Playing the piano in the British Literature Classroom

The British Literature classroom is located in a mansion on the Knightsbridge Sim, which is designed to represent real world London – all of the houses are modeled after houses in real life. By clicking on paintings and furniture in the mansion’s three floors students receive course material, including syllabi, assignments, activities and a selection of study texts. The classroom was developed by Beth Ritter-Guth (SL name – Desideria Stockton), Instructor of English, at Lehigh Carbon Community College to teach Brit Lit classes.
posted by Sean McDunnough on Knightsbridge using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

links for 2007-05-24

• MyMiniLife | Your Life Miniaturized!
  A flash-based 2.5 virtual world where you can create and personalize your own avatar and plot of land then embed your creations on any webpage you desire.
  (tags: virtualworlds mylinkblog socialnetworking)
• Outsmart Labs» Blog Archive » Flex/AS3 3D Engine demo
  “This demo shows standard 2D Flex UI components projected into a 3D world. There’s a video that you can play on one of the screens, a Flash movie, and a few other random components such as DatePicker and PieChart.”
  (tags: virtualworlds 3d mylinkblog)
• Groundswell (Incorporating Charlene Li’s Blog): Forrester’s new Social Technographics report
  “Forrester categorizes social computing behaviors into a ladder with six levels of participation; we use the term “Social Technographics” to describe analyzing a population according to its participation in these levels.”
  (tags: socialsoftware socialmedia citizenmedia web2.0 research mylinkblog)

links for 2007-05-15

• MusicWorld3D Home
  “With a focus on multi-format multimedia presentation, our online 3D Virtual Reality provides an entertaining way to promote and experience music and videos… together.”
  (tags: 3d virtualworlds music mylinkblog)
• KnowledgeWorks – Map of Future Forces Affecting Education – Education Map
  “The map is a forecast — a credible, internally consistent view of how future forces will affect the components of public education.” Although a bit difficult to use, this flash-based map is a good overview of trends affecting education.
  (tags: education elearning futurestudies trends mylinkblog)
• Informal Learning Blog :: Another Life Unexpurgated
  “Virtual worlds provide a clean slate for organizational renewal, a transition from the rigid structures and boundaries of the industrial (physical) world to the flexibility and innovation of the knowledge (intangible) world.”
  (tags: secondlife virtualworlds informal learning education elearning mylinkblog)

links for 2007-05-09

• Online Extra: James Cameron on the Cutting Edge
  Director James Cameron shares his ideas on the future of film. He predicts that performance capture will replace a lot of digital animation, which will be a boon for actors, and that much of media in the future will go 3D.
  (tags: 3d media technology mylinkblog)
• Making ‘Minority Report’ computer navigation a reality | CNET News.com
  “…an operating system, based on human hand gesturing, that enables the user to explore in a 3D plane.” I can’t wait for this…. it’s a logical development… and no more RSI and bad backs!
  (tags: secondlife virtualworlds 3d interface mylinkblog)
• MPK20: Sun’s Virtual Workplace
  “MPK20 is a virtual 3D environment in which employees can accomplish their real work, share documents, and meet with colleagues using natural voice communication.” & “Sun Labs Porta-Person with MPK20, meetings can bridge the virtual and physical worlds.”
  (tags: 3d virtualworlds mixedreality collaboration mylinkblog)
• Why Online Games Are Dictatorships – Cory Doctorow
  “Online games like World of Warcraft and Second Life are absolute dictatorships, where the whim of the companies controlling them is law.” Cory Doctorow questions whether corporate-owned virtual worlds can ever be democracies. I doubt it.
  (tags: virtualworlds secondlife mmog games mylinkblog)

Kids don’t have to ‘be good’ online, just careful

A good article from Thomas Friedman, author of ‘The World is Flat’, on the importance of imagination, creativity and passion in the digital age – In a flat world imagination is the key – Opinion – smh.com.au

I can’t agree with him on his point about kids needing to “be good” online though:

Our kids will not have the luxury we have of being wild and crazy when they were young because it’s on somebody’s cell phone camera forever. It’s in somebody’s MySpace. Everyone who has a cell phone is a paparazzo. Everyone who has a blog is a journalist and when everyone is a paparazzo and a journalist, everyone else is a public figure – so be good.

Just because everything we do can become public as a result of citizen journalism and publishing doesn’t mean young people have to stop having fun, they just have to be careful.

And adults have a role in teaching young people how to use the internet wisely and safely.

The reason employers and and others with ‘authority’ can get away with punishing people for what they post online is because they come from a generation that haven’t yet done it themselves.

When everyone has posted their crazy drunken teenage party pics online no-one will be able to act superior and wield power over anyone else – everyone will be in the same boat.

(Thanks to Wendy Zammit for the heads-up.)