NZVWG Update, VLENZ No 166, March 14, 2010

NZ Virtual World Grid hosts international  guests NZVWG Auckland portal now accepting ‘resident’ avatar applications … The  University of Auckland portal of the New Zealand Virtual World Grid (NZVWG)  has successfully hosted its  first international seminar, attracting  a number of leading MUVE educators and researchers from  around the world. The meeting coincided with the announcement [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 111, July 08, 2009

New spirit of NZ tertiary ‘cooperation, collaboration’ across  virtual  worlds ADA Symposium Poster With New Zealand tertiary institutions – polytechnics and universities – sometimes at loggerheads with each other  its good to see a  spirit of cooperation and collaboration in their working with  and within virtual worlds. This was brought home to me 10 days [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 109, July 07, 2009

SLENZ PROGRESS Otago’s birthing centre pilot goes live with real students Open for class…  SLENZ Project lead developer Isa goodman (RL: Aaron Griffiths) “polishes”  the  Te Wāhi Whānau (The Birth Centre) build before students “arrive”. Otago Polytechnic and  Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology midwifery students have begun taking part of their midwifery course on the [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 93, May 29, 2009

‘TRIPPY” JOURNEY WITH ROLLO KOHIME “Getting close by going far away, going far by staying here …” ‘Departed – In the Company of Strangers’ The ineffable sadness of departure – of leaving, of death – is mirrored more and more in the work of Mike Baker (SL: Rollo Kohime) who has used  Wellington Railway Station [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 81, May 12, 2009

MIDWIFERY TUTORS ‘ENTHUSIASTIC’ Exciting introduction to SL with bonding  and play Trainers, Dr Clare Atkins and Todd Cochrane with Kate Spencely, Dr Deborah Davis and Sarah Stuart. (Pictures from Sarah  Stewart) The importance of a time for “play” when people are initiated into Second Life was reinforced for  the SLENZ Project’s joint leader, Dr Clare Atkins [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 49, March 3, 2009

As real as it gets – architecturally speaking Almost since the  inception of  MUVEs such as  Second Life, architects have seen the potential of being able to create exact, real life, fullscale, 3D, building models within virtual reality for such things as architect/designer/client walk throughs, design visualisation and tweaking. No one has been quite able [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 47, February 23, 2009

A pattern of  NZ  islands? Long White Cloud The original initiators of the  SLENZ Project, Dr Clare Atkins (SL: Arwenna Stardust), joint project leader,  and Aaron Griffiths (SL: Isa Goodman), lead developer,  have always dreamed of creating  an Aotearoa -New Zealand education archipelago within Second Life. It now seems that their dream is about to [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 44, February 4, 2009

Strangers: off to the world UK-born Mike Baker (SL: Rollo Kohime),  a senior lecturer in the Degree in Arts and Media programme in the School of Arts and Media at Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology, Nelson, NZ-Aotearoa, has had papers on his Masters project accepted for three national and international conferences in February and June. The [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 40, January 20, 2009

Birth Centre takes shape The beginning … The SLENZ project’s “ideal birthing unit” is taking shape quickly with the  basic walls constructed on the  floor plan and already trialed for ease of  avatar use (movement, camera views etc). The trials were done by  Aaron Griffiths (SL: Isa Goodman), the Lead Developer for the SLENZ Project,  [...]

The SLENZ Update – No 28, November 24, 2008

YOU ARE INVITED ‘Open’ SLENZ workshop New Zealand’s leading virtual world learning research group, Second Life Education New Zealand (SLENZ), has invited interested educators in both Second Life and “real life” to attend a one-day workshop in Wellington, New Zealand. The open workshop will be held on Wellington Institute of Technology’s Wellington campus and in [...]