MIT developing educational MMO funded by Gates Foundation originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Minecraft guild creates massive world to help educate children originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond developer talks educational mission originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Virtual environments evince a significant lack of mainstream adoption. Relatively tiny percentages of the world population are involved in them in any way online. There's something clearly missing.

At the present time, virtual environments simply lack any compelling reason to exist that motivates mainstream users and might drive mainstream adoption. There's no killer app, or secret sauce that gets large numbers of people thinking "I want to get me some of that!"

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: The secret sauce

The Virtual Whirl: The secret sauce originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 22 May 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A change is as good as a holiday, they say. Seriously, I don't actually know anyone who says this other than myself; though I'm assured that there are some folks out there who do.

With that tragically underutilized platitude in mind, then, last week I posed a question to a spread of well-known virtual environment users (at least to those that I felt would actually respond) and collected the responses.

The question put to the respondents was "What's the single thing that the operators/developers could do to make you feel more satisfied with their virtual environment offering; what thing would help an operator keep you as a customer, or that would make some other operator more appealing than the one or ones you already have?"

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: Vox virtualis

The Virtual Whirl: Vox virtualis originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 08 May 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're having our monthly roundup of news items. Things that got missed, things that didn't make the cut, things that got buried, and things that really should have gotten your attention anyway.

Continue reading The Virtual Whirl: News of the Whirl

The Virtual Whirl: News of the Whirl originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Registrations are presently open for SL Pro! a two day conference being run by Linden Lab for 'serious' professional Second Life content-creators to take place in late February this year, in Second Life itself, with a bit of help from NMC (the New Media Consortium).

Unfortunately, it's a conference with more than one track, where the two tracks generally have a fair bit of overlap, so that's a bit of an issue. The two tracks are building and scripting, each with eight sessions.

Continue reading Registrations open for SL Pro! conference, February

Registrations open for SL Pro! conference, February originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There's no doubt in our minds that virtual environments are here to stay, for a significant fraction of the foreseeable forever. Love them or loathe them they're in their third decade now, and like the Web, it's now more a matter of how they fit in to the rest of the world, rather than if they do.

In education, virtual environments are now a part of an educator's toolbox and as education continues to combine, refine, and recombine tools, virtual environments will find increasingly better, more effective uses in education. There's no doubt about that among educators, even if the technologies aren't ready for widespread educational uses today.

Continue reading Educators find common ground in Second Life, for now

Educators find common ground in Second Life, for now originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Daily Grind: How do you learn the game? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Daily Grind: Where else do your MMO skills come in handy? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When news broke about Linden Lab sending a takedown notice to the core Second Life education community Web-site, our colleagues over at the Metaverse Journal put a number of questions about the matter to Linden Lab.

The Linden Lab response to those questions yesterday seems to have generated a reaction among educators akin to pouring gasoline on a blaze, coupled with a vigorous fish-slapping. While there's a undeniably a spectrum of reaction to the Lab's response, most of what we've seen seems to cluster around the livid end.

Continue reading Linden Lab explanation alienates educators

Linden Lab explanation alienates educators originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Jokay Wollongong, one of the premier promoters and supporters of the educational uses of Second Life, and keeper of the largest single resource for Second Life educators, suffered something of a reversal this week, when Linden Lab decided that that very same resource, sleducation.wikispaces.com, infringed on their SL trademark (which has now only been registered for nine days), and sent Wollongong a takedown notice.

That's something of a surprise considering Linden Lab's ongoing endorsement of the site on the Second Life Education mailing-list. The site, which has been up since late 2006, documents over 100 case studies of educational projects in Second Life, as well as providing key community resources and information for educators who are just getting started with virtual environments.

Continue reading Linden Lab punctures education community with newly registered trademark

Linden Lab punctures education community with newly registered trademark originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Virtual Goods Summit has been an annual event since 2007, and features speakers from organizations all over the world, all focused on virtual goods, and virtual economies. This year's summit in San Francisco features quite a lineup, including the delicious Steve Meretzky, Turbine's accomplished Fernando Paiz, the engaging John Smedley of SOE, and plenty more.

