Locke's labor theory is dismissed as a justification. Then, two models of what property rights may look like when applied to virtual resources are created. These models are then applied to six different virtual world scenarios in order to see the effects of 'virtual property.' Finally, the failure of property rights to benefit the users, developers, and virtual resources of virtual worlds is explained.

Virtual Worlds, Real Libraries: Librarians and Educators in Second Life and Other Multi-User Virtual Environments
Edited by Lori Bell and Rhonda B. Trueman
Foreword by Stephen Abram

Eighty percent of Internet users are expected to engage in some form of virtual world activity by 2011 (Gartner Research Group), and librarians and educators are already there. This fascinating book-the brainchild of two pioneering virtual world librarians-is designed to help libraries and schools recognize the importance of multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) and consider ways of getting involved as they proliferate.

Project Goals

Our goal is to help develop mechanisms and methods for preserving digital games and interactive fiction by

1. developing basic standards for metadata and content representation; and
2. investigating preservation issues through a series of archiving case studies representing
1. early games and literature and
2. later interactive multi-player game environments.

Key deliverables includedevelopment of metadata schema and wrapper recommendations, the archiving of key representative content and the development of generalizable archiving approaches for preserving this content. Our approach is intended to address both the pressing need to preserve the bits and available representation information of early and significant works now, and the need to begin to address more difficult issues surrounding long-term preservation of more recent multi-player interactive virtual worlds.

Coming Home will incorporate immersive games, virtual world expertise and virtual human intelligence. The institute is already familiar with creating virtual humans, and these humans will provide services that would have otherwise required a real human be logged in. Morie's team is also developing an online veterans center that will try to reduce post-traumatic stress disorder and give veterans a place to socialize and seek complementary and alternative medical interventions.

"We're working with the Mindfulness Center in San Diego, and they'll be running classes in Second Life in our land with veterans," Morie said. "We'll see how the veterans respond to that and how the facilitators work.""

I might be missing the point - but IMHO this is a 3D singles club/Contiki tour/dating service with porn options.

An interview about the x3D standard, a standard that allows 3D rendering of content across platforms. For those that know, is the successor to VRML.

Learning From Online Worlds; Teaching In Second Life was a research project at the London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London. The project was funded by the Eduserv Foundation. The team worked part-time on the project from June 2007 to May 2008.

Update: We are teaching more MA sessions in Second Life in spring 2009.

Introduction: During 2007-2008, the project team, Diane Carr, Martin Oliver and Andrew Burn, researched learning in two online, social worlds, Second Life and World of Warcraft.

Today, for the first time, New Zealand midwifery students began to enhance their regular study programme with learning in the virtual world of Second Life.

Virtual Worlds and (digital) identity; influence on self-esteem...

Catherine Dutton, Instructional Coordinator, Instructional Support Services, Texas Woman's University
This was a fantastic session that covered a topic near and dear to my heart - how to arm educators with the skills they need to get started in virtual worlds.
Catherine shared what she learned from a course she helped to develop for her university.
Developed October 2007 - Last session completed November 2008

It was in April 2008 when our Head of the Department asked us to develop specifications of our department's presence in Second Life.

We searched for literature sources but the key papers or pointers came from our very generous colleagues on the SLED List.

The papers, particularly, Jennings and Collins, 2007, offered useful insights in terms of how the learning spaces in Second Life are designed but there weren't any papers or reports that captured experiences of students, educators and designers Or any guidelines - eg do's and dont's of how learning spaces should be designed…

So the question that we started with in our research is: How should 3D learning spaces be designed for learner engagement?

Project Wonderland is a 100% Java and open source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio, share live desktop applications and documents and conduct real business. Wonderland is completely extensible; developers and graphic artists can extend its functionality to create entire new worlds and new features in existing worlds.