"Creating the Largest Virtual Community in Existence"

Yesterday, I visited the UTMB building spot. As you may know, the University of Texas System has invested 6 figures into purchasing about 48 islands in the virtual world, Second Life to link remotely to it's 16 institutions which include UT-Tyler, UT Medical Branch, and UT Southwestern Medical School. See: http://tinyurl.com/ycpna6j

According to press reports, UT System is creating

"The largest virtual community in existence".

Think of all those possibilities for virtual training and virtual learning!!

How cool is that??!

Exploring Teaching & Training Tools

Tonite, I met with Jennette Forager [see: http://epochinstitute.blogspot.com/]
and the Immersion group @ the SMART HOUSE @ Epoch Institute as we looked at some cool teaching and training tools in Second Life. While there we had many interesting previews and discussions.

One discussion centered around the fact that many universities have been investing heavily in Second Life spaces for teaching and learning. This fact coupled with alerts that most universities are giving as of late regarding contingency plans and warnings for flu outbreaks made us muse about the possible use of SL when students are home sick but needing to continue meeting with classmates. We all agreed that SL was a wonderful immersive technology that could easily be done from home as long as students have a little training.