i had an email, via LinkedIn, asking how to stream an avatar into an elementary classroom. the teacher has experience in Second Life but knows that his elementary students won’t be able to access it. of course i suggested OpenSim! (Ener “OpenSim” Hax at your service) =p at first i was thinking of streaming screen capture like [...]

last night in Mr Obama’s State of the Union address (PDF transcript) he mentioned something that has bothered me about secondary education – the No Child Left Behind Act. one of the issues that many feel is negative about that programme was directly mentioned: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the [...]

yesterday i mentioned making videos for media-rich eLearning. in this case, OpenSim acts as a 3D animation application to create video for illustrating middle school science activities planned and written sripting would help make a better video than below to make sure key elements are in frame long enough to be meaningful (adding narration and closed [...]

as you know, what i have been doing for nearly two years in OpenSim is make stuff for Enclave Harbour which will be used as supplemental science activity stuff for middle school kids. for myself and subQuark, OpenSim is a great illustrative tool for science concepts. so rather than a nice drawing of something like [...]

I keenly read Ener’s posts and I am almost as passionate about virtual worlds but from a slightly differing perspective. They can be a wonderfully immersive media that can increase user engagement particularly in training and education. In education circles we like to discuss learning styles such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (tactile). There are other models [...]

nifty survey for a professor looking at 3D design in virtual worlds for learning spaces The purpose of this survey is to found [sic] out more about the different types of 3D spaces within virtual worlds that are being created and used in online learning. Within this survey, please consider the term “3D learning space” to [...]

there is a fairly mainstream perception that Second Life is dead by those that were introduced to them years ago by all its media frenzy (or at least that SL is inconsequential and has no value – somewhat perpetuated by things like the movie Life 2.0) the perception that SL is dead carries over to virtual [...]

i saw this nifty infographic on Rich White’s blog (if you do education and are thinking of VWs or use them, his work is pretty amazing) and since we are doing something for educational use i was interested in pondering how we fit in (beats pondering my navel) =p the graphic mentions SimCity and civics [...]

Rich White of Greenbush Labs is one of those innovators that makes me realize what a tech simpleton i am. he pushes the education envelope using OpenSim and interactive white boards and stuff i have no clue about the video below is from a post where he talks about creating a mobile immersive learning lab and it [...]

i really am fascinated with the questions on LinkedIn regarding virtual worlds. i think it is because there seems to be a bit of a similar fervor to “virtual worlds” as there was to Second Life in 2006. back then, Second Life was the thing to do. corporations just knew they had to be in [...]

a free conference is being sponsored starting March 17th till the 19th by the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) promoting “the best and brightest” from Second Life, OpenSim, World of Warcraft, and other virtual worlds (note to self – i was not invited! /me must not be as bright as previously thought!) =p [...]

i get google alerts for many things and one of those if for educators in OpenSim. many discussions have been going on in the last month and rightly so now that Linden Lab is dumping the ed discount, institutions are being faced with having to leave Second Life schools and universities can’t simply absorb a [...]

had i known that LL would discontinue their ed/not-for-profit pricing, i may have categorized posts better (that darn hindsight) =) i have talked (blabbled and rambled) so much about the trials and tribulations of moving from SL to OpenSim over the last year many educators and non-profits are left scrambling with very little time to act =( [...]

i have been blogging about OpenSim for 8 or 9 months now. my first month or so dealt with the wake-up call that just because OpenSim looks just like Second Life, it isn’t now after straight OpenSim immersion (i have not logged into SL since early March) i can say that i no longer miss [...]

universities live and die by their intellectual property. grants are awarded based on it and it is the life blood of all universities. i’m not talking about lectures but about research. something all true universities do i doubt many university legal departments read Second Life’s terms of service or its updates. FERPA is one thing [...]