The SLENZ Update – No 106, June 29, 2009

Addendum  to SLENZ Update, No 105: Hysteria over Australian SL-block rumours: fear-mongering or worse … The Sydney Morning Herald  journalist, Asher Moses, who wrote “Web filters to censor video games” – the story which led to “mass” Second Life hysteria – has disclosed to SLED-lister, Second Life resident  and PhD candidate in the  School of [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 105, June 29, 2009

ANOTHER TABLOID BLOG FRENZY Hysteria over Australian SL-block rumours:  fear-mongering or worse … Looks like bulldust to me … I haven’t commented on the latest round of histrionics and hysteria fomented by “tabloid” bloggers about the Australia moves … but as one of the most authoritative writers on virtual worlds,  James Wagner Au (pictured), has [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 104, June 24, 2009

CYBERPSYCHOLOGY The Virtual World challenges facing mental health research The challenges health professionals face in using virtual worlds have more to do with the commercial cost of developing serious games or health purpose virtual worlds rather than with the quality of the environments being delivered over the internet or through off-the-shelf games,  according to  Dr [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 103, June 24, 2009

SLENZ PROJECT PROGRESS ‘Machinimas’ show the benefits, comfort in learning  virtually It’s often difficult for an outsider – especially one with little experience in virtual technology -  to get a real impression of what happens in an education environment in Second Life and just what the benefits can be. As part of the on-going SLENZ [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 102, June 19, 2009

An invitation to  another happening on Koru … Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology’s Mike Baker (SL: Rollo Kohime) will be presenting a paper at The Society of Dance History Scholars Conference 2009 at Stanford University, California, USA, from Wellington Railway Station on the Second Life NMIT island of Koru [Koru: 81,57,21 (PG)] at 3:00pm SLT/PDT [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 101, June 18, 2009

Is there really virtual world promise in peer-to-peer … at this stage? As if,  worrying whether the soon-to-be-released Second Life Viewer 2009 will  require educators to completely revamp their techniques and training of students, was not enough, we still have to wonder whether we might not have backed the wrong  horse and that the possible [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 100, June 15, 2009

The boy from the future XBox 360′s Milo  takes virtual reality into another  world I’ve been mulling over, for a few days now, whether  Microsoft’s latest offering in virtual worlds, Milo and his virtual friends, is going to prove a greater boon to  video games and MMORPGs or to personal computer-based virtual worlds. Is Milo [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 99, June 15, 2009

SLENZ PROJECT PROGRESS Foundation Pilot  gets  new ‘stairway to knowledge’ Stairway to knowledge … the  SLENZ Project’s Foundation Learning Pilot’s “rez-on-each step” guide to interviewing SLENZ Project lead developer Aaron Griffths (SL: Isa Goodman) and  the Foundation Learning Pilot’s lead educator, Merle Lemon (SL: Briarmell Quintessa)  have come up with some interesting ideas to make [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 98, June 12, 2009

University of Illinois Global Campus entry point Do SL public health training applications really work? US$1.6m to find the answer Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health have secured a grant of  US$1.6 million to fund a study to determine if collaborative virtual environments designed to improve public health [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 97, June 9, 2009

‘Exciting’ Kiwi development Major New Zealand universities seek  funding to establish  national virtual world grid Proposal pdf here Three major New Zealand universities are planning to establish an open-access, open-source New Zealand National Virtual World grid based on the ONGENS OpenSim grid which is currently under development. The universities are Otago University, the University of [...]