virtual worlds | Liam O'Donnell

Virtual Worlds 2008 wrap up

by liam | Apr 9, 2008 | education, media, virtual worlds

Virtual Worlds 2008 has come and gone and while I spent the weekend wrapping up some writing projects and searching in vain for a feed/stream/webcast of the conference, the who’s who of vw’s talked shop and engaged in some serious crystal ball gazing. Over...

All kids’ virtual worlds are educational

by liam | Apr 5, 2008 | education, gaming, literacy, media, virtual worlds

There is a great discussion going on over at Shaping Youth (starting with this post and then this one) and Izzy Neis about the possibilities of eco-education in kids’ virtual worlds. I’m so happy to hear this discussion because, as I’ve said before,...

Rheingold draws “maximum” crowd in Second Life

by liam | Apr 3, 2008 | education, gaming, literacy, media, virtual worlds

The auditorium on ISTE Island was packed last night, with a maximum of 74 avatars gathered to hear online community pioneer Howard Rheingold talk about his Social Media Virtual Classroom project. He did that and a lot more. For me, one of the key points of the talk...

Congress hearing on virtual worlds

by liam | Apr 1, 2008 | education, gaming, literacy, media, virtual worlds

Thanks [yet again!] to my twitter network, I learned about the Subcommittee meeting of the US Congress, Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium, (archived video here) just as it was kicking off. I managed to catch all the good and...

Edu-VWs gain ground with Quest Atlantis funding

by liam | Mar 2, 2008 | education, gaming, literacy, media, virtual worlds

With the recent swarm of new toy-based virtual worlds for kids launching in the coming months, I was very happy to hear [via Virtual World News] that the MacArthur Foundation awarded the University of Indiana’s School of Education $1.8 million to expand their...