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Second Life based FREE game development kit in a box. Used to develop Pilgrim (First Thanksgiving) game with University of Pennsylvania Students. Links to SLURL location, documentation, example game and kit on this page.

This is a blog about the use of Second Life in teaching science, especially biology. It is meant to document my Second Life activities and development efforts leading up to and including my upcoming Sabbatical in Spring 2009. My sabbatical is to develop hands on modules in Second Life that could supplement either lecture or lab classes. Photosynthesis

The University of Southampton has an extensive presence in SL. One of the projects that they are developing is an exercise in visualization of an ancient Roman port. In addition to SL, they are also developing texture maps for Google Earth. The Portus Project in SL is referred to as Portus 2 and is a developing interactive representation of the entire port city. Posters, video, and other multimedia displays show the evolution of the project.

I've been following Kathy Schrock since the mid-1990s when I began using computers in the classroom. I have numerous bookmarks of her helpful websites filled with classroom resources as well as her blogs. She is the technology administrator for the Nauset Public Schools in Massachusetts. An earlier YouTube video has Kathy Schrock aka Kathy Dryburgh (in Second Life), gives a brief overview of what Lighthouse Learning Island is all about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7IC-JeK4Mc&feature=related. In a more recent video, Kathy along with other educators, explain how the Lighthouse Learning Island came to be and what it is currently doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlwsXsTptbs. The original occupants of the Lighthouse Learning Island was the Nauset Public Schools but since then, several other school districts have joined this virtual learning platform. I was really excited how school districts are utilizing Second Life to offer professional learning development for their educators in Web 2.0 for teaching and learning. Additionally, educators from outside the district have attended these sessions. I'll be looking into how I am able to attend some of these professional development workshop sessions. Unfortunately, on August 1, 2010, Lighthouse Learning Island will be closing due to budget constraints. Kathy has rented a small plot of land on Eduisland 6 (SLURL) and will be announcing any upcoming professional development opportunities through the "K-12 Educators" group in SL. Her new spot is called "Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch".

This is a comprehensive site with thousands of online resources to use to develop critical thinking in any discipline. The argument mapping tutorials, for example, use various articles to demonstrate the annotation, questioning, and thought process one should use to evaluate the logic of an argument. One of the first tutorials uses an article which claims the moon landing was a hoax, which is a very engaging topic. Many of the other topics are also very timely and engaging. The only drawback is that most of the activities are more traditional activities which rely mostly on reading and writing (sometimes on discussing with others) and which don't incorporate much hands-on activity. However, it is still a very rich site of resources and activities for college and high school teachers and students.

Top 100 Learning Game Resource list. If you are already developing learning games, these links will broaden your horizons, as they did mine. If you are contemplating beginning - it might help to look at links that interest you to get some grounding ideas.

The Virtual Worlds Story Project (TVWSP) utilizes "Questing" to develop interactive, immersive, and educational journeys designed to explore specific ideas/themes, teach vital 21st century learning skills, and generate Narrative Synergy™ through story.    The goal of every Quest is to help each individual experience and express his or her Narrative Thread™ - that special spark of spirit that makes each of us unique.  Once identified and articulated, these threads or "strands of story" form the warp and weave of larger communities of practice*.

Realistic physics interactions are currently a bit of a limitation in Second LIfe. However, this demo shows what's in development for the near future. How could this emerging capability be leveraged to help students learn?

Stellar design! A detailed and fantastic virtual world educational environment/activity design now being developed by U of Oregon for K12 teachers attending a summer program. Virtual Oaxaca will combine a virtual world space with a journey to the real Oaxaca. Please read for a great example of blending "real", online and virtual world spaces into a comprehensive, collaborative, CREATIVE! and reflective learning experience.

Wow this is great. I just recently visited Oaxaca and was fascinated by the culture. I was only able to stay in the city for a couple of days and I felt I really wanted to learn more about the indigenous population and it's effect on the Oaxacan culture. This is a great way to learn more and interact for those who cannot visit. It is definitely a rich and magical place.

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.

Annenberg Media provides wonderful resources for teachers of almost any discipline from kindergarten though college. I use the American Passages series in my American Literature classes. Students can watch brief videos, which really bring content to life, but what is great is that Annenberg includes so much more than just videos -- discussion questions, other links to more information, glossaries of key terms, project and essay ideas. The drawback is the passive nature of the site. Students watch videos; they don't create them or edit them. The activities surrounding the videos incoporate reading, writing, and possibly discussing, but these approaches in isolation, as we have seen, do not always provide the most immersive or effective learning experience.

"The Education Arcade explores games that promote learning through authentic and engaging play. TEA's research and development projects focus both on the learning that naturally occurs in popular commercial games, and on the design of games that more vigorously address the educational needs of players." I joined this community and hope to learn a lot!

Dizzywood was developed by the entertainment company Rocket Paper Scissors. It is considered a virtual game, but there are many learning experiences built in. Dizzywood is participating in an elementary school program with the Reed Union School District in Marin County. "The highly interactive workshop uses virtual activities to reinforce the school's character pillars, which include caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness. Students also learn about important issues relating to virtual worlds, such as digital citizenship and online safety, as well as complete storytelling and team-building exercises that emphasize creativity, writing and reading skills, and working together to achieve goals." In addition, they have partnered with the YMCA to create a virtual learning program promoting cooperative skills.

Svarga is a mythical concept world designed to be an interactive and evolving ecosystem. It reminds me very much of one of my favorite games - Myst. You can take a tour of the island via a flying wasp and learn of the many intriguing design elements. This type of world would be a great addition to my developing unit on descriptive writing. It is beautifully rendered despite using proto-prim technology from 2006. A beautiful and inspiring place to visit.

Another blog by an educator who is bringing her middle school to Secondlife. Suffern Middle School in Second Life A running account of the process of the proposal, acquisition, development and integration of a virtual presence for education at Suffern Middle School, Suffern, New York, USA.

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.

For those of you interested in using virtual reality in teaching mathematics, here is a paper written by four professors about their experience in trying to find ways to make mathematics more interesting to their engineering students. They designed a virtual reality math lab to be taken with a math class. One of the most popular lab components was the flight of a soccer ball. In a 3D setting, the students could stop the ball in time and then practice their mathematical skills by plugging in coordinates that would project the flight of the ball. 20 out of 20 students said that they felt the lab had helped them to enjoy math more. The professors felt their overwhelmingly positive response would lead them to develop more math labs for their students in the future.