Learning in Virtual Worlds

I’m just back from the Educause 2008 conference, and as always I find myself overwhelmed with the sheer bulk of information I encountered.   I’d like to share a few highlights, however:
Just a quick post about a new book, The Tower and the Cloud – Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing,  edited by Richard [...]

The time is now to build and to experiment and to learn what it may mean to perform campus master planning when the master plan includes virtual spaces. We need to learn what it means to regulate access to institutional resources when those resources reside in virtual spaces. We need to understand the nature and [...]

It is Monday morning here in New Zealand, Sunday in the U.S., and I just tried to log in to Second Life.  But Second Life had 67,333 current logins and could handle no more load.  They were at their user limit!  C’mon, how un-scalable is this platform?
I recently asked Linden Labs how I could get [...]

 
I’m just back from the Distance Education Association of New Zealand (DEANZ) conference in Wellington, whose theme was My Place, My Space, My Learning.  We had two very thought-provoking keynotes, one by Nancy White and the other by Michael Barbour, and although my notes are unclear on this, one of these two wonderful thinkers used [...]

Kia ora.  After several weeks of development the new Medical Centre is starting to take shape.  Most of the ‘build’ to date has been around the design and physical structure.  For those interested in SL building, this very large structure (50×50×50 metres) was made with mega-prims and required less than 50 prims.  This did not [...]

For many years, talented students have traveled from less-developed to more-developed countries to fulfill their educational aspirations. But herein lies a paradox: sending its best students to be educated in more developed countries often exacerbates a country’s problems because the education itself – be it a teacher’s certificate, a nursing degree, or a Ph.D. – [...]

Well, we have liftoff!  This is the new University of Auckland site, on the sim Long White Cloud.  Interestingly, the names New Zealand and Aotearoa were already taken…one by a commercial land company.   I’m pushing this project like a large boulder uphill, as there is relatively little interest from the rank-n-file teaching staff, and more [...]