voyeurism

introduction to Second Life, in Mandarin Chinese, to visitors from Taiwan

the one hundred and forty-fourth episode of ventriloquy is a recording of a talk by my colleague - Assistant Professor Chen Wenli - as she introduced Second Life to a group of visitors to the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, here in Singapore. The visitors were from Taiwan.

even if you don't understand the language, please do consider joining us in this 18.3 MB download, not least because it is such a unique privilege to hear Second Life being discussed by native Chinese speakers.

Show notes:
- Second Life as a Multi-User Virtual Environment
- User-generated content
- The gameness of Second Life?
- An active economy
- Separation of main from teen grids
- In-world tour
- Q & A

Technorati Tags: globalization, podcast, Second Life, Singapore

and can it be

died He for me, who caused His pain?

for me, who Him - to death - pursued?

-- Charles Wesley, 1739

Technorati Tags: Christianity

Temasek - map, as of 22 March 2008

as a follow-up to my earlier post, here's a map showing the progress of our work on Temasek, over the course of seven days :-)

the most prominent change is to that the carp-belly-shape of the river is now more pronounced, and the waters (both river and sea) are now more easily navigable.

:-)

Technorati Tags: geography, maps, Second Life, Singapore, Temasek

visit by faculty and grad students from the University of Texas at Austin to the Raymaker Field Studies Centre at Norma

the one-hundred-and-forty-third episode of ventriloquy is a recording of a brief visit by about 150 faculty and graduate students from the University of Texas at Austin, to the Raymaker Field Studies Centre at Norma.

the visit was part of a larger in-world tour for the group, organised by Dr Leslie Jarmon (SL: Bluewave Ogee). Leslie chairs the Graduate School, Professional Development and Community Engagement, at the University of Texas at Austin. please do join us in this 4.0 MB download :-)

Technorati Tags: education, geography, globalization, learning, podcast, Singapore, the Raymaker Field Studies Centre at Norma, TLLM

"Design of Interactive Learning Environments" talk on An Introduction to Second Life, National Institute of Education, Singapore (part II)

this is the concluding part of episode 142, which is a recording of the discussion which ensued after an introductory talk i gave to a class of Masters candidates at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

it is a 20.3 MB download.

Show notes:
- ease of implementation in schools
- knowledge acquisition versus application
- the role and relationships of corporations in education
- learning environment design

Technorati Tags: education, learning, podcast, Second Life, Singapore, TLLM

"Design of Interactive Learning Environments" talk on An Introduction to Second Life, National Institute of Education, Singapore (part I)

the one-hundred-and-forty-second episode of ventriloquy is a recording of a talk i gave to Masters candidates at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, here in Singapore.

i was invited to talk about Second Life, by my friend and colleague Ast/P Steven Zuiker, who runs the course (MLT 808 Design of Interactive Learning Environments) with Ast/P Beaumie Kim.

because of the duration of the talk, i have broken it into two parts.

this first part is the talk itself, and is 21.2 MB in size.

Show notes:
- outline of talk
- Second Life basics
- the story of my (avatar's) birth
- chronology of significant events in Second Life
- types of learning environments
- resources for educators

Additional reading:
- Eric Langhorst's 8 May 2007 entry (Second Life Skeptic - Am I Just Not Seeing the Potential?) Speaking of History

Technorati Tags: education, learning, podcast, Second Life, Singapore, TLLM

Temasek - map, as of 15 March 2008

as a follow-up to my earlier post, here's a map showing the progress of our work on Temasek, over the course of nine days :-)

the most prominent change is the marina / mall, in the northeast corner of the sim. Limkopi and i chose a prefab by Japanese architect hsr Voom - the MALL hsr08.

two structures visible near the centre of the island are the work-in-progress that is Lonewolf Switchblade's riverside shophouse, and the floating observation platform, which affords a view from about 100 metres altitude. the latter is presently the only structure at Temasek which was not built by an architect with Asian roots. instead, it's a bespoke design by my friend Nick Swamphen, who hails from Germany.

finally, visible along the southern edge of the sim is the progress made with the mudflats.

:-)

Technorati Tags: geography, maps, Second Life, Singapore, Temasek

21st century pen-pal

the one-hundred-and-forty-first episode of ventriloquy celebrates the Slovenian presidency of the European Union, by bringing you a comparison between Singapore and Slovenia, and how these similarities and differences are mediated in Second Life.

please do join me in this 3.0 MB download, as i ponder anew the extent to which New Media has changed how people communicate, collaborate with, and learn from each other.

Show notes:
- 27 January 2008 Deutsche Welle (Slovenian press freedom is suffering, journalists say)
- CIA - The World Factbook - Slovenia
- BBC News Country Profiles: Slovenia

first look at Lonewolf Switchblade's build at Temasek - an interpretation of a Peranakan shophouse by the river

Technorati Tags: geography, globalization, podcast, Second Life, Singapore, Temasek

Temasek - introducing our fourth architect :-)

i am very happy to introduce Temasek's fourth architect to you.

Lonewolf Switchblade joins Limkopi Davis, Derekcsy Cortes, and Lim Pikajuna. Lonewolf has been building representative Singaporean builds for at least a year now, since back in the days of the now defunct Lion City.

welcome to the team, Lonewolf, and thank you :-)

Technorati Tags: Second Life, Singapore, Temasek

do the math

Eloise Pasteur has a post well worth reading over at Massively.

insightful as Eloise's observations are, i think there's an even more significant point to be made.

if we accept (for the moment, at least) that the Web is the New Operating System,

and that Second Life is the New Web,

then...

the earth-shattering point of today's announcement could well be that

Second Life is (on its way to becoming) the New Operating System

:-)

[update: Erica Naone's 15 July 2008 article (The Virtual World as Web Browser) Technology Review, published by the MIT]

Technorati Tags: Second Life, Web 2.0