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Ole C Brudvik's List: SecondLife Education

    • On a modest plot in Epsilon Orionis, Fishace Pye has set up a backyard waste management system to demonstrate the real-life benefits. Fishace sums up the purpose of his plot:

       

      “Fishace Ecological Engineering is an Australian consultancy specialising in the design of zero waste systems. With climate changes ahead we need to do things in different ways. This system shows how you can treat your waste and get value back from recycling nutrients. The microalgae photobioreactor has just hit the news as one way to soak up CO2 from smoke stacks and then recover biofuels from the algal feedstock. The educational exhibition outlines future nutrient mining technology.

       

      fishace.jpg
    • I dropped in to the RMIT island the other day and bumped into the island’s director John Guffey. As the students start this coming week, further development will take off as much of the building and design work will be undertaken by the students themselves. John indicated that access to the island will not be limited to students alone. In fact, they are going to open more space - and there is already talk of another island.

       

      John had an interesting view that “we want aussie unis to clump islands together”. That kind of scenario would be extremely interesting from two points of view.

       

      Firstly, the competition for students and research funding would dictate that “clumping” all Australian University SL islands close to each other sounds to be a curious goal as universities are traditionally seen to be vying with each other.

       

      Secondly, the concept of an SL Archipelago of Australian Universities could attract interest from the global marketplace of students. It would set it apart from other countries with tertiary education presences in SL.

       

      It will be interesting to see how the current Australian Universities in SL respond to this proposal and whether those without an SL presence are prepared to come on board if the Archipelago happens.

        
                                                      

    • BOSTON, MA - June 04, 2007 - MediaGrid.org launches the Immersive Education initiative with an open call to educators, students, and professionals who have experience using virtual learning environments or video game technologies (such as Second Life, Croquet, Extensible 3D [X3D], Panda3D, Quake, Unreal, Torque Game Engine, and so forth). Individuals and organizations can visit ImmersiveEducation.org to select the next-generation Immersive Education platform, contribute to best practices, and establish standards for virtual learning environments and game-based learning platforms.
       

         

      Immersive Education is an award-winning learning platform that combines interactive 3D graphics, commercial game and simulation technology, virtual reality, voice chat (Voice over IP/VoIP), Web cameras (webcams) and rich digital media with collaborative online course environments and classrooms. Immersive Education gives participants a sense of "being there" even when attending a class or training session in person isn't possible, practical, or desirable, which in turn provides educators and students with the ability to connect and communicate in a way that greatly enhances the learning experience. Originally available only to university students, the next generation of Immersive Education is focused on a broad spectrum of academic and non-academic users (higher education, K-12 [kindergarten through high school], and corporate training). Unlike traditional computer-based learning systems, Immersive Education is designed to immerse and engage students in the same way that today's best video games grab and keep the attention of players. Immersive Education supports self-directed learning as well as collaborative group-based learning environments that can be delivered over the Internet or using fixed-media such as CD-ROM and DVD. Shorter mini-games and interactive lessons can be injected into larger bodies of course material to further heighten and enrich the Immersive Education experience.

    • Immersive Education, a Media Grid initiative, is a novel learning platform that combines interactive 3D graphics, commercial game and simulation technology, virtual reality, voice chat (Voice over IP/VoIP), Web cameras (webcams) and rich digital media with collaborative online course environments and classrooms. Immersive Education gives participants a sense of "being there" even when attending a class or training session in person isn't possible, practical, or desirable, which in turn provides educators and students with the ability to connect and communicate in a way that greatly enhances the learning experience. Originally available only to university students, the next generation of Immersive Education is focused on a broad spectrum of academic and non-academic users (higher education, K-12 [kindergarten through high school], and corporate training).

       

      Unlike traditional computer-based learning systems, Immersive Education is designed to immerse and engage students in the same way that today’s best video games grab and keep the attention of players. Immersive Education supports self-directed learning as well as collaborative group-based learning environments that can be delivered over the Internet or using fixed-media such as CD-ROM and DVD. Shorter mini-games and interactive lessons can be injected into larger bodies of course material to further heighten and enrich the Immersive Education experience.

    • Metaverse meets mash-up: come June 15, there's going to be another Free Culture/Creative Commons event in Second Life, this one springboarding off the recent CC Art Show 2006 at NYU and the Sharing is Daring event at Harvard.  The object here is to take the art featured at those sites, and then remix it for an in-world showing on the 15th.  You can do the remixing with Photoshop and other standard tools, of course, but for this event, the ideal medium is SL itself.  Which is what I did with an Untitled photo by Joseph Gergel, uploading it as a texture, displaying it in-world, and using it as a backdrop for a dramatic screenshot, above.

        

      No doubt Residents can come up with way better remixes, taking the appropriately-licensed art from here and here*, then converting them into screenshots, 3D sculptures, interactive sites, whatever.  I'm looking forward to reporting on what comes out of this.

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