Doll Houses, Sims and 3D Virtual Worlds

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Posted on 15th May 2009 by admin in Cognitive Science

I put together a synopsis of my 3D blogs from the 3D TLC conference and gave a presentation today to our elearning technology community of practice. 3d-tlc-conference.pdf

It was a well attended meeting with elearning techies from every division of the company. Following my presentation the guys from Proton Media gave a presentation on Protosphere which is a 3D virtual social networking environment that is installed behind the firewall. Protosphere integrates 3D virtual environments with more traditional social networking tools like chat and profiles.

An interesting analogy was presented today was we discussed why these types of environments feel familiar and fun. Playing in 3D virtual worlds is somewhat like a child playing dolls with a doll house or action figures. adolescents play with World of War Craft, Halo and Sims … so do adults play with 3D Virtual Environments and are they playing, working, learning or maybe all three?

Learning Creativity in Second Life

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Posted on 1st May 2009 by admin in 3D Virtual Worlds |Cognitive Science

I have been tasked with an interesting instructional design problem, not new but new to me. Teach scientists how to be more innovative. What if I gave scientists the power to manipulate atoms and compounds in real-time in a collaborative team environment. Well to actually simulate real compound creation would take some very high powered computers. What about the creative capabilities in 2nd Life? What if we could really test our skills out as the gods creating objects of any kind? Isn’t that the ultimate test of creativity?Ahh, but I used two different terms. Did you catch it? I said innovative and creative. Are they the same thing? Are these behaviors demonstrating the same competency. I invite you to watch this 9 minute video and think about i.

2nd Life Video on creating …