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Happy Steve blog post chronicling ongoing student work on a Second Life Teen Grid Island. Booralie Island is the virtual extension of a Christian school located in Sydney, Australia. Their island is largely student created and used for many different subjects. Happy Steve is also a great example of a technology infused enthusiastic teacher. This post details students building a war memorial, scripted recording studio, coliseum ... on their own time and after school.

The above link is to a paper written about the ways in which high schools can use virtual worlds to educate students or as part of supplementing high school students' education. The article addresses the value of role playing and social learning in the classroom. The author also asks teachers what has worked for them and their professional opinion about virtual worlds in the classroom. The author also addresses how video games can be educational.

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.

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".

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.

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.

I've created this wiki to help teachers use simulation and game in the classroom. Please help me by suggesting articles, resources, and videos or sharing this with teachers at your school and/or via your blog. Thanks and hope you enjoy!

Guidelines for Educational Use of RPS TSL Used by Regina Public Schools Teen SL project

Virtual Storytelling Project - 125 Grade 8 students in 5 Regina Public schools were involved in an inquiry learning project integrating English Language Arts, Social Studies and Arts Ed Drama curriculums, as well as cutting edge technology through the use of Teen Second Life and the iLife suite of applications.

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

State Curriculum Content Standards and Virtual Worlds New Jersey becomes the first state to incorporate virtual worlds (and the ability to use them) into their "Core Curriculum Content" state standards…. Via New Jersey State Dept. of Ed. web site at http://www.nj.gov/education/aps/cccs/2009/tech/index.html Particularly "….. collaborate adeptly in virtual environments and incorporate global perspectives into problem solving at home, school and in structured learning experiences with the growing realization that people in the 21st century are interconnected economically, socially and environmentally and have a shared future."

Example of high school student rapid prototyping - Senior project

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.

Accredited 3D homeschool (middle and high school) This page features a video overview. Looks like they mash up their virtual worlds with a Moodle CMS. What do you think of how they use the virtual world component? Good, bad? other? Not sure what virtual world platform they're using.

This looks very interesting...I don't know how effective it would be. The student would have to be very self motivated to be successful. It does look like a type of Moodle they are using. I think this could be a good alternative for homeschool students though.

Overview of Science through Second Life - a Motorola grant funded science curriculum implemented in a 9th grade Brooklyn science class, Spring 2008. (Full disclosure - Co-designed by Cathy) A practical example of using a virtual world to supplement and support standards based high school science. Note the environments NPIRL (not possible in real life).

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.

Second Life interview with Skoolaborate's founder, Westley Field. Good overview of exemplary Teen Grid education project now involving 40+ schools globally.

One of the greatest challenges we face as high school physical education teachers is getting our students to be motivated. Although it is costly to have this sort of virtual reality equipment at our school, it is something that we can possibly plan for the future and have as an activity for days in which our teaching areas are affected by rainy day, construction, testing, or for students who cannot have long exposure to the sun. Sounds fun ☺

Yeah, I think in PE (or in any content area), finding a way to connect with our students and motivate them is crucial. I envision being able to integrate a Wii game system with a 3D Muve so that our students will actually have to be physically active in order to move their avatar in the virtual world,

Carolina, Does the P.E. curriculum call for daily physical activity? Perhaps one or two days a week students can meet in a computer lab and work in SL. They could build a gym, and post fitness goals on its walls. Also, there are many web sites out there that they could use to calculate calories in and calories out. Just a thought... Great article. ;)

This is a very recent post regarding the integration of current events in education, by means of Second Life. The article specifically describes how high school teachers have created an oil spill in Second Life and are having students think of ways to control this environmental nightmare. Creating real life problem in Second Life enriches the manner in which students interact with news. This type of work leads me to believe that many aspects of a student's development can be worked at the same time! More bang for the buck! These teachers do however, have he economic and technical support from the city of New York.