Educational Simulations has a product called Real Lives 2004 that gives you the opportunity to learn how people really live in other countries. The designers state that the simulation challenges your life skills as you make difficult, high-stakes choices that lead to your success, or failure. Experience life as a: • Peasant farmer in Bangladesh• [...]

Simteacher is also a virtual reality game centered around teacher simulation, much like the Virtual School mentioned in a previous post. However, both are very different. Virtual School is more cartoonish and fun looking, whereas Simteacher uses real photographs. To set up a classroom, you go through various profiles of both teachers and students; then [...]

After working on our egame project, Carolina contributed links to two teaching simulations that are available online. One of these games is called Virtual School. This is a simulation for teachers, and there are several avenues that you can walk down in order to experience life as an educator. You are first greeted by the [...]

After working on our egame project, Carolina contributed links to two teaching simulations that are available online. One of these games is called Virtual School. This is a simulation for teachers, and there are several avenues that you can walk down in order to experience life as an educator. You are first greeted by the [...]

Wikipedia has a great description of Second Life for those of you like me who have struggled with explaining the enormity of it to others.

Wikipedia has a great description of Second Life for those of you like me who have struggled with explaining the enormity of it to others.

Lately, I’ve come across lots of books and articles on the Japanese game of Sudoku. Knowing nothing about it I did a little searching on the web. According to the Wikipedia:“Sudoku, sometimes spelled Su Doku, is a logic-based placement puzzle, also known as Number Place in the United States. The aim of the canonical puzzle [...]

Check out Clark Aldrich’s article on criteria for educational simulations. He lists content criteria – linear, systems and cyclical, and delivery criteria – simulation, game and pedagogy. He contends that only through all six criteria can we get results that impact our learners.

Ok, I am not a gamer….or at least since I had children. I used to go to arcades in Junior High, and then played Nintendo for many hours. Then I had triplets, and that was the end of the gaming. I did manage to get 2nd Life to work on my Laptop, but haven’t had [...]

I’ve begun a mockup in SL of my game. Here are a couple pics. It’s taking longer than I thought it would to get this far, but it’s also been fun. So far there are about 25 prims. Probably will need to add another 15 or so to get everything displayed that I envision. I’ve [...]

I really like the games that are offered on the Math Playground website. My students often struggle with word problems and these games help them work through the problems. If a student gets the problem wrong it gives them the reason why and offers a learn more button that reviews important vocabulary in the word [...]

One educational website that I like to use for students is Fun Brain.It has many games for students and resources for parents and teachers. Many of my students enjoy the Mad Libs and math games. There are also books avaliable for students to read.

Nintendo has expanded its market in Japan beyond the young gamer crowd. The game “Training for Adults: Work your Brain,” which promises to help older adults ward off dementia by exercising their brains, is selling like hotcakes. According to a review on LostGarden.com the Japanese title translates as ‘Whip your brain into shape under the [...]

Here’s the course site for USC’s CTIN 482: Designing Online Multiplayer Environments. They are using Second Life for their work. The course site itself is based around a blog, much like ours. At first glance I didn’t see the depth of resources here that I thought I might, but it’s probably worth further poking around. [...]

While busily searching for percussion instrument links for the Rhythm of Life Drum Circle eGame, I discovered two computer-based music games, designed to teach young children about music. The first is called Play It It By Ear, from a company in France called Happy Note. This game teaches a learner to recognize any music notes [...]

While busily searching for percussion instrument links for the Rhythm of Life Drum Circle eGame, I discovered two computer-based music games, designed to teach young children about music. The first is called Play It It By Ear, from a company in France called Happy Note. This game teaches a learner to recognize any music notes [...]

Thought this was interesting as I came across it. According to this website: 10 October 2005The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 2005, jointly toRobert J. AumannCenter for Rationality, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel andThomas C. SchellingDepartment of Economics [...]

I have heard it all, or at least for now. According to this website, Wells Fargo has built a virtual island to teach people about financial literacy. Well, the dates for the place were from Labor day to mid November. I guess we missed it, I tried to find it in SL… maybe someone else [...]

Again, my obsession with second life has yielded upon another accidental find. A quote from this website: “And, strikingly, Rosedale says, about 38 percent of Second Life’s subscribers are women, more than double the average for online games. Women also play longer, accounting for about 50 percent of the time spent online in the world.” [...]

I have the following people registered in the 670 students group: Each one of these people have been sent an landmark to my home. I also sent a message to everyone in the group, inviting you to a get together at my house on Monday at 8:30. I hope that all who have made lives [...]

I accidently came across this blog about second life. (Isn’t that how we always surf the net?)http://secondlife.blogs.com/nwn/2004/05/the_school_of_s.html This article was posted on May 10, 2004. However, it is different from what we are doing. It is about using second life to complete projects for real life college education. For example, working with architecture, and my [...]

This website became of great interest to me. Peggy and I are creating a game on peer mediation: how to solve conflicts. This is a great skill in life. Its a course on relationships, which everyone knows students should leave high school wtih. Anyway, as I was looking for websites on the topic, I came [...]

Most of us take our vision for granted, and we tend to spend many hours viewing computer screens working on various projects, surfing the internet, and playing games. Most computer based games, such as Second Life, rely on a rich variety of colorful visual images for the player to interact with, which is very unlike [...]

Here is an interesting article about 2L for teens.

Well, it may become more annoying to play online games shortly. An article in the UT is saying that advertisers are getting permission from game companies to insert ads into the games themselves. For example, in the game SWITCH Wakeboarding, players will soon see bright yellow Sprint Nextel ads interspersed on ramps as they buzz [...]

