Those of you working in corporate training shops might point your boss to this article. Forbes is about as close to The Establishment as one can get, and they’re taking games seriously. Many good links from the article to the conference web site and elsewhere.

My first reaction to Second Life was that it was very frustrating to figure out where to go and how to get there. I actually had to get help from Dilek in order to end up at the SDSU campus. However, despite the initial frustration, I did think it was a pretty neat program and [...]

If you’re doing some more exploring in Second life and considering that as your program of choice for the final project, I thought this was a good article about information you should start out with. I was overwhelmed and confused at first so I thought this was pretty comprehensive. -Nelly Aragonhttp://sliki.info/wiki/Gwyn’s_Beginners_Guide_To_Second_Life

Talk about frustration. . . I keep running into things and I can’t seem to get to all the cool places that you all have been to. Mary – Where is the water slide??? One of the coolest experiences that I have had so far is flying! I frequently have flying dreams, and the sounds [...]

Here’s a blog I came across of a teacher who has set up three islands in Teen Second Life for her middle school. She talks about the process she took to get approval through her district to set this “second life” up for her school. For her three islands: she plans to use one to [...]

My Second Life (SL) experience was intriguing and frustrating. After exploring the EDTEC campus and the International Spaceflight Museum in class last week, I couldn’t stop thinking about the endless educational opportunities SL could accommodate. I assumed that there must be other museums of equal value as the International Spaceflight Museum; however, after perusing the [...]

This morning I was in SL and to try to go around in different places (teleports) and explore SL. First I visited German Castle Ruin. I saw bunch of people talking German. I understand that I am in the wrong place . I try to speak them English, some of them responded and they said [...]

I found this post (via Robert Scoble extremely interesting. It’s about John Hartman (he blogs about Second Life and virtual worlds on his Thought Plasma blog)is using machinima (which is a recording of Second Life’s environment and avatars) to do corporate training. This seems to tie in perfectly with the types of things we are [...]

Linden Lab is increasing prices for new Private Island sales except for qualified educators and non-profits. This must mean it’s getting that much more popular. Official Linden Blog » Price for New Private Islands to Increase

I found this article quite interesting. The paper in general explains what the second life is, its importance on education, tips for educators to create their own land, strategies to use SL in education, etc. When I was scanning through the paper, I read several case studies that teachers experienced when using SL such as [...]

This is the first time I heard about SL and experience SL in this class. I was confused at beginning and I think information in this virtual world is really overwhelming. But later I found it was not that difficult as it looked at beginning. It just takes time to practice. Hanging around in different [...]

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) uses Second Life to present interactive educational demonstrations about oceans, climate, weather, etc. Some of the examples are tsunami, submarine ride, hurricane, and melting glacier. I watched the tsunami simulation. It was both amazing and scary. I think using SL as an educational tool for this type of topics [...]

Interesting article posted by PBS and written by MIT Media and Comparative Studies professor Henry Jenkins debunks eight myths about video games. The myths include game availability and youth violence, violent game play and youth aggression, children as the primary market for video games, girls playing computer games, impact between training soldiers to kill and [...]

Found a couple of cool places and even had a Corona at a little hut beside a beach. Very cool. I then traveled to a place called Maryland (a relative or kindred spirit maybe?) anyway…it was a “prop” place where you could try on and try out different s&m clothes and props. Hmm…I no longer [...]

Group: Video games can reshape education is a MSNBC article on a yearlong study by the Federation of American Scientists that researched how video games can be converted into learning tools. What they found was that video games don’t lose patience with kids and they teach skills such as: analytical thinking, team building, multitasking, and [...]

When I was trying to learn more about second life and its application in education, I came across this web page (Sim Teach/ Second Life Education wiki). I found comprehensive educational projects in second life. Some of them are; Idaho Bioterrorism Awareness and Preparedness Program, Harvard Law School’s CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public [...]

