I'm excited to share the news that my friends at the Field Museum of Chicago have teamed up with the tween virtual world Whyville to launch Whyreef: a virtual educational experience for young people to teach them about biodiversity and ecosystems. In Whyreef, you are challenged to observe different coral reefs and carefully record the…
Category: Virtual Worlds
Metaplace / Second Life chat on New Trends in Game Dev with Raph Koster Today at 12pm PST
I got the news from Jade that she/he is organizing a multi-virtual world discussion on "Emerging Trends in Game Development" with Raph Koster and other notable metaverse thinkers today at 12pm PST. The chat will take place in both Metaplace (in the Interval space) and in Second Life (in Idea City, click here to teleport.). …
Guided tours of Kristallnacht exhibit in Second Life April 21-23
In observance of the annual Days of Remembrance, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum is offering guided tours of the Second Life exhibit "Witnessing History: Kristallnacht, the November 1938 Pogroms." If you haven't been, it's a great example of how virtual worlds can combine various forms of media into a powerful, immersive, emotional experience for the…
Launch tomorrow of “CONSENT!”: youth-produced Second Life game about medical testing in US prisons
Global Kids is proud to announce the public release of "CONSENT!" — a youth-produced digital game about medical experimentation in US prisons on African-Americans. Built in Teen Second Life, Global Kids has arranged for it to be brought over to the Main Grid of Second Life, hosted by the nice folks at Clemson University. Starting…
Get your “Tiny Nation” tee-shirts, tea cozies and other tchotchkes here!
Fans of the machinima series "Tiny Nation" will be happy to know that you can now purchase all sorts of "Tiny Nation"-branded clothing and merchandise from Ill Clan Studios. For those that haven't seen the show, it's the story of a cute but profane group of backyard animals who stage various unsuccessful rebellions against their…
Virtual malcontent sends me a real pie: Thanks, Crap Mariner!
Today after lunch I had a piece of delicious pecan pie generously provided by infamous Second Life resident Mr. Crap Mariner. He might be cranky, rude, and opinionated in the virtual world, but he was kind enough to send me for no particular reason his favorite pecan pie all the way from Houston to New…
“Aha!” moments in virtual education: my talk at the VW Best Practices Conference (video)
Last Saturday I had the honor of presenting at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference about the work of Global Kids and some of the lessons we have been learning about how to best use virtual worlds for education and learning. The multi-day conference took place in Second Life, appropriately enough given the…
Virtual World Best Practices in Education Conference starts tomorrow in SL
From March 27-29, the Virtual World Best Practices in Education Conference is taking place in Second Life. According to their website, this grassroots, community-based conference attracts faculty, instructors, trainers, administrators, instructional designers, and technical specialists from around the world. The virtual conference will "provide opportunities for virtual world communities to showcase projects, courses, events and…
Habbo asks avatars to turn off their lights on “Earth Hour” March 28, 8:30pm EST
Habbo, the largest youth-oriented virtual world on the planet, is asking its millions of members globally to participate in "Earth Hour" — an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund to get one billion people to turn of their lights for an hour at 8:30PM EST on Saturday, March 28. The goal is raise awareness about…
My interview with DMC about his new hip-hop virtual world (video)
Here's the video of my interview with the pioneering rapper DMC (of Run-DMC fame) talking about his new virtual hangout DMC World. It was great getting an opportunity to hear DMC's views about hip-hop culture, online games, and youth empowerment. The actual virtual environment looks pretty clunky and dated, I'm afraid. But DMC clearly has…