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Vassar has a beautiful island in SL which includes this re-creation of the Sistine Chapel. My colleagues and I were impressed with the beauty of the whole island and especially the loving care lavished on the Sistine Chapel feature. The frescoes were just wonderful and flying to the ceiling to view them up close was a thrill. The Raphael tapestries on the walls were an unexpected bonus. While we enjoyed viewing the works, we all agreed that some kind of docent audio tour would enhance the experience.

Edtech in 3D group notes: Site Description: An accurate-to-scale recreation of The Sistine Chapel. Overall impressions: We arrived at Vassar Island, and were immediately in the middle of the experience. We were impressed by the detail in the recreation of the Sistine Chapel, and found it enjoyable to view the paintings and tapestries up close and from different angles. Although the chapel recreation is interesting, we were not very inspired to return. How learning is taking place: Visitors can fly through the Sistine Chapel and view famous pieces of art from angles that would not be possible in real life. Additionally, visitors are unencumbered by crowds or barriers, and some historical information is available. Likes: Painting and floor recreations are very impressive. Access to the artwork from different perspectives is nice (such as flying or changing viewpoints). Clicking on the painting "The Last Judgement" gives a nice history of the painting. Dislikes: Tapestries are hidden, and a sign must be clicked to show them - but the tapestries disappear again in 30 seconds. Unfortunately, most items do not contain historical information. We feel that this location could be greatly improved by giving visitors some information up front, such as the limitations of the experience (mostly the lack of historical information provided), encouraging them to fly up to the artwork for different perspectives, and setting expectations about how much of the artwork in the Sistine Chapel is represented in Second Life. Applications to learning in virtual worlds: We feel that Vassar Island contains both good examples of learning applications in virtual worlds, as well as things that could be improved upon. The detailed recreation of the Sistine Chapel, with the ability to view the artwork from amazing perspectives, can be applied to other learning applications. More historical information or study aids would be very helpful.

virtual world learning - geometry by building the Parthenon

Numbakulla: The Pot Healer Adventure Second Life Innovative Learning Environment SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Numbkulla/215/18/22 This is the kind of place that I imagined I would visit when I first signed up for Second Life. While Second Life itself may not be a game, it has massive potential to be a place where educational games can be embedded and hosted. The Pot-Healer Adventure is not an educational game per se, but a highly interactive quest that gets the player to explore and solve puzzles. However, it is one of the few environments I've found so far that has key elements that couldn't easily be reproduced as an Adobe Flash video. The game starts with a shipwreck, which has left debris strewn over land and floating in the sea. It's an intriguing beginning, and a nice device to allow the player to interact with nearly everything visible. At the start you can pick up a notebook, which keeps track of things you pick up in the game, and gives you hints about what to do. A notecard at the beginning tells players that they are to find out about a mysterious old civilization that a previous explorer is no longer able to investigate. I'm not sure how this environment itself could be used for educational purposes, but the way it has been designed could and should be adapted for other purposes. I imagine the explore-and-interact puzzle format to lend itself to teaching history, and anthropology. It would be a particularly good way to teach how historians gather evidence, and what they can learn from old diaries, work reports, and other documents. I am glad that I found this interesting environment, and hope to return and explore it some more. I think that it could serve as inspiration to others looking to create more interactive quest-type lessons.

What is Second Life: Second Life is a free online virtual world imagined and created by its Residents. From the moment you enter Second Life, you'll discover a fast-growing digital world filled with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. FINALLY - an entry level explanation and portal into SL. Ready to create a new digital you? Learn more about avatars ››

This is great, Cathy!! Thank you for this url!

Stagecoach Island is an online virtual world created by Wells Fargo. You can explore the island and its hidden secrets, connect with friends and make new ones, and at the same time learn smart money management.

elearningproject - using virtual worlds (Reaction Grid and Second Life) to teach English Language skills through adventure based learning. A 10 mission adventure where students must work together to escape Devil Island.

Medical training programs are springing up in virtual reality, and they may bring big changes to the way health-care professionals learn their craft. Example of medical school training simulation in 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.

How does this teacher's experience compare to yours? Can virtual world learning experiences mitigate ANY of these constraints or concerns?

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?

This award-winning website allows children to: * Interact with dozens of famous historical and fictional characters from the arts, literature and sciences. * Submit creative writings for others to read and comment upon. * Explore famous works of art and play art related games. * Undertake challenging quests that take kids into the world of classic literature, the arts and humanities. * Practice typing with typing-tutor games. * Learn best practices for staying safe on the Internet. The website is not free, and they have a Teachers Console for class management. They recently partnered with the San Francisco Opera to bring classical music to young adults.

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!

This is an article about utilizing Second Life to teach ESL. From language courses I have had, I know it makes a big difference for learners to be able to learn language in the context in which it is normally spoken. I can see how Second Life could have some applications to demonstrate to learners language spoken in context. "Second Life English" has an island devoted to teaching English. You may want to check it out.

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.

Teacher Guide and Activities for Deep Down.  Great example of MULE learning.  Good to use to put SL experience in context.

Welcome to "Virtual Hawaii." An ongoing project sponsored by NOAA. Not everyone will have a chance to experience the wonders of early celestial navigation on the open ocean, but here, visitors can experience life as it might have been centuries ago in the Hawaiian Islands. Video of "Virtual Hawaii" - Second Life based learning environment