My new pal Dr. Anthony Crider gave a fantastic talk at last month's AAAS Forum on Second Life and virtual worlds. Full disclosure: I was skeptical and even mildly anxious at the thought of wandering into a simulation I'd heard might rival scenes from Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut--only with vampires and uh, furries. Then I met Tony who convinced me it opens the door, errr... 'laptop', to seemingly infinite possibilities in science education! But you don't have to take my word for it--I'll let the brilliant and funny SciLands creator explain virtual worlds himself and skeptics can decide whether to give Second Life a second chance...
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One week ago I left for the 33rd Annual AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy...So what went on over two days in our nation's capitol? LOTS!
The event was fantastic! In fact, with so many wonderful contributions, there's no way I could possibly do it justice with a single post, so I'll…
Since I'm an adjunct faculty member at a couple of community colleges, I'm able to delete most of my e-mail with barely a glance.
But this one made my jaw drop!
Dear Educators:
Alliance Library System and LearningTimes are pleased to announce an
exciting conference featuring science and virtual…
On May 9, 2008, I'm going to be speaking at the 33rd Annual AAAS Forum On Science And Technology Policy in Washington, DC. I am part of the last plenary session alongside Seed's Editor-in-Chief Adam Bly and Dr. Anthony Crider, co-founder of the SciLands, a science continent in the Second Life…
... sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler – Robert Frost
It was a typical hot and humid summer's day, so I entered a nice dark bluestone pub, hoping the dark would offer some cool and beer. As it was about 11 in the morning, the bar was empty save for one fellow sitting at a table…
So I work in stuff related to this area.
I am skeptical about what this can do for (natural) science education. The value of virtual worlds is the human interaction. The scientific material itself can be served through the web -- you do not need to have an actual Exploratorium building in a virtual world in order to provide users with the exhibits. Indeed, if you look at the pedagogical work that most distance learning people do, it can be implemented by an interactive web site and a chat channel. So I need to see novel pedagogical research before I believe this.
Social science is a totally different matter, on the other hand. We saw glimmers of this promise with LambdaMOO in the 90s, but it never achieved the critical mass that the modern virtual worlds do. Experimental economics is fascinating, particularly the stuff that EVE online is doing.
Thanks for sharing this clip - I am impressed now. And can also convey the news that there will be an Int'l Year of Astronomy island, thanks to a sponsor.
Sheril,
For those of us who run Linux, please don't embed this kind of video (Quicktime, I think). There's no plugin for Linux / Firefox.