Showing posts with label immersive worlds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label immersive worlds. Show all posts

Real-Life Grad Classes in Second Life


This came across the radar in SL. This would be of great interest if you are interested in using SL for teaching or learning purposes.

The Dept. of Educational Technology at BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY will offer a 15 week, 3 credit, graduate course on "Social Network Learning in Virtual Worlds " starting August 25, 2008.

Syllabus: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dfzrcdcd_18238v9rhfw&hl=en_GB

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COURSE INFORMATION

EDTECH 597: Social Network Learning in Virtual Worlds

3 credits

Course fees: $1,044 regardless of location
Instructor: Ann Jeffery (MissAnnie Ducatillon) & Salli DiBartolo (Sunshine Sparrow)
Internet course, requires weekly attendance at live synchronous session on PDT 1-3

Register at http://edtech.boisestate.edu or contact Jerry Foster at jfoster@boisestate.edu, 208-426-1966 to assist you with registration.

Description: Social Networking is a growing field of expertise, and has much to offer virtual world teachers wishing to explore new ways of communicating and collaborating both in-world and out-of-world. This graduate level course will explore collaborative and emergent pedagogies related to the use of social networks in virtual world teaching. Participants will gain hands-on experience with a variety social networking tools, create a community-based resource, and have an opportunity to become part of the emerging network of virtual world educators.

System requirements: http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php

It is recommended that participants have at least 10-20 hours of prior participation in Second Life before the course begins.

Prerequisite skills include:
* Use of camera controls
* Ability to fly, walk, and teleport
* Knowledge of communication tools (IM and chat)
* Basic building skills (create prims, add textures and content)
* Basic inventory management (can find items, wear clothing, make a notecard)

For more information, contact Ann Jeffery at annjeffery@u.boisestate.edu

Virtual Worlds: 20 Tools for 3D Creation

Virtual Worlds: 20 Tools for 3D Creation

Earlier this week Google launched Lively, a new social network where anyone can create an avatar and virtual room that can be embedded anywhere on the Web. 3D services such as Lively are popping up more and more online thanks to the popularity of virtual worlds like Second Life, Meez, and more.

Exclusive: Meez Finally Launches Virtual World

Exclusive: Meez Finally Launches Virtual World

http://mashable.com/2008/06/18/meez-virtal-worl/

I'm not surprised. Second Life couldn't have the market share all of the time ... and it's nice to know that it's going to be more than hands typing on an invisible keyboard ...

"Meez users have been requesting a virtual world in which their custom avatars can roam around and become more social with each other for some time, and now they finally have what they’ve always wanted. Meez Nation is the brand new virtual world made just for Meez avatars. [...] Unlike most other virtual worlds that have grown out of an avatar-creation and sharing site, Meez has layered in a good deal of functionality, activity and interaction for the avatars. For instance, there’s chat capabilities in every virtual room, and similar to an IM chat client that converts the characters “;” and “)” into ;) Meez avatars will act out certain commands that you type into the chat window. Type in “rofl” and your Meez avatar will roll on the floor laughing."

Second Life Blogs & News

Here are a few Second Life Blogs and News sites:

When and If Virtual Worlds Collide

http://www.massively.com/2008/06/14/the-daily-grind-should-mmogs-and-virtual-worlds-be-separate/

The Daily Grind: Should MMOGs and virtual worlds be separate?
Friday held the Social Gaming Summit, a meeting of the luminaries of the various virtual worlds -- Gaia Online, Neopets, and IMVU to name a very few -- in San Francisco. This blogger was on hand for several of the panels, and came away with a deeper understanding of where the demarcation between massively multiplayer online game and virtual world was drawn. On the virtual world side, developers are beginning to incorporate more and more elements of what would normally be considered MMO-only features, like quests and leveling up ...

Immersive Worlds & Learning - A place to start with the research.

Below are a few resources you may find useful to introduce you to the area of research & development of immersive worlds and learning. Keep in mind that these folks are very much
in the socio-cultural/critical theory realm ...

1. Constance Steinkuehler, U of Wisconsin:
http://website.education.wisc.edu/steinkuehler/

2. Jay Lemke, U of Mich: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jaylemke/

3. I3W: Investigating Interactive Immersive Worlds:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jaylemke/projects/i3w-home.htm

20 Tools For Creating Your Own Games

20 Tools For Creating Your Own Games

This is AWESOME! Forget Second Life! Make your own RPG or Flash-based game without any knowledge of programming necessary. I think I'm going to try to add this as an FDI workshop to the Spring/Summer roster.

The best part? The storyboarding and writing (because everyone knows that good games come from good writing).

How fun!

Second Life Technologist Moves to Academe - Chronicle.com

Second Life Technologist Moves to Academe - Chronicle.com

This may or may not be indicative of some real changes for academia and Second Life. I suspect that SL will keep moving increasingly towards commercialism ... but does that actually affect SL Educators in any way?