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Online safety means empowering AND protecting ConnectSafely offers research driven strategies to mitigate negative digital citizenship and safety issues from both a technology and behavioral perspective

lokiboy is a great example of an avatar blog - blurring the boundaries between 2D and 3D onlines spaces. Shadow of the 13 is an in-world roleplaying mystery - complete with clues and an online website. (See post)

Kitely Presentation for Immersive Courseware  60 minutes

Brain scans of avid players of the hugely popular online fantasy world World of Warcraft reveal that areas of the brain involved in self-reflection and judgement seem to behave similarly when someone is thinking about their virtual self as when they think about their real one.

Hospitals, medical schools and health foundations are staking out space in the online community Second Life, in order to train medical and nursing students in clinical skills and to improve hospital efficency and response to emergencies.

Systems Thinking and Game Design through the eyes of a 4 year old. Interesting observations about the value of games in understanding problem solving and social interactions. Not directly related to virtual worlds - although good for understanding WHY virtual worlds and online games might be valuable student learning experiences.

OpenSim Hypergrid online store (beta) Many free assets including OAR, IAR, textures, scripts, sounds, animations, etc.  

Shambles Guru list of OpenSim resources, articles, online "stuff" .. good list to plow through.  Education focus.

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.

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.

An avatar is a graphical representation of one's self, personality or alter-ego while engaging in online communication.  Avatars can range from simple, static 2D graphics to complex, animated 3D forms controlled by the user. First of a great series on avatars. Clear, concise.

Slideshare: Excellent presentation! Learning in 3D: Bringing a new dimension to enterprise learning and collaboration. Glean new examples for EDTEC700

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.

RezEd (BETA), an online hub providing practitioners using virtual worlds with access to the highest quality resources and research in the field to establish a strong network of those using virtual worlds for learning.

Welcome to RezEd (BETA), an online hub providing practitioners using virtual worlds with access to the highest quality resources and research in the field to establish a strong network of those using virtual worlds for learning.

Here is another community for educators using virtual worlds for learning. I just submitted an application ... we'll see whether or not they accept me! It appears to be a Ning network with many resources. I think joining these communities is important ... reducing the learning curve by listening to those who have already learned things the hard way is a skill I'm trying hard to cultivate! Dana

Second Life Viewer 2.0 (now the default viewer for Second Life users) allows new capabilities to share and embed many types of online media. This blog post explains and points to some beginning examples of this powerful feature.

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 short article is an interview with John Lester, the former Education Ambassador for Second Life. Most noteworthy is the link within the article to ReactionGrid, the open source Second Life alternative. In the comments section there is a link to Indiana Wesleyan University's virtual world for its MBA students -- done virtually and completely online. Cool!

Overview of how Global Kids and other educational/non-profit organizations used Teen Second Life from 2005 until its close in late 2010. In addition to listing projects and case studies, Barry Joseph discusses what we might learn from this "experiment".

Given that Congress has the lowest approval rating of any branch and that most sessions are broadcast on CSPAN (zzzzz....), I'm not sure what good a Second Life for Congress will accomplish, however if teachers want to have students in a government class explore. At the sim-hearing that took place, Congress people posed questions about the dangers of the second life community (e.g. safety for children, etc.). This was back in 2008, but doesn't Congress already have enough on it's hands than to worry about hte dangers of second life?