Tuesday, May 29, 2007

virtual classrooms in Second Life

Have you ever considered going to school in a virtual classroom?

For Insight Michelle O'Connor talks to Jo Kay about the education possibilities of Second Life. Jo tells us there are a number of education programs currently using Second Life as a platform for bringing students together to learn. Some of these are:

  • GippsTAFE where staff and students built the Paluma Bay resort - a virtual holiday resort - in Second Life. Students completed their Work Related Skills unit by becoming virtual staff at the resort.
  • Harvard Law students conduct mock trials inworld at Harvard's Berkman Centre for Internet and Society
  • Ohio University has a campus in Second Life where they offer 'learning kiosks'

Jo works in collaboration with Sean Fitzgerald researching and exploring virtual worlds and their use in educational delivery. Together they have developed a wiki space online to allow educators to explore the educational uses of Second Life. This resource also has information about how to get started in Second Life and provides links to finding Jo inworld. Go to http://sleducation.wikispaces.com.

Peter Shanks is a TAFE teacher and he outlines some of the reasons he wouldn't choose to use Second Life to teach students. Peter prefers some of the game platforms for education/simulation projects and suggests these deal with the access issues associated with Second Life.

Bronwen spent time doing what she loves the most....surfing the internet for TechTalk this week and has put together a piece on blogs...the history, their purpose and how to start one. Combining with her other love of watching television for hotsites, Bronwen discoved the behindbigbrother.com website revealing all the hidden secrets the producers of the tv show don't want you to know. Bron spills the beans.

You can stream homepage each Monday afternoon at 3pmEST via http://www.2mce.org.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Homepage 21/05/07

On this week's episode...
Ben Harris speaks to Choice magazine spokeswoman Indira Naidoo about the latest GPS Navigation systems- are they really worth the money and hassell?
In insight, I take a look at 'Cyber Bullying'- is this just a new buzzword to gloss over the fact bullying is still rife in our schoolyards? I talk to Mubarak Rammatullah, a senior lecturer in social administration & social work at Flinders University in South Australia about whether this is a new phenomenon in bullying. I also speak to the Chief Executive Officer of the Inspire Foundation, Kerry Graham, about the new partnership between the Inspire Foundation & MySpace to raise awareness about depression and where to get help through the Inspire Foundation's many projects. I was interested in tackling this issue as I find it interesting that technology is seeming to be the scapegoat in this issue- bullying is still the issue whether you make mobiles or the internet or Myspace the means of bullying. I was suprised to find out the perception of invisibility- hiding behind monitors and mobiles- is the main reason for cyber bullying which shows the bully's themselves are really the cowards.
In Hotsites Ben takes a look at the SES and how they're here to help!
As always, you can stream Homepage live every Monday at 3pm from www.2mce.org