September 07 - Highlights for SL and Education (Mostly)

Well, I have been posting a little less frequently about SL the past few weeks because of the start-up of the new school year. I went into SL yesterday for the first time in about 2 weeks and downloaded the new updates. However, I could not find any friends online to try the voice features out with. I will have to go back on Sunday night when it seems to be Educator Central in SL. :-)

Just because I have not been on SL does not mean I have not been active. Take a look at these great SL web pages and articles I have come across in the past few weeks:

Digital Space Portal - http://www.digitalspaces.net/ This is an interesting website/wiki. Digital Spaces is an open source multi-media presentation and simulation engine. It is highly flexible allowing the designer to choose what capabilities they want and how to use them. It supports a range of media types, with a focus on immersive 3 dimensional "spaces".

Scorp's Second Life Adventures - http://members.westnet.com.au/batesjowett/ScorpSLAdventures.htm This is SL comic book style - very cool.

CBS News Article on SL - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/18/scitech/pcanswer/main3271133.shtml?source=RSSattr=SciTech_3271133 from September 18th, 2007 - Learning Architecture In A Virtual World:Larry Magid Reports On Real Life Tycoon's New Way Of Teaching. "(CBS) Terry Beaubois had a problem when he was offered a position teaching architecture at Montana State University. He wasn't ready to move to Bozeman, Montana, where the campus is located. So he figured out a way to teach the course from his home in Northern California . . . "

SciLands - http://scilands.wordpress.com/ This is a blog that is devoted to a special region of SL called the SciLands.

Knowledge Transfer Innovations - http://knowledgecast.wordpress.com/ Pretty interesting site, especially for SL medical and college level teaching.

Second Life Computer History Museum - http://slchm.wordpress.com/ The objective of this site is to develop a Museum to showcase information about the history of Computers, Computing and Computer Science. They need to include a SLURL - this is very cool, but I am not sure if it is connected to http://www.computerhistory.org/

Tenth Life http://otenth.homefries.org/archives/195
is a new blog that takes Torley's tips from videos and toned them down.

Edmonton Journal Article - http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=22340d0b-ccd8-4b58-980d-9552c3f08d39&k=98610 NAIT goes virtual with Second Life from 9/18/07

The Modern Virtual Environments - http://www.theslsa.com/mev.htm Provides PDF documents and they are a theory. It is intended to be used as an educational tool for those interested in the field of architecture from a digital perspective.

Best of Both Worlds - http://lactosetheintollerent.blogspot.com/2007/08/wanted-virtual-kate-aide.html I was attracted to this one since they recommend and read Puritans Guide. Thanks guys. :-) Content seems good and has a lot of readers. Over 20,000 for this blog. Love the catch phrase : A man in his mid second life crisis. :-)

Random Thoughts; for Boston Now Readers - http://lactosetheintollerent.blogspot.com/2007/08/wanted-virtual-kate-aide.html Not completely about SL, but occasionally posts about it and other technology.

Shambles Menu - http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/slblogs/ gives a listing of some hot SL educational blogs.

Digital School House - http://digitalschoolhouse.blogspot.com/2007/08/puritans-guide-to-second-life.html Another cool blogs - they also mentions Puritan's Guide - so thanks it is much appreciated - :-) Good site and has some great blog widgets!

Ambling in Second Life - http://slambling.blogspot.com/2007/09/scientific-approach-to-orientation.html Fantastic content!!!

Avatar Languages - http://www.avatarlanguages.com/ This is a school out of South America that will teach you a language in SL - very cool concept. Never tried it, but looks like a great idea.

ABC' News - http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3525499&page=1 Second Life Gets Real at a conference.

Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/groups/463159@N20/ Second Life Families

Second Life - A guide to your Virtual World - http://safari.oreilly.com/9780321501660 New Book out on SL.

Sliterary of Fiction and Second Life - http://sliterary.com/ Very cool web page. A must visit. Stories from in world of SL. Great idea!!!

Second Avatar - http://secondavatar.com/ one of my all time favs!! they are currently publicizing SL Next Top Model They are looking for Mr and Ms SL World. It is free. More info at http://secondavatar.com/index.php/latest/welcome MS SL World gets 5000 lindens and the top 10 pictures get 500 lindens. Does not seem educational, but a lot of fun. Maybe Dembe should join to see if she can be the next title holder. :-)

Natalia's Second Life Diary
http://slnatalia.blogspot.com/search/label/*%20Getting%20Started%20in%20Second%20Life%20Guide*
Gives a good starters guide and also good recommendations for fashion to the SL new comer. Wish I would have read this blog when I got started. :-)

SL Newspaper Finance - http://sl-newspaper-bnc.blogspot.com/ Blog that looks at the business side of SL. I guess it is kind of the Wall Street Journal of SL ;-)

Alliance Second Life Library Project Report in PDF format - http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?id=w273883&si=b98449448&pc=r2066&ei=i136240 This is a must read.


3 Point D http://www.3pointd.com/ Good blog on virtual worlds. Today they published that the Google 3d world is back on the rumor mill. "Arizona State University students will have the opportunity to test a new product that sounds very virtual world and that also sounds like it will require a Gmail account. Apparently to be “publicly launched later this year,” the product is developed by “a major Internet company” and, says Google Op" very interesting articles - great blog as well.


Its Not Whether You Win or Lose, But How You Play The Game in Education - an Annotated Bibliography on SL http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~sstoerge/virtualworlds.htm

Tech Crunch - Virtual World Hang Outs -So many to choose from - a review of some of the top 3d worlds - http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/05/virtual-world-hangouts-so-many-to-choose-from/

Second Life/Second Changes? Maybe - From Arab News on SL - http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=99903&d=16&m=8&y=2007


IBM Gaming and Leadership Report - http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/www_innovate.nsf/pages/world.gio.gaming.html

SL video Tutorials for educators getting ready to teach in SL http://facstaff.buffalostate.edu/polvinem/SL/vid_tut.htm

Educause Connect - http://connect.educause.edu/library/abstract/SecondLifeReachingin/44919?time=1190824240 Reading into the Virtual World for Real World Learning article.

Okay - If you would like to see all of my SL resources, please join my del.icio.us network. I am Dembe01 on http://del.icio.us/

I will be posting a monthly highlights for education or of interest in SL like this at the end of each month this academic year.

Regards till my next post,
Dembe