Second Life, where anything is possible ( Philip Rosedale )

[Skip Zilla]

Why build a virtual world? Philip Rosedale (avatar "Philip Linden") talks about the virtual society he founded, Second Life, and its underpinnings in human creativity. It's a place so different that anything could happen. This talk was filmed in May, 2008, at this year's Serious Play conference and posted at TED just a few days ago in December, 2008. More information is available at the TED website.

[Nathan Lowell]

Good timing here, Skip. The answer to "why build a virtual world?" is such a rich field for educational purposes -- over and above the obvious social ones. It's time to start doing things other than building "virtual classrooms."

Over the last week, I've finished work on some accessibility tools in SL that permit the annotation of virtual space so that people who cannot see the world can get verbal descriptions of a scene, area, or object. This technology is probably going to be used in a project to create a Lunar Science Learning facility for a group working with NASA and as part of an oceanographic research project from Univ of Texas at Austin (I'm still working on getting together with them, atm, but expect something to develop early next year). Students in the Lunar Science project will be able to "go to the moon" and study a crater. The tools will allow an oceanography student to practice studying the oceans while dealing with issues like logistics.

My involvement as an accessibility expert is to create curricular tools which provide learning experiences which exceed current expectations for all students regardless of abilities -- blind, deaf, sighted, hearing, limbed or not. The potential of virtual environments extend the reach of learning experiences to people who might otherwise be prohibited from learning by virtue of location, ability, or finances.

[Skip Zilla]

Nathan,
Your work on accessibility to learning technologies which would be otherwise inaccessible to many of us is important and life-changing. (As my vision was deteriorating because of cataracts, I wondered how I would face the same debilitating outcomes as those in the past for whom there was no medical corrective. When my operations were completed, I was persistent in reminding the young medical professionals, who performed their "magic" well, that what was for them perhaps a matter of everyday operative routines, was for me and others as patients, a life-changing transformation.) I'm certain that those whose access to new media-intensive technologies do and will appreciate, even celebrate, the opportunities which the work you are doing provides them. As I see it, we all learn when all belong in the learning.

Thanks, Nathan. I realized too late, when I commented on FL's nomination for an Eddie Award and named names of members who give life to the network, that I didn't add your name. I value and enjoy reading (most) everything that you contribute here at FL (and elsewhere). I'm very glad we're in this th(n)ing together--all of us!