EduGeek Journal

(Many thanks to Erin, our newest EduGeek, for sending this to me!) MIT’s Technology Review posted this week a really interesting article discussing the inevitable merge of social virtual worlds (i.e. Second Life, There) with mirror worlds (i.e. Google Earth, Microsoft’s Virtual Earth).
Great detail is given on what’s currently being done in these two areas [...]

3pointD.com recently got a sneak preview of Princeton University’s island in SL, which is currently closed to visitors. The blog includes extensive information on buildings and architecture featured on the island. Princeton obviously dedicated plenty of resources to create an impressive virtual presence. The sim will open to the public for the next academic school [...]

UTD’s Emerging Media & Communication (EMAC) blog posted this graphic recently. It’s attributed to the NY Times; however, I’m having a hard time tracking down the complete article. It’s pretty amazing seeing just how quickly these virtual worlds (or “virtual playgrounds”, as they’re listed in the graphic) are becoming widely used. We have the Gen-Xers. [...]

So, Darren got us started talking about these ultra-cool new technologies. Today I continue this theme with another Microsoft project, this one demoed at the TED conference in March.
Microsoft Photosynth is a new virtual modeling technique that creates a type of metaverse built completely on social data. The way it works basically is it can [...]

(Found this on 3pointD today…) Virtual world architecture firm in-world momentum is in the early construction phase of a new build called Virtual Munich. You can get updates on their progress on the Virtual Munich blog. (Scroll down a bit to find the posts in English.)
Yet another promising addition to the totally immersive learning environments [...]

Just found a pretty amazing video of Sun’s (relatively) new virtual workspace called MPK 20. Inspired by Second Life, Sun developed this environment for businesses to use; however, a lot of the new functionality they’ve added could easily be applied in an educational setting:

Voice Chat – still coming in SL, but current in this environment
Application [...]

Just found a very interesting conference presentation on “Emerging Virtual Worlds and Education“. It’s an interesting look at the birth, growth, and future of virtual worlds of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
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As I attempt to catch up on the ~3000 SLED messages in my mailbox, I came across a link that lists many virtual worlds out there. Found some interesting new ones I’d like to look more into. I know that Second Life and (to a much lesser extent) There have been used in educational settings, [...]

I post this for a few reasons:

We get a sneak peek at Global Kids island on the Teen Grid in Second Life. (The Teen Grid is only accessible to players under 18 and to educators who have had a criminal background check.)
One of the avatars in the video looks a *lot* like my avatar. Same [...]

Just finished reading a very interesting article published by the UCLA Magazine. Definitely information my colleagues and I have been proclaiming for the past several months. Hopefully this might help some of you in convincing your deans and admins that SL can be used effectively in education.
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Is virtual reality the next frontier for universities? [...]