Group items tagged

Open Sim allows younger students. Here's one example. From website: "If you didn't already know, Open Sim is the free, open source server software based on Second Life. It enables you to run your own sims (or have someone else run them for you) anywhere you want: on your desktop, behind your firewall, at a data centre even in the cloud! These sims can be stand-alone, connected to a grid (though not Second Life itself yet) or now Hypergrid enabled, which allows them to be both stand-alone yet reachable by teleport from other sims and grids."

Open Source resources for OpenSim and Second Life: Animations, Attachments, Builds, Clothes, Scripts, Shapes, Skins, Terrain Files, Textures.

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.

You can reportedly smashing into your friends as sub-atomic particles, take a tour of a super collider, or look at a variety of DOE informational resources.  I like how lush and verdant the island is, a reminder of how our energy consumption effects the ecosystem around us.

List of global historic places recreated in Second Life. Some lists open in Google Earth also! Learners can explore in GE and then walk around in SL!

Anyone interested in CSI? What about forensic science to stimulate your science classes? It has posters that give information about the basics of forensic science, as well as scheduled lectures. Inside the examining room, there are pictures (both avatar and real life) of autopsies. In the morgue you can open and close the drawers.

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

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

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!

virtual world learning - geometry by building the Parthenon

Ocean science museum in SL: the educational sim includes a "Journey into the Deep" 2,000 meter underwater elevator, virtual replicas of the NOAA's research vessel "Okeanos Explorer" and submersible "Cleria", an undersea manned habitat, and lots of other scientific experiences to discover International Japanese/other collaboration

This SLOODLE (Simulation Linked Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) blog comments on and gives examples of using the plug-in SLOODLE to interface and integrate SL with Moodle. This is an open source project. The blog provides excellent tutorials explaining how this application works, and as you watch them, you start to imagine all the different ways you might apply these tools to the classroom. This site contains many ideas and examples for the classroom use of a VR as well as other web-based tools. One example of this is the dropbox for leaving notecard assignments. Once dropped, the notecard appears in the teacher's Moodle account. Once graded, the student immediately receives an email. Another paper describes using SL to teach engineering and then using the SLOODLE to track students' in-world laboratory participation and link it to the teacher's moodle. So we are seeing the virtual world integrating with the real world. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sloodle/126/94/23

A table (list) of over 100 science related places in Second LIfe. Includes SLURLS. If you are looking for a science related location to visit and report on, this is a super list to check out.

This is excellent. I went to the planetarium and was able to view the night sky from the perspective of Australians. What a great experience for students to have! They put on a presentation that includes history of the telescope, Galileo, current research in space, and ancient views on the stars. The night sky just opens up. It is if you are sitting at the top of the world.

Thank you for sharing. I visited a few differect locations. It was interesting to see how some were more of just a meeting place and some were very interactive and informational.

Had to mention this one. I was greatly impressed with this location. It starts you off in a room that is black and white. Gives you a sense that its old. There are artifacts lying around that belong to someone. The room looks trashed and there are propaganda posters all around. It really gives you a sense of place and time. Then you can explore what looks like a German town. The town has been ransacked by the nazis. You can go inside the buildings and looks through peoples belonging, including journals. Its very eye opening and I imagine that anyone that visits would learn something.

When I first heard about this--I think someone mentioned it in class--I thought, "Well, you can just take a virtual tour of the museum. What would be different in Second Life?" Well, it is different. I just got back from the museum in DC and this is just like you said, Veero, like visiting a scene back in time. A place like this would really help my student understand and feel what it must have been like to live and die in this time. We read The Diary of Anne Frank and The Book Thief and this SLURL brings these settings to life. The voices of the survivors was such and excellent touch.

It appears that Edusim may be a partial solution to giving elementary students access to a somewhat virtual world. This is an "immersive-touch" product that works with an interactive whiteboard allowing students to interact with and build in the environment. I created an account a year ago and had no motivation to learn about it until I took this ET 700 class. Now I am eager to figure out how to use it in my classroom. Using this technique, a class can have a hands-on virtual field trip, interactive story telling, or show a process in a 3D immersive way. For more explanation:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVFsxev-2sk Edusim alpha 11:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f53LzbK3alw I am going to download this and try it out. Let me know if you have any experience with this product.

This video was an amazing eye-opener to show what is already out there for science education.

Thanks for sharing this video. I'm looking forward to visiting these locations.

I have always wanted to visit Morocco because of what I've heard of the outdoor markets, mosques, food, beaches, and the culture from friends who have traveled there. This virtual space was actually constructed by students from Johnson & Wales University who had visited and in collaboration with the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism. When I teleported, I arrived in front of a fez booth. I took and wore one that allowed me to obtain information about my virtual surroundings as well as provide tips; it did warn me of monkeys. As I wandered thru the open markets, it was devoid of avatars but there was a gentle roar of a large crowd when walking in a specific area, and some of the stalls were empty with a couple of them with For Sale signs. Many of the stalls were offering garments, rugs, spices, kabobs, and baskets for sale. There were notecards, photo slideshows, and videos available that included tourism information and website links. I took a walk/fly thru stone-lined streets and walkways around the quaint residential buildings situated by ocean front views and I noticed that all the buildings have satellite dishes. This was a detailed little city with soccer fields, orange tree gardens, beach, outdoor café, and a mosque. I noticed two monkeys on a stand and I was expecting something to happen when I clicked them on and sat next to them; nothing happened.

This is an incredible location- a collection of intriguing landmarks from a variety of subjects. You really need to stop by here and pick up some good ideas about places to visit in SL and the internet. From one location you can view displays on many topics complete with links to webpages and notecards containing additional references. Some ideas: DaVinci's Observatory, A Cooking Center, Hyperhistory -http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html Spectrum School Network- http://www.incwell.com/Biographies/ History of Computing and Learning in Education Open Library: directory-style search http://openlibrary.org/search/subjects?q=educational+technology