{"id":4482,"date":"2014-12-11T20:02:09","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T20:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=4482"},"modified":"2014-12-11T20:02:09","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T20:02:09","slug":"ebbe-altberg-to-open-vwbpe-2015-education-in-second-life-still-has-a-healthy-pulse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=4482","title":{"rendered":"Ebbe Altberg To Open VWBPE 2015 & Education In Second Life Still Has A Healthy Pulse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linden Lab have slowly been trying to make peace with the education community in virtual worlds after the price change controversy a few years back. This has of course been reversed as Linden Lab seem to value the potential of educators using virtual worlds and this is further exemplified by the news that Ebbe Altberg will be the opening keynote speaker at VWBPE 2015<\/a> :<\/p>\n

Great things are happening again this year at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference, so don\u2019t miss out! We are very pleased to announce that Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab, will be back on March 18, 2015, this time as our opening keynote speaker.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ebbe will be joined by many other noteworthy presenters such as educators, researchers, professionals and instructors representing a broad range of areas including non-profits, sciences, IT , artists and of course, education.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Virtual Worlds Best Practices In Education will be running from March 18th – 21st 2015.<\/p>\n

I decided to dig a little deeper into the educational institutions currently active in Second Life. Unfortunately the Official Wiki is hopelessly out of date in this area. However the ever improving Destination Guide<\/a> is very much relevant to the current market and better still, it includes lots of places that aren’t traditional places of learning. I decided to start my exploration at the\u00a0DePaul College of Computing and Digital Media<\/p>\n

\"DePaul<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u00a0thing to note is that this is a bloody impressive build. If you hadn’t intentionally teleported into an education sim, you would probably think it was some sort of roleplaying environment or a place where some serious content creators were at play. This is a very photogenic location.<\/p>\n

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DePaul University, College of CDM<\/h1>\n

See what the students at DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media have created on the school’s official campus. A monastery, pirate ship, manor house, and bell tower are just a few of the attractions to explore.<\/p>\n

Visit in Second Life<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Next up I headed over to The Cystic Fibrosis University. This is another impressive build and has a winter holiday theme going on at the moment.<\/p>\n

\"Cystic<\/a><\/p>\n

The Cystic Fibrosis university is ran by the Boomer Esiason Foundation and they explain a little bit about the purpose of their build in Second Life on their community portal section of their website<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world \u0096 set up and monitored by the Boomer Esiason Foundation \u0096 with virtual characters (avatars) in a cyber community. The online world allows people to socialize and communicate (via typing) \u0093face to face.\u0094 CF University, located on Second Life, is an educational and resourceful tool that also allows people with CF to have social interaction.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Cystic Fibrosis University<\/h1>\n

Presented by the Boomer Esiason Foundation, this region aims to educate the general public about cystic fibrosis, provides valuable resources to sufferers, and is a fun place to relax and socialize with the CF community.<\/p>\n

Visit in Second Life<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Next up I headed to more familiar territory for me, The University Of The West Of England.<\/p>\n

\"University<\/a><\/p>\n

I have been here before, most notably when I took a look at their MA Education In Virtual Worlds<\/a>. A course that is taught entirely within Second Life. The island includes some interesting concepts and makes good use of The Second Life environment. There’s more than one island here.<\/p>\n

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University of the West of England<\/h1>\n

This estate in Second Life supports a wide range of educational activities, including simulations in accident investigation, psychology, business ethics and financial accounting. The MA runs entirely in SL, which includes tutorials, building and scripting workshops and social activities with our students from around the world.<\/p>\n

Visit in Second Life<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Next I headed off to Deep Think, a build courtesy of The Open University.<\/p>\n

\"Deep<\/a><\/p>\n

The layout of the land is described well on the Virtual MPhil page of the OU website<\/a> :<\/p>\n

Our immersive campus, called deep|think, is a large Second Life development, which has been modelled into five distinct, but interconnected small islands, each with a well-defined function:<\/em><\/p>\n