Nottingham and Derby activity in Second Life
Two videos recently produced by UK universities concerning their Second Life activities are on YouTube.
First up is the University of Nottingham, and their “Getting started in Second Life” production, showing some of their developments:
Over at the University of Derby, a collaboration with the Institute of Quarrying has led to the Virtual Quarry, where the quarrypeople (is there a word for this?) of the future can be initially trained in a safe virtual environment before being let loose with rocks and diggers:
I really liked the second video in which you demonstrate how you really are making use of a simulator to train students. I really get the impression that a student will actually have learned something or received training by being active on this sim.
We hopefully will realise the impression 3D simulator has. The issues in front of us to make the virtual quarry successful are ones of: the ease of the interface; having activities designed that have the right combination of precision of purpose and openness in operation; effective induction; as well as having it sufficiently embedded in the curriculum to make the initial orientation problems worth enduring.
Our initial student cohort are not typical Second Life users!