I went to three different regions starting with the spaceflight museum for a presentation about the Hubble space telescope. There were 30 people attending but I not sure if they were real people I didn’t try talking to anyone. Next I went to a haunted house that I think was in Meadow Brook there wasn’t [...]

It is reported that a security breach was discovered on September 6 and more than 650,000 accounts were affected. “The exploit was shut down but the hacker could have seen a lot of information, including passwords. This data seen by the hacker included ‘Second Life’ account names, real life names and contact information, along with [...]

I was really fascinated with Second Life. To me, it seemed like a chat room with virtual reality capabilities. I do find the commands quite confusing at first, but extensive practice gave me the hang of it. At this point, I’m still trying to understand the whole ordeal of Second Life. I was able to [...]

I think this could have some interesting applications. “Eccky” could be the answer to population control in China. Couples could use it for a compatibility test before they get married. It’s a cross between “The Sims” and “NeoPets” which have Web portals to develop and try out avatars and virtual environments, with casual games. MSN [...]

From Academhack here is a basic write-up, a sort of “Things to think about if you want to teach a digital game“. It is the first post in a series on this topic and includes a link to a graduate Computer Games Studies course being taugh at UCSD this fall.

Probably I would have never tried this game before this class. I got dizzy and had a big headache after playing SL for 15 mins! But overall, it was a very positive experience; it is amazing to see the cool and interesting things that are being developed in S.L, including the SDSU campus. Mari (whom [...]

While wandering around Second Life I found an airfield with free demo flights using a variety of different aircrafts (from bi-planes to balloons to hovercrafts). You can visit the location by clicking on this SLurl: Abbotts Aerodrome Make sure to read the instructions on how to fly each particular vehicle or you may end up [...]

A blog post from Berkun Blog citing a CNN article on the topic and the full American Federation of Scientists report on how games like Quake, CounterStrike and Warcraft teach people basic teamwork and communication concepts.

I read an interview with game designer Chris Crawford in Dr. Dobb’s about the future of computer games and interactive storytelling. With his new company StoryTron, he is betting that interactive storytelling will be used in training and education, as a social interaction simulator. There are three programs: SWAT (StoryWorld Authoring Tool), which is a [...]

The George Lucas Educational Foundation publishes an excellent website and magazine devoted to educational reform. Their October 2006 issue focuses on the new generation of learners and how they will radically change the way we teach. Not surprisingly video games will play a prominent role. In the article titled Let the Game Begin, Jenn Shreve [...]

It’s official! Last week The Federation of American Scientists came out with a statement declaring that video games can redefine education. Citing a years worth of study, the FAS has “discovered” that video games can teach skills such as analytical thinking, team building, multitasking and problem-solving under duress which employers will be looking for in [...]

After participating in our class meeting, I went back in and started looking for educational resources. I went to the ICT library which is a good resource of things to find in Second Life. One resource intrigued me. It was called “Social Simulation Cyber-Research Lab: Games”, but when I tried to find it, I could [...]

I was browsing the internet for nothing in particular when I stumbled upon GameDev.Net. It’s main focus is on game development but there are some interesting resources and forum discussions. It also has a Game Dictionary which I loved browsing through. Here are some examples I found under Game Design: Avatar: A Buzzword used by [...]

I took this snapshot yesterday when I was in the class and discovering the second life. It was pretty interesting and amazing. I am not sure how I can use SL in education now, but I enjoyed a lot talking with my friends, using gestures, taking snapshots, and visiting the other teleports. This was my [...]

I found a good site that gives tips on creating text based adventures if anyone feels like they are leaning that way. Here is one article in particular that shows how to get started and what to look out for:http://brasslantern.org/writers/iftheory/makingtio2.html Nelly ARagon

The Holistic and Integral Education blog has a nice post about James Gee’s book “Why Video Games are Good for Your Soul” Among the discussion points are how game developers use the latest research from neuroscience and are guided by many “learning principles”. Another worthy entry from this same blog is on Games and Gaming [...]

