voyeurism

Second Life 6th Anniversary (SL6B) - Directory of Exhibitors

the celebrations for the sixth anniversary of Second Life coming out of beta (SL6B) begin tomorrow.

here's a handy directory of the various exhibits. to find the education-themed exhibits (including Bri Gufler's LGBT History Museum, Claire Pascal's the Digital Earth, Timmi Allen's History and Vision - the Brandenburg Gate, Jilly Kidd's The Written Word, and my own preview of the Field Studies Centre at Praxis), use the 'education' filter at the top of the page.

as a teaser, have a look at this machinima of my friend Asterion Coen with his build :-)

Technorati Tags: education, geography, learning, Second Life, SL6B, the Field Studies Centre at Praxis

the Field Studies Centre at Praxis - a preview at SL6B

next week, Second Life celebrates its sixth anniversary :-)

just like last year, i'll be part of the celebrations too :-)

i must say, i found this year's theme of 'the Future of Virtual Worlds' more than a little constrictive, for reasons which i give here. anyway, i decided that - for me, at least - the most appropriate way to commemorate the event was to provide a preview of the work that is being done at the Field Studies Centre at Praxis.

here's a pic of the exhibit, at SL6B Nano.

Technorati Tags: education, geography, learning, Second Life, SL6B, the Field Studies Centre at Praxis, TLLM

whalesong

mother and calf at Farwell

Technorati Tags: geography, Second Life

MMORPGs and Virtual Worlds: the Learner as Gamemaster

the one hundred and seventy-fourth episode of ventriloquy was inspired by the question-statement "You are the GM".

not referring to 'genetically modified', nor to 'General Motors', nor even to 'General Manager', it's a phrase that i'm beginning to hear with increasingly regularity at the SS Galaxy Community Gateway, which i volunteer at.

please do join me in this 2.0 MB download, as i consider with some excitement the new cohort of avatars in Second Life coming over with prior experience in, and expectations from, Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft. i also try to tease out some preliminary links between Gamemasters and teachers, and - most importantly, in my opinion - the unique and powerful affordance of MMORPGs and Virtual Worlds to facilitate the adoption of the performative identity of Gamemaster, by the learners themselves.

Additional reading:
- Gamemaster (wikipedia entry)
- the Field Studies Centre at Praxis (under construction)
- Dark Isle - mythical Celtic roleplay (comprising Phoenix Prime and Phoenix Secondus; closed on 17 April 2009)
- Dark Isle (as featured in Hamlet Au's New World Tableau, 30 December 2008)
- Dark Isle (as featured in Orange Island's Metaverse Explorers, 14 January 2009)
- Koinup photo gallery of Praxis (formerly Phoenix Prime)
- Koinup photo gallery of Praxis Prime (formerly Phoenix Secondus)

Technorati Tags: education, expert, games, geography, learning, podcast, the Field Studies Centre at Praxis, Second Life, Singapore, Six Learnings

SS Galaxy Continental Terminal by Scope Cleaver

the one-hundred-and-seventy-third episode of ventriloquy features the creative genius of one of the most celebrated architects in Second Life - Scope Cleaver.

Scope has totally re-interpreted the space at Clementina, that i first introduced to you just last month.

in this 1.6 MB download, i describe how - in his own inimitable way - he has designed a place where visitors to the SS Galaxy will have more than an excuse to linger, even before embarking aboard the ship herself.

i am so pleased with the result, that i have renamed the SS Galaxy - Continental Terminal, as the SS Galaxy Continental Terminal by Scope Cleaver.

the Captain and crew of the SS Galaxy welcome you to visit at your leisure :-)

Additional reading:
- SS Galaxy Continental Terminal by Scope Cleaver - a photoset on Flickr
- Architecture Now! 6 by Taschen (article on Scope Cleaver from pages 460-466)

Scope Cleaver handing the build over to the SS Galaxy team - represented by Managing Director DBDigital Epsilon and Director of Vendor Relations Lacey Ellison

Technorati Tags: geography, landmarks, podcast, Scope Cleaver, Second Life, Singapore, SS Galaxy

SS Galaxy - Continental Terminal

the one-hundred-and-seventy-first episode of ventriloquy introduces the SS Galaxy - Continental Terminal.

designed as a place where residents new to Second Life can feel welcome, the SS Galaxy - Continental Terminal is located in the historic sim of Clementina, halfway between Governor Linden's mansion and the Ivory Tower of Primitives (the latter being in Natoma).

specifically, the SS Galaxy - Continental Terminal is directly adjacent to Clementina Park, and the public sandbox at Natoma.

please do join me in this 2.0 MB download, as i share some of the area's rich history with you :-)

Additional reading:
- Sean Percival (2007) Second Life In-world Travel Guide
- Rymaszewski et al (2008) Second Life: The Official Guide

the SS Galaxy - Continental Terminal at dusk, with the plateau atop which the Governor's mansion is built, in the background

the main entrance to Clementina Park

Technorati Tags: geography, landmarks, podcast, Second Life, Singapore, SS Galaxy

book review: Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life

the one hundred and sixty-seventh episode of ventriloquy introduces what is likely to be the first education-focussed book on Second Life.

edited by Judith Molka-Danielsen (SL: Aklom Haifisch) and Mats Deutschmann, Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life is a collection of academic papers primarily describing the work done in the first Scandinavian project in Second Life to focus on designing platforms for lifelong learning, at Kamimo Island.

please do join me in this 1.8 MB download, as i also share my thoughts on the ways in which elements fundamental to the in-world experience of Second Life are inherently rich in pedagogical potential in and of themselves, even before rezzing your first learning object.

