Virtual Worlds, 
Real Learning
About Me
not 
an educator
virtual worlds
games
marketing
community
i love to garden
Second Life:
Second Life
Metaplace
My best definition of our mission is that we are working to create an online world having the exceptional property that it advances the capabilities of the many people that use it, and by doing so affects and transforms them in a positive way. More specifically, since there are so many possible definitions of ‘online world’, we are trying to create a close reproduction of the actual physical world we live in – one that will be easily comprehensible and useful to us because it will so closely resemble ours. The ability to simulate our world on computers means that we can make it different in ways that empower us, allowing us to do things that in the physical world we can imagine but are incapable of.
--Philip Rosedale
30,436 regions--
15x the size of San Francisco

2.2 billion user generated objects
(~one terabyte a day)
Established and growing
Our vision is to enable users to build a network of worlds - from community to games to education to business -- creating an ecosystem where they collaborate, socialize and conduct commerce forming new societies and economies as we do in the real world today.
accessibility
creativity
ownership
The Avatar Bill of Rights
That avatars are the manifestation of actual people in an online medium, and that their utterances, actions, thoughts, and emotions should be considered to be as valid as the utterances, actions, thoughts, and emotions of people in any other forum, venue, location, or space.
A plain-text chat world with the languagewindows module installed; learn new languages while chatting by popping up translation windows.  
collaborative creation
global connection
new society
self expression
IMAGINATION!
Consultant and advisor:
Metaplace
Frenzoo
LifeTuner
2002
2008
Skoolaborate - Global Collaboration
3DSquared
22 schools and organisations
Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, 
Chile, Portugal, the UK and the USA
The media narrative about Second Life and
virtual worlds is starting to get past the
hype stage, past the bashing stage, and is
beginning to resemble reality.
-- Rita King Venturebeat.com April17,2009
"Finally we are seeing evidence, again across the globe, of benefits for students who have suffered through many damaging life experiences. Issues such as bullying, low self esteem or by being loaded with the baggage of low social economic status etc.  We are seeing these students suddenly blossom in this new environment as they interact in a 'new world' without baggage and are being taken for what they are rather than what they are perceived to be."
The project was created to facilitate the building of relationships between our students.  With the introduction of voice in Second Life, the ability to speak in native languages and practice those being learned became a reality for our students.  
Porto,
Portugal
Beijing,
China
Rochester, NY
"I had them tell their exciting stories today: chatting in Japanese with a student from Japan, shopping at the mall, learning how to build and script by watching students from the UK. "
Opportunities are being provided for students to take control of their own learning and to work as critical friends and mentors of other students and other teachers from across the world. Teachers are collaboratively developing units of work with other teachers on matters that are important to all. Students work with teachers to assist them in working in a digital world that is very foreign to them. This has seen the transformation of working relationships within schools, within faculties, across sectors of education and across national and international boarders. 
Immersion
ideas
culture
collaboration
community
identity
creativity
friends
understanding
context
insight
web-based
mentoring
digital citizenship
and
digital literacy
Forty middle school and high school students 
Digital Workforce Intensive
12 hours per day 
focus was on Louisiana's core social problems: education, health care, coastal restoration, and pollution.
Spencer Zuzolo
Joe Castille
science + math > game programming
literature + history > game design
"Ultimately the global, social and economic fabric will be transformed by these next generation social, learning and collaboration systems."
-- Spencer Zuzolo
world wide stuff, different cultures!!! :)
Just how a world like that is made
that programming can mess up ......BAD
i got to learn about the way the government works when my class talked to representative landry
That you may not want to work with that person but when you work with them; you find out that they are like you and you could be good friends.
What did you learn?
Metaplace:
Sunchaser
Hubworld: Transforming Louisiana
Game world: Green Machines
Game world: War of the Wetlands 
Frenzoo
2009
teen fashion
teen creation
Frenzoo:
Sunchaser
Robin Harper
Taliesin Protagonist
Robin Linden
global friends
identity
land metaphor
economy
embed
world metaphor
asynchronous
Game Camp