Elliot Massie has just unveiled a new site called “Learning Links” There is a section for Gaming & Simulation. There are only a couple of links there now but it’s still new and it’s probably a good thing to bookmark and keep as a reference. Additionally there are many other training/learning categories with lots of [...]

Like several of my other classmates I too must admit that in the carefree days of my misspent youth, I squandered innumerable hours playing IF. My drug of choice was the Scott Adams series. Prompted by C. Michael Pedersen’s posting and facilitated by Google I found that there are an astonishing number of sites devoted [...]

Bowling $20popcorn and a coke. A merry go round. I usually get dizzy, funny I didn’t this time.

As we all know games provide an immersive environment that promotes motivation and experiential learning. Many educators, however, feel that this immersive environment very often does not lead to learning unless it is accompanied by some sort of reflection. Most designers recommend that this reflection take place at the end of a game, otherwise it [...]

It’s snowing, and yes that’s a Canadian flag in the background. Great place, here. There’s a water slide, sky diving and snow-mobiling, a gondola and caves to explore although I haven’t quite found them. Instead I found myself under a floor. It looked like a cave entrance.

When I was reading this article, I thought that every time educators look for innovative ideas that how a class could be more enjoyable for their students. However, this simulation is for educators and helps them to improve their teaching skills and classroom management. Everybody can play this simulation, but their role is being teacher [...]

This website has a plethora of information regarding Interactive Fiction Theory and especially Inform 7. The site consists of many short articles ranging from information designed for beginners to specific updates from the older version of Inform6 to the current Inform 7. I found this article especially helpful to gain a basic understanding of what [...]

Here is an article about a course at Harvard that meets exclusively in Second Life. Check it out: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1005/p13s02-legn.html Peggy

We Got Game is about Etcetera Edutainment’s rollout of a new video game simulation for Forklift Training. Etcetera Edutainment builds video game simulations (known as serious gaming) for training purposes in manufacturing, mining utilities and health care industries where “accidents can mean hundreds and thousands of dollars in damages or even death.” The heart of [...]

It’s a Sunday morning and as I am having my morning cup of coffee along side my husband – me on the laptop, him reading the newspaper – I am thinking about and working on my 670 class assignments and I glance over at my husband and ask, “Honey, have you ever heard of Second [...]

During my first foray into Second Life, one of the things that struck me initially was the presence of music. Intrigued with the possibilities I did a quick Google search that yielded some interesting results. According to this article that first appeared in the September 7, 2006 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Second Life has [...]

For those of you who don’t know, MMORPG stands for Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game. Apparently, a professor at Indianna University, Edward Castronova is creating a new MMORPG based on the Shakespeare play Richard III. That in and of itself is interesting, but to make it more interesting, Castronova will actually be using this [...]

I read an interesting article about biocomputing and games. Researchers at Columbia University and the University of New Mexico (including some high school interns) have developed MAYA-II, a DNA-based computer that is unbeatable at Tic-Tac-Toe as long as it gets to start first. It does take quite a while to complete a game – 2 [...]

I saw this interesting article on the plane coming home today. It’s about how video game design is becoming a serious part of computer science programs and how it is one of the “hottest” majors in America right now.

I loved the old Infocom text based games but haven’t thought about them in years. After reading about the interactive fiction applications for this week’s assignment, I dug around and found the following web site with a JAVA applet that enables one to play 18 of the classic Infocom games. Play Infocom Games Although I [...]

Read More on Reuters CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion is an actual class offered to Harvard students and the public. Here’s their blog.

I was reading a friend’s blog and found an amazing educational games website, Edheads . For now, there are “virtual hip surgery”,”The odd machine”,”virtual knee sugery”,”weather”and “simple machine” 5 educational games on it. I love the interactive animations there!! ====About Edheads http://www.edheads.org/ Edheads brings you high quality, free educational activities for your classroom Edheads helps [...]