Group items tagged

link to a very cool map of World Heritage Sites created in the virtual world of Second Life. The map is viewable in Google Maps and includes SLurls to teleport to each of the locations. The information was gathered by New Mexico State University Professory Pete Eidenbach and imported into Google Maps. If you combine this with Virtual Flags and Anthems of the World and our list of 35 Virtual Countries in Second Life then you receive quite a world history or geography lesson.

A SL repository for maps. This guy has collected maps for years and finally digitized them. The SL place he has created is really cool to visit and look at if you enjoy cartography and/or enjoy historical interpretations of actual places.

Google map of world heritage sites reflected in Second Life builds

This is a fun, interactive site which teaches students about the play Oedipus Rex and about conventions of ancient Greek theater, culture and politics. It uses a game show format and contemporary tone to get students engaged. The drawback is that it is text dense. Students simply click on what they think is the right answer. The right answer takes them to the next part of the narrative. The wrong answer takes them to a long paragraph of explanation. There are hot links within the text, though, which open other cool sites with pictures, maps, etc. This is a very specific site intended to enhance a person's study of Oedipus Rex.

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.

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.

The Federal Trade Commission today issued a report that examines the incidence of sexually and violently explicit content in online virtual worlds. The congressionally mandated report, "Virtual Worlds and Kids: Mapping the Risks," urges operators of virtual worlds to take a number of steps to keep explicit content away from children and teens, and recommends that parents familiarize themselves with the virtual worlds their kids visit.

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

This location on SL presents a nice collection of artwork that could be used for art student to visit. The environment is visually appealing and easy to navigate. There are neighboring islands to visit as well, including a replicated "Old Globe Shakespearean Theater". There are a few neighboring islands in this particular SL map that I am going to go back to and visit.

The Virtual Ability site is dedicated to helping people with disabilities or chronic health conditions and their families. It is very user friendly allow users to touch various destinations within the site and then be transported to those destinations. As someone new and not very mover able it was a big added attraction. It also has a guided tour including a an air ballon ride. Very cool.

This is a very unique place that many students would find interesting and probably very different from what they consider to be "church". The Shaolin Temple enables the visitor to learn about the different aspects of the Buddhist religion and actually participate by meditating,, doing tai chi, etc. I love that people had remembrances of their loved ones. This place was a peaceful place to spend time and also educational.

This is a virtual Medical Examiner's Office. It is a work in progress but has quite a bit of information and photos that are not for the light hearted. It is a good place for students who are interested in the medical field. It provides scrubs to wear and other free stuff. There are many notecards that provide description of various medical procedures. A work in progress but recommended for those with interest in the medical or forensic field.

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.

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.

This place was great! It was huge. First, I got on an airplane and took a Splo tour. It took me to different places. I explored the pi area, observed the moon's orbit, and lastly went to see the optical illusions at the exhibits. There were many exhibits. Most of the exhibits I visited had optical illusions. In science, I teach my third graders to observe by looking. There was the face/vase illusion, the distorted room, and lots of other cool illusions. This reminded me of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. With budget cuts, this would be a great place to show students without leaving school campus!

Virtual Med School? Ok, maybe not quite yet, although this blog post by Clare Linden shares an interview with Dave Taylor from Imperial College London regarding the use of SL as a tool for teaching medical procedures before trying them out on actual patients. Apparently Dave Taylor also built the NPL pavilion for the International Spaceflight Museum in SL as well. The virtual hospital, Second Health, was developed to provide lower-cost simulations of medical devices and help decrease incidents of errors in clinical settings. There are day surgery centers, a "keeping healthy showcase," and a really cool teleporter, reminiscent of Star Trek so you don't have to walk/fly to find things. Some areas are off limits, but there are plenty of things for the public to see. I'm interested in creating something along these lines for health care in a different setting. Blog site: http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/workinginworld/blog/2009/06/01/the-future-of-healthcare-3-questions-for-dave-taylor-of-imperial-college-london SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Second%20Health%20London/131/223/25

Forgotton City - fantasy ... "A once-great, clockpunck-ish city where the prosperous Residents were served by the miraculous mechanical automatons. The people have long since disa ppeared, but the automatons remained and still take care of the crumbling stone walls, abandoned halls, and rusty fences.

Edtech in 3D group notes: Site Description: Imperial College's virtual hospital where professionals can train and rehearse and patients can learn about healthcare facilities and procedures that they might need to use. Overall impressions: We were immediately impressed with the Medical School. The grounds were beautiful, and the buildings were designed with learning in mind. We liked the patient rooms, and the introductory podcast was a useful start to the experience. Unlike Vassar Island, we felt that we wanted to spend more time in this location - and we were left with a desire to return and learn more. How learning is taking place: Tour guides give visitors a wide range of ways to discover the island. Visitors can visit patients and learn about various medical conditions. From what we could see, lectures and demonstrations are also a large part of learning at the medical school. Likes: We liked the podcast that started playing as soon as we arrived. There were numerous tours and visitor aids, making it easy to get started. We also liked the immediate access to information. This set expectations up front, helping us to enjoy the experience. Dislikes: Because the island is full of information and is very immersive, the user has to go through several layers (tours, walking around, searching) to get to things. Applications to learning in virtual worlds: The patient rooms take advantage of the virtual world to create an experience that can't easily be created in the real world. They are a great example of how Second Life allows deeper learning than can be found by simply reading a book or listening to a lecture - without endangering an actual patient. Other learning experiences could apply this same tactic to become more immersive.