Night Flower Finds Herself

This woman had created several very insightful blog posts about her virtual experiences, including an emotional leave-taking of Second Life since she came to the conclusion that it was distracting her from her responsibilities in Real Life, as it is frequently referred to in-world. (SL vs. RL or Second Life vs. First or Physical Life.)

New World Notes is a central information blog for the virtual environments, and when they ran "Losing Night: The Woman Who Abandoned Her Avatar to Save Herself, Only to Have Her Avatar Save Her" it got noticed. It was quite a surprise that she would return and a delight that she could be so articulate about it. Formal research from Dr. Richard Gilbert at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, among others bears witness to the truth of what she says.


The original post appears here: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/01/avatar-abadonment.html

RailLA.org Proposal Demonstration Created and Filmed in Second Life

This is Avatrian's proposal for RailLA.org's call for design ideas to revitalize downtown Los Angeles. The goal is to integrate the neighborhoods around Union station with the arrival of the high speed train in LA. The machinima showcases various concepts, real world implementations and original designs. We used a virtual world platform in order to implement our ideas in a manner wherein it can be communicated effectively. 3D content were designed and built as needed in the specific scenes presented. This work has been possible due to the diligence of Avatrian's creative team of 3D modelers, graphic artists, digital film makers and project managers. We also sought out specific advise from professional city planners, style editors and audio specialists. The work has been happily collaborative.

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive

From Saffia Widdershins, Host of Designing Worlds: Designing Worlds will this week be focusing on a very special – and timely – project. The First World War Poetry Digital Archive and the Learning Technologies Group at the University of Oxford have collaborated to bring a wealth of First World War poetry and information together in an environment that allows this powerful material to be explored and experienced in a radically new way. The First World War Poetry Digital Archive has imported a range of digitised archival materials from the major poets of the First World War (including poetry manuscripts, letters and diaries) along with contextual primary source materials, into the Second Life environment. These have been located within a presentation modelled to represent areas of the Western Front, 1914 – 1918.

SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Frideswide/219/200/646

  Designing Worlds : On the Western Front
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Case Western Reserve University: Results with Virtual Ed

Found on the GOOD Channel, YouTube. 
http://bit.ly/GOOD-VirtualEdu
GOOD - a platform for people who want to do well by doing good. We engage and challenge the people, ideas and institutions driving change in the world.

http://www.good.is/

MoonWorld

MoonWorld on VWBPE Conference 2010

From: avatrian | March 24, 2010 | 48 views

Frecka Salsman (aka Dr. Debbie Reese) presents the MoonWorld best practices in the Scilands panel of VWBPE. March 12, 2010.

The audio used in this video is a courtesy of the recording from Troy McConaghy (aka Troy McLuhan in SL). 

Virtual Worlds 2010 from Lyr Lobo

Imagine This: Karl Kapp Shares 3D Learning

Karl Kapp and his co-author, Tony O'Driscoll will be Robert Bloomfield's guest on this week's Metanomics program (Wed, 12pm SLT/ PST) Here's a short video from Karl that illustrates just how a 3D learning environment can be far more illustrative and "sticky" than the 2D. Read more about their wonderful book here: http://www.learningin3d.info/

Triage Incident Training

This clip presents the highlights of a Triage Exercise involving staff from Bingham Memorial Hospital and other agencies from Idaho. The exercise was carried out in the Play2Train Virtual Learning Environment built on the Second Life platform.

No Details Spared, Thanks to ThinkBalm

Erica and Sam Driver have been very balanced in their approach to the emergence of what they have dubbed the "Immersive Internet." They have hosted discussions and guided the creation of a brilliant region called the ThinkBalm Data Garden, with wonderful innovations from virtual tool creators. But they are listeners, and they continue to ask questions and wait for the reactions of the early innovators. Their new report is just published and I trust that it may provide you with some larger sense of the progression of virtual world adoption and implementation.

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A Brief Introduction to Virtual Worlds, from AJ Kelton

AJ is a prominent Second Life figure, conducting a very popular weekly meeting of educators from all over the globe, formerly known as the Second Life Educator's Digest Group(SLED,)and recently renamed the Virtual Worlds Educator's Digest. Not sure how to pronounce that one frankly. He is a College Professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

These are snapshots taken from Second Life locations which have appealed to his classes and visitors. The early slides are primarily education facilities, taken from the hundreds of colleges and universities now present and working here, while the later slides offer a look at some builds by institutions that may surprise you with their presence. Keep in mind that Second Life is created by it's residents, so building skills may vary as students, professors and dedicated builders work side by side.

Please grab the lower right hand corner of the presentation with your mouse to turn the pages. I suggest the full page mode as well which is on the top bar of the presentation window(red arrow below.) Use the forward and back arrows (purple markers,) to advance the slides from that same navigation bar.

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Health Care Education in Second Life

It can be exhilarating to work in this new freedom, to create whatever you can imagine and invite others to participate. But it can also be technically daunting and overwhelming, with equipment demands and new skills to teach. The Epoch Institute specializes in bringing expertise to the process of making introductions. We arrange for civil and well-mannered exchanges and are certain that you will be equally excited and intrigued. This slide set dates from 2008 so while many of the links are active, not all of the locations may still be active. Thanks to Debbi Duncan for these slides.

Welcome to the future of education!
- Jenn Forager, Epoch Director

Please grab the lower right hand corner of the presentation with your mouse to turn the pages. Click to enlarge it, then click again to return to the default size in order to turn pages.


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