Through the Virtual Goods Summit, developers and publishers share knowledge and get a deeper understanding of virtual goods and economies, how they function, their challenges and how to maximize the opportunities inherent in them. The Virtual Goods Summit runs on 30 October (with an optional half-day seminar on the 29th, covering the fundamentals and drivers of virtual economies, called Virtual Goods Summit University.

Want to get to the summit with a 15% discount on general admission? Register for the summit and use the code MASSIVELY at the checkout, and save! There's also discounted early-bird registration until 29 September.

Hit the Virtual Goods Summit 15% cheaper this year originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Over the last couple of weeks, a larger number of our readers than usual have decided to give Second Life a try (in some cases, a second try after some years). It seems appropriate therefore to lay out some essential tidbits to help you get to grips with your first few hours in Second Life.

From quick graphical tune-ups to how to get help, we've got the stuff you need to know first.

Continue reading Ten great tips for new Second Life users

Ten great tips for new Second Life users originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Arabic Rappelz to hold International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking event originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Later today, the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference is kicking off in Second Life . So it is really rather ironic that we should have a situation crop up on the eve of it that really highlights some of the worst practices.

An unnamed educator showed up to one of the various user-run Second Life Question and Answer sessions for new users. Not a bad thing on the surface, Q&A sessions are really useful for people with all sorts of Second Life questions. Unfortunately it goes downhill from there.

Continue reading Virtual Worlds worst practices in education: A practical example

Virtual Worlds worst practices in education: A practical example originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For three days this coming weekend (Friday, 27 March to Sunday, 29 March), Second Life will be host to the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference. This grassroots, community-based conference attracts faculty, instructors, trainers, administrators, instructional designers, technical specialists, and members of organizations from around the world. Education is one of the spheres of industry where virtual environments are a tool that will probably never go away.

Those who create teaching/learning environments, resources, tools, support services and professional development opportunities internal and external to virtual world environments are participating in the conference. The conference schedule itself is more than impressive, featuring just about every big name in Second Life education, with more than 25 panels, presentations, tours and meet-and-greets across multiple Second Life venues.

Participation in the conference is free of charge, but you will need to register. For more information, check out the conference website.

	Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference this weekend originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Daedalus Project, for those who aren't familiar with this fantastic project by Nick Yee, is an in-depth look at the psychology of MMO gamers. As someone who plays MMOs, Nick has always taken a very fair and balanced look at the intricate worlds spanning the MMO genre, with results that were sometimes surprising. During the course of ten years of research, he's looked into everything from basic gender alignment questions to in-depth looks at genre, how emerging changes in game mechanics affect social interaction, and so very much more. To say it's been important, enlightening work is an understatement.

In a recent blog posting, Nick has announced that he's going to be placing the Daedalus Project into 'hibernation' due to time constraints, the rigors of his everyday work, and his need to publish as a PhD. As anyone can imagine, running an enormous project like Daedalus has to take a great deal of time and effort. It would appear that rather than letting the quality of the work for this project of love suffer, he's opted to place it on hold for now. While it's definitely a loss for the MMO - and indeed educational - community, we can totally understand. All of us here at Massively would like to thank Nick for his unwavering dedication to bringing so many important things to light over the last ten years, and hope that all of his future challenges are equally as rewarding.

Nick Yee puts the Daedalus Project into hibernation originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Sony opens complete EverQuest 2 database to researchers

Sony opens complete EverQuest 2 database to researchers originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Australia's School of the Air programs have been among the most lauded distance education schemes for more than 50 years. In response to a scattered population in a less than hospitable environment and with a lack of nearby population centers and facilities, the School of the Air provided education for isolated children. The original School of the Air was opened in 1951, but had been broadcasting school lessons from the Royal Flying Doctor Service for some years prior to that. The School of the Air programs still operate today, as there are students living more than 800 kilometres (more than 500 miles) away from the nearest school.

Originally the system used pedal-powered radios, but more recently bi-directional broadband satellite communications, video conferencing and electronic whiteboards have brought students closer. The system has been an unqualified success for more than half a century.

Why is it then, that as soon as the notion of avatars and collaborative virtual environments is brought up for education, that the educational establishments seem to shy away? Does virtual learning have to be dreadful before anyone is willing to seriously fund it?

Continue reading Does virtual learning have to be dreadful?

