Group items tagged

What originally piqued my interest in this site was the "Training for Traffic" that I read on the SL Work Success Stories site (http://work.secondlife.com/en-US/successstories/case/tuvnord/). No small wonder that that topic caught my eye, what with my 15 year old constantly begging me to let her drive. TUV NORD created several traffic situations that they turned into interactive driving tasks. I vaguely remember being in driver's ed and watching a movie in a "simulator" when I was 15. Once I found out that I could spin the steering wheel in any direction and it made no difference, I went on to what was, at the time, my next priority: sleeping. Parenthood brings new perspectives; I shudder at the thought that my child might do the same during her own driver's training class. This sim sounds realistic enough to not only keep a kid awake at the wheel, but give them experience before they get behind the wheel of a deadly weapon. Unfortunately, the sim was not up and running when I visited. This island also has some other interesting items of educational value. You can learn how to use ground penetrating radar (GPR) to find tree roots and underground electrical lines that you might not want to cut through. There is also a huge interactive fuel cell that you can fly through to investigate the inner workings of the thing, which would be useful in a discussion of chemistry, even at the grade levels that I teach (4th & 5th). The only drawback is that most of the notecards you get are in German. Most of the signs do have a translation tool, though (click on the British flag for English). SLURL: http://work.secondlife.com/en-US/successstories/case/tuvnord/

RezzMania is a blog dedicated to the builders of Second Life who create amazing virtual structures, clothes, skins, tools, and organizing events and contests. A particular blog post that caught my eye was Vito, the Dogfather: http://rezzmania.com/2009/12/vito-the-dogfather.html Like myself, Vito was a martial artist and dog trainer but unfortunately, he was a victim in a horrific traffic accident and spent 5½ weeks in a coma and ended up with TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). One of his forms of rehabilitation was creating a group for victims of TBI in Second Life. Vito now runs a dojo and trains dogs in SL. His SL group is staffed with a real life physician and a rehab therapist acting as consultants for the rest of the group.