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Port Charles is one island among many in the region of Jabberwock in SecondLife. The islands are set in the 1700's in British colonial Jamaica, where the Royal Navy is battling with pirates. This island is British territory, but others are trading outposts controlled by pirates or smugglers dens that reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. This is a role playing environment with fairly strict rules for battle, speech, and dress. After spending some time here I learned about the politics between the British and pirates, and how people dressed.

Again, I was alone here, but I found a helpful old-fashioned British phone box with information, including a calendar of events that take place here. I also noticed that genealogy publishers, such as Heritage Books, have a presence here, so that might make it easier for folks to find specific resources to buy or look for at their local libraries.

Their calendar is tied into Google Calendar, so if you want, you can add an event to your own Google Calendar(s) and get reminders. Nice feature.

Diane, have you checked out the Mormon island? I did, and you can access old censuses (sp?) and stuff. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Adam%20ondi%20Ahman/183/51/25

Controversial. Scary. Effective. A young woman is using SL to allow users to experience a virtual imprisonment in Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay. She focuses on a former prisoner, a British national, whose father reads letters from his son while he was imprisoned. The project is called "Gone Gitmo" and presents the idea that such imprisonment is unconstitutional. Avatars experience realistic recreations of camp "cells" and questions are raised about the suspension of Habeas Corpus rights. Whether one finds this appealing or appalling, it certainly evokes emotion and demonstrates the power of virtual worlds as a learning environment.

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/