Does virtual learning have to be dreadful? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Teaching kids reality with virtual worlds originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Richard Bartle laments poor state of game education in the UK originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Academic: games and virtual worlds teach better than teachers originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

No, not actually for the prevention of virtual disasters. The Daily Yomiuri tells us that the Japanese government is planning a virtual museum in Second Life focusing on disaster prevention in order to promote awareness of disaster management and techniques and technologies to mitigate the impact of a wide range of disasters.

Initial exhibits will demonstrate how non-earthquake hardened buildings respond to seismic events, and the impact of tornados on urban settings. Unfortunately, we think that it's unlikely to include such disasters as Godzilla, Orga, Mothra or Rodan.

Nonetheless, the potential educational benefits of such an installation are hard to deny -- the impact and effects of natural disasters can be almost inconceivable to those who have not directly experienced such events or their aftereffects themselves.

Japan to open virtual disaster prevention museum originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Aviva USA, part of Aviva plc, the fifth-largest insurance group in the world wants its agents to get together on their new island in the virtual world of Second Life. Not for the public, the plan is to use Second Life as a recruitment, education and training tool for life insurance and annuity agents, as Aviva joins the growing throng of companies using Second Life for communication and education.

Agents who want to get access to Aviva's private island can call toll-free 800-801-1486, option 1, extension 2396. 'Second Life provides Aviva with a rich environment for connecting with agents,' said Mark Heitz, president of sales and distribution for Aviva USA. 'Aviva's product innovations are aided by technology, and we think an island in Second Life is one way to use technology to help agents learn about Aviva and our products.'

Continue reading Aviva USA uses Second Life for training, education

Aviva USA uses Second Life for training, education originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A team of developers supported by Michigan State University and the Office of the Chinese Language Council International have spent the past few years piecing together Zon -- a browser-based virtual world wherein users can learn the Mandarin Chinese language. The game is currently in its open beta phase; you can sign up to play right now.

Users create an avatar and then find themselves in a representation of Beijing International Airport. From there, they may interact with NPCs and other world objects to learn more about Chinese language and culture, as well as communicate with other players to practice their language skills. As they progress through the system, they move up in rank from Tourist to Resident, and finally to Citizen -- at which point they may create their own content for the world.

We learned of Zon through the blog of Areae president Raph Koster, who had an interesting anecdote to add. During his stint at SOE, the company worked with college campuses to use EverQuest II for total immersion language education. So this is not a new idea -- just a really cool one!

Zon: the MMO that teaches you to speak Chinese originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Tech Museum of Innovation's Second Life extension The Tech Virtual is opening The Tech Virtual Test Zone today, an exhibition of prototypes conceived within a virtual world by amateur artists and designers with inspired ideas.

During the course of this experiment in open source museum content creation people from more than 80 countries signed on to The Tech Virtual to either create an exhibit or contribute to an existing project. Seven exhibits were chosen from 49 completed projects to be recreated in the physical museum.

Continue reading The Tech Virtual Test Zone opens today

The Tech Virtual Test Zone opens today originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Grockit gets funding to teach us all a little something originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 31 May 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We've wanted to visit NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for years, but haven't previously had the opportunity. Some of us live on the wrong continent to do so, for one thing. We've visited NASA now however, and you can too. NASA has a presence in Second Life.

NASA created the CoLab Island to enable 'co-working and project incubation ... for NASA staff and the entrepreneurial technology community'. There's a bunch more marketer-speak on their 'NASA CoLab SL Project Overview' notecard, but the English form of it is that they want to talk to us, and want us all to talk to them.

Gallery: Second Life Places - NASA CoLab

Continue reading Second Life Places: NASA CoLab

Second Life Places: NASA CoLab originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 14 May 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Everyone got it wrong about the NASA MMO? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NASA MMO stalls on the launch pad originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cinemassively: Global Kids' practices science on Teen Grid originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education and Museums conference presentations available originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Interactive Science Museums in Second Life originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sun entering virtual worlds market, maybe aiming at educators? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Power Up - educational game from IBM originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Could MMOs be a substitute for high school spanish class? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NASA to launch MMO? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Curtain falls on "Shakespeare World" originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading What will happen to Second Life in 2008?

What will happen to Second Life in 2008? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.