Linden Lab Call On Educators To Share Their Success Stories

UWE Education In Virtual Worlds MA

Linden Lab have issued a blog post in which they ask for Second Life based educators to Share Your Educational Success Stories. The post states :

Are you an educator seeing positive results from using Second Life? We’d love to hear from you! Please join us in this Education Forum thread to share your answers to the following questions:

  1. What educational organization do you represent?
  2. How do you use SL in your educational endeavors?
  3. Most importantly, what positive results have you seen from using SL?

From direct conversations, press coverage, and the like, we’ve heard of a number of organizations seeing positive results using Second Life for education, but we’re always eager to hear more and we hope you’ll add your voice to the thread.

Thanks!

There are many educational organisations using Second Life, I’ve covered a few here myself.

Inside the building

Education should be important by everyone, even if you don’t consider yourself to be a student at this moment in time. The use of virtual worlds in terms of encouraging lifelong learning, helping those who find traditional educational surroundings difficult, encouraging those who find gamification appealing, reaching out to people all over the world and educating educators to utilise virtual world spaces are a small example of some of the concepts that make virtual world learning appealing.

Deep Think Open University

There are of course many other reasons as to why education in a virtual world such as Second Life has advantages and hopefully Linden Lab will be able to solicit good feedback regarding compelling use cases.

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Science Fiction Author Elinor Caiman Sands Engages With SciFi Convention 2015 In Second Life

Inside Elinor Caiman Sands Exhibit

Authors outside the virtual world at times pay attention to the virtual world. Terry Pratchett visited once for a talk in a promotion of his book Nation. Science Fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson used to pop into Second Life for a talk or two, dressed as a coyote. I’ve talked, more than once, with Nara Malone who has formed community links with authors in Second Life and beyond into OpenSim, especially with projects such as The HyperGrid Stories Project.

Over the weekend whilst roaming around the Science Fiction Convention 2015 in Second Life I stumbled across the works of another author, UK based SciFi & Fantasy author Elinor Caiman Sands.

Elinor has a small exhibit in the Risa sim at the conference, featuring promotion of her books and some Second Life based artwork. Elinor is a fan of alligators, I’m not sure how many of them really exist in swamps in the UK, although legend has it that the UK was indeed once a very swampy land. However she does have experience of the British Labour party, so she should be used to people showing their teeth and trying to snap.

At the exhibition four of Elinor’s e-books are promoted :

  • Europa Spring
  • Elinor’s Little Book of Funny Critters
  • The Martian Ascent
  • Mouse About the House

These are all short stories and were published as Kindle editions in 2014.

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Valve To Demo Previously Unannounced SteamVR Hardware System At GDC 2015

A good place to follow all things VR related is at The Road To VR. This is an informative site that carries news and developments rather than trying to be funny and clever like far too many sites. The site has recently posted an interesting article regarding a VR initiative from Steam : Valve to Reveal “SteamVR Dev Kit” Next Week at GDC 2015 :

Gaming giant Valve has announced that they’ll be revealing a “previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system” at GDC 2015. The company has been actively engaged in R&D in the AR/VR space but hasn’t previously broken into the hardware market. This new information makes it look like they might be gearing up to do just that.

Valve were at one stage expected to enter the VR hardware market, but then some of their staff moved to Oculus and things went quiet on the Valve front, very quiet. However the latest news suggests that Valve are very much interested in sharing a piece of the VR hardware pie.

Valve are also reaching out to VR content creators, as they explain on the steampowered site :

With the introduction of SteamVR hardware, Valve is actively seeking VR content creators. Are you a developer or publisher interested in experiencing the new SteamVR hardware? We’ll be giving scheduled VR demos during the week of GDC, March 4th-6th, 2015, at Moscone Center in San Francisco.

This is a very interesting development to say the least.

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Talking To Lani Global About OpenSim SciFi At The Second Life SciFi Convention

Opensim Scifi

OpenSim SciFi may seem like an odd fit at the Second Life Science Fiction Convention, indeed your first thought may well be “These aren’t the droids we’re looking for.” However you would be wrong because in a similar fashion to storytellers, SciFi spread across OpenSim and Second Life with the communities working together even if the technologies don’t. I caught up with Lani Global to chat about OpenSim SciFi.

First things first, I had to make sure that Lani wasn’t an evil sith Lord or lady, she frowned and then replied :

I doubt that the OpenSim universe has been conquered as an empire yet, but there are many trying!

However more importantly, how popular is SciFi in OpenSim, this was a question that received a warmer reply :

Sci Fi is probably one of the most popular themes in OpenSim.” Lani told me, she also told me that she has her own Hypergrid enabled OpenSim location “My main region called “Lani” has been enabled for HyperGrid since 2010. It gets about 15,000 unique visitors per year, and about 20% of them are via HyperGrid.

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Centaurs, Tarot And A Stunning Vintage Village At Verdigris

Vintage Village

A post over at New World Notes caught my eye : Visit in Second Life: In The Hall of the Centaurs, a Masterwork by Acclaimed SL Architect Havit Neox. That post itself links to one from Eddi Haskell : Great Second Life Destinations: Haveit Neox’s Gorgeous New Masterwork- In The Hall Of The Centaurs :

Havit Neox, one of Second Life’s most famous architects, builds fanciful structures and entire cities that employ a wide range of architectural effects. His latest creation, In The Hall of the Centaurs at Second Life’s famous Verdigris City, is another jewel in his crown and a must-see destination.

Hmm, I thought, I better go and see what all the fuss is about. So I did, and the fuss is most certainly worth it, not just for the Hall Of Centaurs, but for the whole sim of Verdigris itself.

Centaur Hall

The Centaur Hall lies on one side of a wooden bridge suspended in the sky and it offers some spectacular views. The building itself is stunning but the design and artwork inside is very much a joy to behold.

Entrance To Centaur Hall

There is, as one would expect, a distinct mystical feel to the surroundings, both inside and outside of the Centaur Hall.

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