Additional reading:
- 4 February 2009 entry (Musical Avatars: Bandbots) Shiny Life
- terrain files by Chenin Anabuki of the Terrain Factory

Technorati Tags: avatar, education, geography, landmarks, learning, maps, place, podcast, Pathways, Second Life, Singapore, Six Learnings, TLLM

currents in Second Life

i've known for some time now that not only is there wind in Second Life, but that its behaviour is determined by factors akin to Real Life.

two days' ago, i stumbled upon the fact that not only is there wind, but there are currents in Second Life too :-)

i came across this revelation when i was taking Tom Rendell around the Lost Lakes region in my yacht. Tom is a Masters candidate in Geography at the University of Edinburgh.

well, i was maintaining a straight course at ten percent throttle, yet i noticed that the stream of bubbles from the yacht's exhaust continually shifted around, as though responding to currents in the water.

you can see the effect quite clearly in this pic (remember - i was piloting a straight course :-) ).

Technorati Tags: geography, Second Life

NOTAM for the Lily Airstrip

strictly speaking, this isn't a proper NOTAM - being improperly formatted - nonetheless i hope it will be useful to those of you planning to fly in to the newly opened Lily Airstrip.

after a hectic four days of building, i am very happy to announce that the Lily Airstrip is open to the public from today, just in time to usher in 2009 :-)

the Lily Airstrip affords you a base from which to explore the Lost Lakes region of the original mainland continent of Sansara. the airstrip is immediately adjacent to Lily Beach, which offers great surfing and diving opportunities, and also an upcoming tribute-build that i am working on.

the runway is at sea-level. it is 60 metres long, with overrun areas of 10 metres on either end.

object auto-return is set to one minute at the rezzing area near the southern end of the runway.

in addition, there is a helipad with emitter beacon.

happy landings!

APPROACHING FROM THE NORTH

approaching from the North is the easiest and more recommended vector.

from the Linden-protected sim of Bothnia, just align yourself with Runway 18 and fly straight in.

please note that there is an embankment directly at the end of the runway, so apply braking as soon as your wheels make contact with the ground.

there is sufficient space for you to turn your aircraft around at the end of the runway.

APPROACHING FROM THE SOUTH

approaching from the South is NOT RECOMMENDED at all and would demand an exceedingly steep descent, with no emergency nets to arrest your aircraft should you overrun and end up in the water.

Additional reading (wikipedia entries):
- NOTAM
- runway

Technorati Tags: geography, Jules Verne, landmarks, maps, navigation, place, Second Life, St Michel - the Jules Verne Museum

... pondering the source

a Chinese proverb (loosely translated) goes, "when you drink from the stream, do ponder the source of the water".

something that has been at the back of my mind for several months was the question of which Linden Infohub my first avatar rezzed at, on the day that i took the momentous leap of faith of leaving Orientation Island as a white-shirted newbie.

a little bit of backstory here... my primary avatar - Veritas Raymaker - was not the first SL avatar i created. Veritas was created in May 2007.

my very first experience of Second Life actually began a full seven months earlier, in October 2006. not surprisingly, i found Second Life to be a thoroughly disorienting and pointless experience. my memories of that very first day on the Linden mainland were wandering along a road (the Infohub where i had landed was by a road, but the name of the sim had escaped me) and looking at the shops (along the road) and wondering why everything was so _deserted_.

i logged in a couple of times once or twice after that, but finding nothing much to see or do, and quite totally missing _the_point_ of SL (to the extent that such points exist to begin with), i logged off one last time, for good - or so i thought.

then came news of the Second Life Best Practices in Education 2007 conference, and the rest, as they say, is history (Veritas Raymaker was created only after i had first invested some time reading Second Life: The Official Guide.

well, i had the realisation the other day that since our inventories are sorted by chronological order, if i were to go back to my original avatar's landmarks, i might - just might - be able to use the earliest ones to infer which Infohub i would have landed at that very first day.

with bated breath i scrolled down the (short) list, and saw that the earliest landmark i had made was for a store selling (virtual) Macs. ah yes, that sounded about right.

i teleported over, and...

found that the store was there no longer.

however, it turned out that i had landed in the sim of Honeoye, and there is a _road_ running through Honeoye.

and what might there be following that road east to the adjoining sim, but the Warmouth Infohub!

so, thank you, to whoever took the time and effort to build the Warmouth Infohub. in fact, thanks to Google, we do indeed know who built it - thank you to Lewis Nerd of Pocket Protector Projects!

:-)

Technorati Tags: geography, landmarks, Second Life