More on 2nd Life and education...

Interesting overview of potential for 2nd Life.

2nd Life and Education

Some interesting threads on potential of 2nd Life for education:

GLEF piece on "The School of Second Life"
Global Kids Media Intedractive: Blog on 2nd Life
2nd Life's Education page

John Edwards' SL HQ vandalized...

Great example of government and laws...would be a great taking off point for a class. Check it out on John Edwards' blog.

"Terrorism" in SL: Fighting for Digital Rights

Wow! This you've got to see: the Second Life Liberation Army is apparently reeking havoc in some islands seeking a new form of digital rights--beyond those of the developer-client. And using in-world 'terrorism' to do it....

Hmmmmm....

Open Source blog on social impact of MMORPGs

Interesting threads here in this blog from Radio OpenSource--one that asks the question explicitly:

"Up to now, virtual worlds have evolved as entertainment, and as a way for designers to make money. But will they “grow up” and be designed to serve people instead or in addition? Will a virtual world be designed to help people with specific mental disorders treat themselves? Or in an attempt to help a citizenship restore a feeling of civic responsibility? Will some PBS-kids-like entity design an immersive Sesame Street? How about a community-designed world (Wiki-world) that evolves in response to community needs? "

"Virtual Citizen" Association

Here's something very interesting: a group lobbying within the MMORPG community for virtual citizenship rights, etc. This we have to look at and include in the chapter...citizenship education is ALREADY HAPPENING in the synthetic world environment....

2nd Life Stats, etc.

There are quite a few sites that report research/data on various aspects of life in SL. This is something to think about: how to use this to teach social studies content, etc.:

• Libraries on SL
• Economic stats in SL
• Blog on research in SL

My Virtual Life

Very interesting Business Week piece that includes some key issues on property rights. These could be translated into a civics/economics class without needing to 'be' in a MMORPG...Something for us to consider for the chapter. What is potential of this as a teaching tool without needing to be in the game....

What if civics class were an online game?

Interesting think piece from Tom Regan in the Christian Science Monitor.