Group items tagged

Hypergrid Business: List of places to obtain OAR terrains, terrain tools, objects and textures suitable for Second Life and OpenSim

Business / training examples of virtual worlds (Second Life)

we're here because we can tell stories, we can be inside art, we can give context to conversation and learning and collaborating in ways that are, simply, impossible in nearly every other medium, including reality. Dusan Writer blogs of interactive, collaborative narrative (storytelling) as the compelling reason for virtual worlds such as second life.

Interesting website detailing some wonderful successes of Second Life. This resources shows that virtual worlds truly offer multiple ways to approach learning environments. The site provides many case studies detailing how organizations and individuals have harnessed SL to reach more people and conduct more effective "in-world" learning. Some of the successes have been found in a variety of types of institutions - both business and education - with fantastic results. Enjoy!

Although ISTE has been mentioned several times in the Diigo group, I thought this link was important to mention since it is an actual ISTE presentation/ interview done in Second Life. I found it really exciting to listen and watch SL used in meaningful educational way. It was linked to Treet.TV, where more SL shows (that might not be educational) can be seen.

Like my last post, I found this "show" on Treet.tv as well. A great forum start with tons of excellent screencasts of SL interviews and presentations. The last few episodes of the show included:" 5 years of Creative Research in SL," " Maslow's Hierarchical Hideaway in SL," Teaching Math in Virtual Worlds," "Learning 3D: A New Educational Dimension," and "WoW (World of Warcraft) in Schools.

This is an excellent site that would be great for educators or business people who want to improve their virtual skills, expand their virtual contacts, or hold meetings. This site was created and is maintained by a university in the UK. I found a place for educators to make appointments to get help for improving their skills in the virtual world, many educational tools such as interactive slide shows and art exhibits, and a group I could join that connected me with other like-minded educators. The site was easy to navigate, well-designed, and loaded with content. Even though I spent nearly two hours here, I felt as though I barely scratched the surface. The only thing that I still find a bit odd is that I do not know why the title is Sexual Health SIM. I did not find anything related to health care. But again, there is so much more that I did not search.

Sun Microsystems has done a lot of work in Second Life, and I visited part of their island. It was very interesting, because it showed their approach to moving portions of their business into a virtual world. They have a mix of customer-facing exhibits that include videos and product information, and resources for employees to meet together. Overall, I think they could take advantage of the interactive features of Second Life, but it's good to see companies using virtual worlds in interesting ways. Sun Microsystems was recently purchased by Oracle. It will be interesting to see how it affects Sun's presence in Second Life.

Google Site of Second Life Resources compiled by Brenda Boyd (and others). Geared towards education and training uses of Second Life.

Satirical video promoting real life meetings over virtual meetings. Good video to use to introduce discussion of affordances of virtual meetings.

Examples of workplace uses of virtual worlds for training simulation and prototyping. Links and examples.

This is the best site I found. You are greeted by a sign and welcome notecard that describes the origins of the project and how it has grown to over 100 region and explains the vision of the project:"… has been to inspire and influence future development, to expand working knowledge, to showcase creativity and ideas, and to encourage collaboration both inside and outside of Second Life." You can instantly access a map that allows you to teleport to the location of your choice including four different teaching sites, one for the arts a conference center, Learning, and Red Rocks. There are a multitude of resources here for the educator. Everywhere you turn around there are billboard that advertise upcoming events, signs that connect you to groups, and free things to collect. There are many places to hold meetings from small and intimate rooms to large amphitheaters.

I found this YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGMH_1VnnaY) about a virtual museum exhibit created by teens. It showcases "Kristallnacht," or "The Night of Broken Glass" from the holocaust. Teens from the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. worked with teens from New York and museum staff via Skype, SL, & phone (sound familiar, COMETEERs?) to discuss issues, storyboard, and even create a design document (future COMETEERs!) to create the exhibit in SL. Interestingly, it seems that the build was done by an SL company called "Digital Refinery," "...an all teen in-world development company," headed by a 15 year old CEO. Teens visiting the site are placed in the role of an investigative reporter in order to find out what people did during Kristallnacht. They can click on cutouts of people to get information and learn about the choices that ordinary people faced during this event. Visitors also observe the environment; broken storefront windows, a before & after Kristallnacht replica of a synagogue, and just general destruction of the Jewish community. When they are done, they reflect, discuss and write about what they have seen & learned, and post notecards to share their experiences. I love that this is all built by teens, but that they also had to work with adults in RL to learn how to cooperate and communicate intelligently. I am big on making history interactive, otherwise it just seems boring to many kids. SL holds so much potential for this sort of activity; time for textbook companies to look into this instead of making ridiculously expensive, environmentally unfriendly textbooks that bore kids to tears. Ok, I know I'm dreaming, after all, if the textbooks weren't expensive, those companies would go out of business. Hmm.

GREAT 3D instructional design principles: affordances open layout customizeable interactive consistent ... many principles that parallel good website design