OpenSim

This series of posts is intended to be a comprehensive look at the use and development of Virtual Worlds on Open Source technologies in Schools

Overview of the state of virtual worlds in education.

Upload Powerpoint and PDF presentations directly into the vComm Presenter. No need for conversion to JPEG nor performing error prone image uploads. Beta testing.

Connecting Real and Virtual Worlds

Lumiya Viewer is a Second Life and OpenSim grid client for Android phones and tablets.

Description of how to export from Autodesk to OpenSim and Second Life.

See some magnificent head shaking by Tommi Hollström, CTO Evocativi. I wonder how their head tracking code, compiled in collaboration with Playsign, would work with Lord playing Hard Rock Hallelujah - dig out your webcams!"

OpenSim collaborative region and buildings. Freeswitch instructions.

A brief history of virtual world interoperability efforts including MMOX, OGP, VWRAP, Cable Beach, and the new push to bring them all together.

A comparison between Second Life and OpenSim

Staff ICT trainer at an independent K-12 school who had explored Quest Atlantis, OpenSim and Second Life Teen Grid. She has just esablished virtual 3D space for their school with OpenSim + ReactionGrid.

Wiki on OpenSim Tutorials

Full sims for OpenSim.

Running OpenSim and Imprudence on a USB Key

EcoMUVE is an exciting new curriculum research project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education that uses immersive virtual environments to teach middle school students about ecosystems and causal patterns. EcoMUVE includes two one‐week computer‐based modules within a four week inquiry‐based ecosystems curriculum. The goal of the EcoMUVE project is to help students develop a deeper understanding of ecosystems and causal patterns with a curriculum that uses Multi‐User Virtual Environments (MUVEs). MUVEs are 3‐D virtual worlds that have a look and feel similar to videogames. They are accessed via computers and, in our case, recreate authentic ecological settings within which students explore and collect information. Students work individually at their computers and collaborate in teams within the virtual world. The immersive interface allows students to learn science by exploring and solving problems in realistic environments. The EcoMUVE project is supported by the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education.

This video shows an architect using Visibuild to import Autodesk Revit content into RealXtend (an OpenSim world).

The students were inspired by the Van Gogh video on OpenSim and given the brief: 1) to create an appearance for their Avatar, 2) To create somewhere to sit and 3) to create some form of shelter for their avatar on their island.