Virtual Chore Rewards for Kids

To be fair to Barbie Girls it isn’t the only virtual world for kids that worries me – with its not-so-implicit goal of training children to be good little consumers. Reinforcing the concept in children that rewards come from playing games, watching shows (themselves somewhat promotional, I’d guess) and from buying products does not seem a good one, and I was despairing of seeing a model other than this. So while I’ve yet to delve deeper, Handipoints appears to be the first imaginative alternative.

Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 7th April 2008

Full article available here.

Links for the day

One of those days… if I had another 6 hours, I still wouldn’t be done. So in brief, some links and very little comment:

INTUITION, SRI Virtual Worlds survey, The Myth of the Media Myth, and VLE vs PLE again again. More below.

INTUITION

INTUITION is a Network Of Excellence focused on virtual reality and virtual environments applications for future workspaces. It is funded by the European Union, and operates under the 6th Framework of the European Commission (IST). The Network includes 58 partners and it is being coordinated by the Institute Of Communication And Computer Systems of the National Technical University of Athens in Greece.

SRI Business Intelligence Virtual Worlds Consortium

Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 26th March 2008

Full article available here.

The Virtual Body

The Virtual Body

Unless one is a medical resident, it can be quite difficult to get a close- up look at a skeleton, a brain, or even the inner workings of the digestive tract. Students of the medical sciences and others need worry no more, as this very fine interactive exhibit offers up dynamic images and cross- sections of these parts of the anatomy and many more to boot. The site contains four sections, including “Brain”, “Skeleton”, “Heart”, and “Digestive Tract”. In the “Heart” area, visitors can learn about the individual parts of the heart, view an animated heart, and also take a narrated tour of the heart that will “keep your heart beating.” Moving on, the “Skeleton” section features the “Bones Narrated” tour, which will take visitors on a guided tour of the skeleton and its functions.

Author: Ray Schroeder, Educational Technology Blog, 8th March 2008

Full article available here.

Small Basket of Virtual World Items

Still playing a bit of catch up from GDC and I have some interesting virtual world notes……

Have you seen the NASA Request for Information for a massivley multiplayer online educational game. I think there are a couple of points of interest here. First, its a request from NASA for an MMOG. Prima facie interesting. Second, look at some of the quotes from the RFI and/or associated Web site:

• “There is increasing recognition that           these synthetic environments can serve as powerful “hands-on” tools           for teaching a range of complex subjects.”
• “MMOs help players develop and exercise a skill set closely matching           the thinking, planning, learning, and technical skills increasingly           in demand by employers.”
• “These skills include strategic thinking, interpretative           analysis, problem solving, plan formulation and execution, team-building         and cooperation, and adaptation to rapid change.”

I think the idea here is more like an America’s Army, recruiting type experience designed to increase the number of kids involved in science, technology, engineering and   mathematics (STEM).

**I should note here too that the following items come from the Virtual World News – probably the best single news coverage of developments in this area.

Corey Bridges from Multiverse Says Don’t Count Out Second Life: How you know your on the bleeding edge….when you start talking about how the first company to mainstream virtual worlds is slipping…judas, most people haven’t even been in a virtual world yet. We are just starting to see for-real corporate forays into the space…and yet here we are talking about Linden Lab slipping. IMHO the only thing that is slipping is this incorrect perception I think fostered by people outside of Second Life that Second Life would somehow remain as the only dog in this hunt. The Virtual World market is growing, the pie is getting bigger so relative slices will appear smaller.

Evidence of the above…..”$425 Million Invested in 15 Virtual Worlds Companies in Q4 2007“….”venture capital and media firms have invested more than $425 million dollars in 15 virtual worlds companies during the fourth quarter of 2007”. Hmmm…..$425 million IN THE FOURTH QUARTER. Yeah, this whole InterWeb thing is just a fad…..

Linden Lab to Beta Lightweight Second Life Client in February….hmmm….allowing access to a system (a virtual world say) from outside that system…where have I read a great blog post about how learning companies should be exploring that concept more?

Author: Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings, 28th February 2008

Worlds for Study: Invitation – Virtual Worlds for Studying Real-World Business

(and Law, and Politics, and Sociology, and….) (by Robert Bloomfield)

(link)

“Virtual worlds promise to be an excellent venue for research and education in business and related disciplines. This document provides an introduction to virtual worlds, discusses why virtual worlds are so well-suited to the study of real-world business, and describes how a platform could weave together various types of virtual worlds and virtual spaces to achieve a variety of research and educational goals. I close by inviting instructors, students, researchers, textbook authors, publishers, game developers and others to join in a collaboration to make this vision a (virtual) reality.”

Author: Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings,  27th February 2008