Here is the accompanying blog post for my presentation, OpenSim-OpenLearning at the 2009 K12 Online Conference. It was a pleasure to be a part of such an awesome conference. Let me know if you have any questions by posting here or at
Here are a few resources to get you started. This surely isn’t a complete list. It should get you started though. Please comment. I would love to hear what you have to say about OpenSim. Stay tuned to this blog (or some of the resources below) for more.
Books to prime the pumps
- Good Video Games and Good Learning – James Paul Gee
- What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy – James Paul Gee
- Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning – Marc Prensky
- How Computer Games Help Children Learn – David Shaffer
- Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do - Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson
- Everything Bad is Good for You – Steven Johnson
More about generation V
- Gartner Says Enterprises Must Create Separate Marketing Strategies for Generation Virtual
- Generation Virtual
Games mentioned in the presentation
Hardware mentioned in the presentation
Movies in the presentation
- Playstation Eye – EyePet TV Spot
- Project Natal Xbox 360 E3 2009 Announcement
- James Cameron’s Avatar Toys Augmented Reality Demo
Moore’s Law Bits
Virtual worlds mentioned in the presentation
Relevant OpenSimulator Links
- Main website
- OpenSimulator User Documentation
- My version of OpenSim for running in standalone mode
- Diva Distribution of OpenSim for stand alone
Places to go online
- OpenSim Worlds – Rich White has created this site for people to share worlds they build with others. This is the peice I think is very important for use in learning.
- IndieMetaverse – A new ning network for people to discuss and share using virtual worlds.
- RezEd – RezEd (BETA) is an online hub providing practitioners using virtual worlds with access to the highest quality resources and research in the field to establish a strong network of those using virtual worlds for learning.
Where to professionally host virtual worlds
- ReactionGrid – My recommendation for hosting when it comes to OpenSim. Great people and progressive open technologies. They have a great focus on education.
- SimHost – Another great option for having someone do the dirty work for you.
Clients to connect to OpenSim (or Second Life)
- Second Life Client
- Meerkat
- Hippo (alternate download page which includes an OS X version)
- Emerald
- Snowglobe (not mentioned but still worthwhile)
Other resources in the presentation
- Sylvia Martinez’s awesome list of resources from her K12Online 2008 presentation
- Education Uses of Second Life Wiki created by Jo Kay.
A few people to pay attention to
- Rich White (Twitter) – Of Greenbush Labs fame, a true virtual world pioneer. Check out his amazing CSI build in ReactionGrid.
- Vikki Davis aka CoolCatTeacher (Twitter) – Powerhouse teacher from Camilla, Georgia doing great things with kids in virtual worlds.
- Jani Pirkola (Twitter) – Blogs at Maxping which reports on open source virtual worlds, 3d web, and immersive internet.
- Chris Hart (Twitter) – CTO for ReactionGrid.
- Kyle G (Twitter) – CEO of ReactionGrid
- Justin Clark-Casey (Twitter) – OpenSim core developer and independent OpenSim consultant.
- Trevor Meister (Twitter) – Former K-12 Educator turned social media/network and Virt. Wrld Explorer. SL/Wonderland/Croquet, mostly exploring Immersive Educ. in Opensim on Reactiongrid.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Really, really impressed by your presentation on OpenSim, Tim – it's one of the most accurate and well-informed ones that I've even seen. In fact I'm going to make it one of my benchmark links for people who ask me what OpenSim is
I also like the OpenSim App. I think that this kind of innovation in ease-of-use is going to be essential for the future success of open source virtual environments.
Justin, it is an honor just to have you comment on my blog. Thanks for the kind words. It is the least I can do for the project. You and all the other OpenSim developers are really onto something special.
Great presentation. We have been working with the education in the UK for couple of years trying to get them in Second Life, but been hitting brick wall again and again for the reason you also listed in your presentation.
Finally earlier this year we were able to offer them OpenSim and all the schools we work with are very excited. One thing they are still concerned about is the lack of content available and schools having to allocate a lot of time for content creation. In order to resolve this problem we are about to lauch a product in January providing a market place for educational content. More information about this can be found at http://www.thecontentgrid.com
That is great to know. I will certainly add that to my list of OpenSim places. Thanks for the comment.
This was a very informative presentation, thank you so much for explaining the content so clearly. I am looking forward to experimenting with the OpenSimulator. As an educator in the Central Florida area, we are incorporating Quest Atlantis ( http://www.questatlantis.org) as part of our county's 21st Century strategic plan and starting to train a growing number of teachers in the use of this immersive 3D environment.
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