eLearning Tools

As anyone who reads this blog knows I am an advocate for the use of Second Life as a teaching and learning tool.

subQuark where eLearning meets Second Life is a blogger who (to quote from his blog) promotes “the use of Second Life as a video source.  I truly believe it’s a viable option for eLearning providers.  I even have a person from the University of Glasgow using it for continuing education credits for doctors!  So it may just be what you need to!  It certainly would add to your toolkit.”

He has links to many ideas relating to how others are using SL. These may be just what our lecturers need to give a lift to their eLearning activities.

If you are interested in LIS education in virtual worlds, you are invited to join the LIS Educators in Virtual Worlds Group for a meeting in Second Life tomorrow, Wednesday, January 28 at 3 pm SL (8 am Thursday Perth time) at the open auditorium on Info Island in Second Life. Agenda items include discussion of the GSLIS student union being built; an introduction to Second Life instructional tools with Hypatia Dejavu and a discussion of the types of LIS courses taking place in Second Life. If you need a teleport IM Lorelei Junot, Maxito Ricardo, or Maija Mulberry in world.

If you get a chance to attend please say hi to my avatar, Galia Beck.

And do let me know what you would like to achieve as an educator in SL. I may be able to help.

eLearning & Second Life

For more than a year I have been advocating the use of Second Life for education. Suddenly the college’s priorities for 2009 include promotion of e-learning and a so called “expert” from Victoria was recently invited to address lecturers on how his college has implemented SL. Suddenly everyone wants to know more about virtual worlds but those of us who have been quietly spending time in-world and finding out as much about its possibilities as we are able find ourselves sidelined. It really is the noisiest people who get the attention.

Second Life Library Reference Desk

A recent FUMSI article highlights Second Life for Business and advocates Ten Techniquesfor maintaining a business presence in virtual worlds. It includes a section on how Information Managers and Librarians can contribute and finishes with this summary: “VWs aren’t going to go away. My view is that different types of VW will evolve for different purposes. They may also get more popular when the ‘Club Penguin generation’ (enjoying baby VWs at the moment) reaches adulthood. SL may not last forever, but if you want to stay an early adopter, then it’s currently a good place to find your virtual feet.”

Virtual World Search

I had a look at the library blog search engine Libworm this morning and did a search for “virtual worlds“. Guess whose blog entry came up at the top of the results?

The news this morning reported that the Australian Police Force is planning to conduct recruitment interviews in Second Life which may make our management think twice about dismissing it as “just a game”. I have read that the British Police ran a similar experiment recently and, although they didn’t actually employ any of the people they interviewed in the virtual world, it certainly raised the level of awareness of their recruitment drive.