voyeurism

Oil Spill simulation in Second Life now available for free

Paul Preibisch (SL: Fire Centaur) has made available his simulation in Second Life of the Gulf oil spill for free.

i think it's a great teaching resource for (particularly science and geography) educators who might be able to use it in all sorts of ways, such as (but not limited to) a catalyst for inquiry-based learning and collaborative problem-solving.

you can learn more about what Paul has done from his recent blog entry.

The SS Galaxy Aquarium

just in time for the SS Galaxy's third anniversary celebrations, the ship now features an onboard aquarium, masterfully crafted by Breandan Turas (of the Avignon Turtle Sanctuary and Wildlife Reserve), whom i've blogged about earlier.

in Breandan's words: "The SS Galaxy Aquarium exhibit is a vertical tank intended to provide a model of an ocean water column. Conceiving vertical space in the ocean is critical to understanding the dynamic relationships between sunlight, chemical processes and organic life. The vertical tank is in part inspired by the 28-foot tank of the Kelp Forest Exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California in the USA."

the idea for an aquarium aboard the SS Galaxy is actually not new - the crew felt it was critical to find the right builder and scripter, in keeping with the high standards expected onboard. Breandan was first contacted in December 2009, and the wait has certainly been worth it :-)

here's a pic of one of his prototypes, taken back in January.

contours and geographical understanding with Second Life (student voices)

here's a complementary video to one i posted in March, and includes excerpts from the post-session interview with the students. the video quality has been intentionally blurred. subtitles have also been added.

Technorati Tags: assessment, cognition, education, expert, geography, learning, maps, Pathways, Second Life, Singapore, Six Learnings, Starling Project, TLLM

introducing the Zone of Regulatory Development (ZRD)

the one-hundred-and-eighty-fourth episode of ventriloquy introduces the construct of the Zone of Regulatory Development (ZRD) and its associated notion of socio-regulation.

the ZRD is akin to Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), self-regulation and metacognition, and Heideggerian (1927) notions of communication, but seeks to extend understandings of identity management between self and significant others, in the context of 21st Century New Media Literacies.

the ZRD is a construct which is still under heavy construction by my colleague at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore - Professor David Hung - and other colleagues at the Learning Sciences Lab, NIE.

the ZRD will be introduced to academia as an invited chapter by a forthcoming book edited by Amy Cheney and Bob Sanders. the book is entitled Teaching and Learning in 3D Immersive Worlds: Pedagogical Models and Constructivist Approaches.

[25 March 2011 update: this book is ready to be ordered :-) ]

does the diagram intrigue you? i hope it does :-) click it to access a higher-resolution image, and study it in conjunction with this 1.9 MB download.

Additional reading:
- my 9 May 2009 blog entry (Co-presence + Dimensionality = Identity-formation)
- my 22 December 2009 blog entry (James Cameron's Avatar, ubuntu, fictive worlds and MMORPGs)
- Botgirl Questi's 7 June 2010 blog entry (The Dance of Identity Through the Networked World) Botgirl's Second Life Diary