I ran across an article that might be helpful for our upcoming “research” project. The authors use the example of a game called Ultima Online, which appears very similar to Second Life. I haven’t read through the entire article but it is teeming with research on games. You can find it here.

Although I know that at least this week one is supposed to focus their attention on turkey and pumpkin pie, for some people this won’t do. Thanks to countless vending machines, well stocked 7-11’s, and the fact that Halloween was only recently, many are thinking instead of candy bars. Of course, if you eat too [...]

Here is an interesting article regarding a change in the 2L scripting language from “Linden Scripting Language” to an open source development platform called Mono.

While doing research for simulation ideas within my eGame project, I was pointed toward the NetLogo Web site. I immediately got drawn in, and spent much more time on the site than I had intended, running through the models submitted by the NetLogo user community. There is a whole series of models, created by Ed [...]

Hi, Everyone! Are we having fun yet?? Absolutely!As I was preparing the post you see below, I dug a little deeper to find out who is making this stuff and why. Turns out it is from projects in the DEMO labs (Dynamical and Evolutionary Machine Organization), which are a collaboration of the department of computer [...]

I am really not sure if art is imitating Second Life, or if Second Life is imitating art. The somewhat surreal counter culture Burning Man gathering that occurs annually in the Black Rock dessert in Nevada has migrated to Second Life as Burning Life. Held annually since 2003, this event is hosted by the Lindens.The [...]

For those of you who need baseball “year round”, you can have it with a new multiplayer online simulation game by Sims Dynasty. Players can signup now by visiting this site. More than 3,000 players already control teams, but there is always room for more in this multiplayer online baseball simulation. Players take on the [...]

Hey everyone, Here is an email I received earlier today which I just wanted to pass on. Dear Ivan Ganache: Hello! I’m Lauren Linden. I’d like to invite you to take part in a bold experiment in virtual living. As a participant, you’ll get a free home in a new Second Life community for the [...]

Hi all,I came across this driver detective application which I have found to be quite useful in making sure my system has all of the latest versions of all different sorts of drivers. The upside is that this is a comprehensive tool which allows you to almost instantly pinpoint the problem and download the fix. [...]

To improve student health and enhance parent understanding, the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (ISD) in Carrollton, Texas, has put $95,000 into developing a program to give parents, students, and other community stakeholders a new way to learn about the foods offered in its schools: a virtual cafeteria. Hey, somebody here should be able to [...]

FoxNews.com Has a short article and video hightlighting Second Life.Thursday, October 27, 2005 was the original report date, but the article was on the technology section Nov. 15, 2005. There are also other interesting video game stories. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,173728,00.html

Check out this commentary on computer games. “The debate over the effects of digital games is running hot in academic circles and beyond at the moment. A recent Maclean’s cover headline blared: “How computers make our kids stupid”. Meanwhile Steven Johnson, author of a new book called Everything Bad Is Good for You, argues that [...]

I ran across an interesting reference to the way Second Life got started. Although I have not been able to verify this information completely, maybe it is of interest to you as well. Apparently, there is a book that was written about 13 years ago called, “Snow Crash,” in which the main character spends time [...]

As I’ve been logging into Second Life (when time permits, which isn’t often), I can see more and more applications for a tool such as this. Beyond just the “fun” associated with gaming, 2L provides what I feel is even more important, which is a way to connect with other people on a psychological level [...]

I am still having many problems with Second Life. I somehow got off of Orientation Island, but still hadn’t practiced some of the basics. I still don’t know how to lift objects. The directions are for a PC, but I have only been able to get Second Life to work in our classroom. I sent [...]

This short Blog contains snapshots from one of my last SL adventure. In my last adventure, I was curious about how many of the things featured in Second Life actually worked. For example, I found that I could actually buy a jet airplane and fly it. In addition, I could make a withdrawal from the [...]

Hello All For those interested, the following URL contains reviews of other virtual worlds plus a selection of research papers. http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/

As a distance student, I’ve learned innovative ways to collaborate and communicate with other EdTechies. I learned to work around time zone differences when I partnered with teachers in Thailand and Bangledesh to create a webquest. I know how to create community solely through email contact. I’m comfortable with three-way calling in planning and executing [...]

Hi, Fellow Second Lifers!Went to find the infamous “Tringo” and found a place to play, but no players and couldn’t get it to work. Has anyone else tried that yet? Played a “Greedy, Greedy Dice Table” instead (again all alone) and finally figured out how to work it. Some things are definitely more intuitive than [...]

Two recent events in Washington D.C. highlighted video gaming as a medium of instruction: One important point made by a presenter was that when presenting this idea to a school administrator, be sure not to say the word “game”; this is sure to shut them down to anything said after that. God forbid learning should [...]

Here’s a little something that might give inspiration to anyone looking for games to teach musical ideas. Remember Bobby McFerrin?

A quicky post: MSNBC has interesting article on geography games.

I’m enjoying reading your posts on Second Life and living vicariously through you. I’m still stuck in my first life due to technical issues. If anyone has sucessfully overcome video card issues and is willing to share, please let me know.

I picked up the local paper while visiting my family and noticed an article on this game that combines Bernie’s favorite (Snood) with another recent craze (Soduku). Check it out at www.snoodoku.com. Sorry Mac users, this one’s for Windows folks only!

The name “Thiagi” was brought up by Bernie during class last Monday. Thiagi is actually the last name of the man shown on the left. Dr. Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan is the “Resident Mad Scientist” at The Thiagi Group, an organization with the mission of helping people improve their performance effectively and enjoyably. Among other things, [...]