Week+Fourteen


 * Future in Education**



This week, we will be visiting sites that deal with the future in education. Tours will be Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 4p.m. to 5 p.m.

First, we'll meet at the Jaguarland Bay Boat Welcome Center ([]). Please be on time, or you'll get left behind. From there, we'll teleport to Coalition Island. We'll tour their information/welcome center then spread out through their large complex. You'll probably want to make sure to befriend Learner Magic (Dr. Dempsey), Aevalle Galicia (Stasia) and Bama Xue (Rebecca) so we can quickly help you out if you need help.

The first site that we will visit is the Media Zoo ([]). This immersive Second Life environment is a new exciting digital platform where students and academics can share and experience learning in a completely new way. Designed as a place for research to gather data on social interaction, behavior and the importance of learning in a virtual 3D environment.



The next site that we will visit is the Nuclear Power Plant in SL ([]). There are 4 lab experiments, simulating real life experiments about radioactivity, and a nuclear power plant, modeled after a RL plant. This is the first of it’s kind in distance education.

The next site is the theorist project ([]). The Theorist Project is a massive undertaking and there is nothing that we know of quite like it in Second Life. An 8000+ square meter space, there are areas dedicated to: Adler, Frankl, Freud, Gestault, Jung, Maslow, and Rogers. The content for each of these areas is going to be provided by students from a particular class. The first phase of this project is well underway – the Freud Office and Iceberg. This is, and will certainly be in the future, a must see on any tour of Second Life, especially when the conversation is about how to use virtual environments to teach difficult concepts and also engage students in the process."



Finally we will visit AVNET technology museum ([]). The displays you are about to view span 84 years of innovation. They include historic documents and photographs related to the technology industry, and memorabilia from Avnet and other key firms that have played important roles in the evolution of the electronics industry.

Thanks for participating in the tours this semester! As we finish this portion of the class, reflect on these questions:

1. How does SL fit into the future of education?

2. What types of sites would you like to see?

3. How can we improve the SL tours?

4. What are your overall opinions of SL, and will you use it in the future?