Virtual+Worlds

Virtual worlds are online communities within which users can interact with the world, its content and other users. The most sophisticated of these allow multiple users to interact with one another in real time in elaborate 3D environments. Typically users are visually represented within the world by an avatar. Mayny students at home experience this in Massively Multiplayer Online Games such as World of Warcraft where players travel between buildings, towns, and even worlds. Communication is usually textual, with real-time voice communication using VOIP also possible. Other wolds popular with students include **Blue Mars**, **Stardoll**, and **Habbo**. The following **article from readwriteweb** shows that virtual worlds are very popular with our students.

The take up rate of schools utilising Virtual Worlds has been slow. When possibly the largest educational provider, **Second Life**, discontinued educational pricing at the beginning of this year the cost became beyond most schools. Many educators have seen great value in the real time collaboration possible within a virtual world with the ** Second Life Education wiki ** developed as a great supporting resource. Development has been particularly strong in higher education where **many Universities** have created a virtual presence. One of the best K-12 uses of Second Life can be found at **Skoolaborate** which has established a worldwide virtual community of schools.

For educators, **ISTE Island in Second Life**provides a venue for educators to network and learn from each other about real-life education opportunities and best practices in virtual worlds and is free to all ISTE members. ISTE’s Special Interest Group for Virtual Environments (SIGVE) hosts a monthly speaker series session on the third Tuesday of each month.

The **Immersive Education Initiative** is a non-profit international collaboration of universities, colleges, research institutes, consortia and companies that are working together to define and develop open standards, best practices, platforms, and communities of support for virtual reality and game-based learning and training systems.


 * Edusim**is a 3D multi-user virtual world platform and authoring toolkit intended for your classroom interactive whiteboard. Edusim is extendable allowing multiple classrooms to connect their interactive whiteboards for collaborative learning session. It not Web 2 requiring a 110mb download, but it is free,


 * Quest Atlantis** is another multiverse that combines gaming strategies with educational lessons. It "supports students and teachers in conducting rich inquiry-based explorations through which students learn standards-based content, and develop pro-social attitudes regarding significant environmental and social issues." However it is also not Web 2 as it requires a download, but it is free.