Second used as a demonstrative medium for real-world software:
Not the most innovative way to use an immersive environment but I suppose it gets the message across.
Metaverse Health
Addiction, research, health in a virtual world
Stories from the Vault
Molecular visualisation
Erich Bremer is a computer and systems engineer who has created Monolith, “a molecular visualization system created to display molecular structures within the virtual world known as Second Life and allow real-time interaction with the displayed structures”. It pulls information from the Rutgers Protein Data Bank and creates that structure in Second Life, allowing people [...]
Obesity Research at University of Houston
I came across a press release from the University of Houston about a health challenge being run entirely in Second Life. If you’re interested in earning some Linden dollars and learning something at the same time, sign up in-world. I had a quick look around and it’s an interesting set up. The full details: International [...]
Problem-based learning in Second Life: new resource
A comprehensive new resource has been released by the UK’s University of Derby and Aston University, Titled Best Practices in Virtual Worlds Teaching: A guide to using problem-based learning in Second Life, this 40+ page publication covers a lot of ground in an easy to understand way. It’s available as a free download of a [...]
Introducing: Metaverse Health
I’m really pleased to introduce this sister site to The Metaverse Journal. In the time we’ve been covering virtual worlds, health is one of the key areas that pops up time and time again as both a key opportunity and pivotal challenge. Whether it be the power of thought-control avatars for those with profound physical [...]
HIV/AIDS: collaboration opportunity in Second Life
We’ve covered Karuna previously for their work with World AIDS Day 2008. They’ve now made an open invitation to “HIV/AIDS groups, activists, health professionals, organizations, and educators” to get further involved in collaboration. If you’re interested: Place: Karuna campfire Date: March 6, 2009 Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Second Life Time (Pacific Time) Thanks [...]
Enhanced clinical simulation information for you (and me)
Over the weekend I familiarised myself with Scoop.it, thanks to the kindness of Jo Kay who provided me an invite. Basically what Scoop.it does is take a lot of the hard work out of trawling the web and social media for information on a topic of interest. Once you spend some time setting up your [...]
Body image and avatars – final call for study participants
Back in January we promoted a study being undertaken by Doctorate student Jon-Paul Cacioli on body image in virtual worlds (the study participants need to be aged 18 or over and be male). Click here for the survey link The response over recent months has been good be Jon-Paul needs a few more people to [...]
Virtual worlds and health: some media focus
The past couple of weeks have seen some interesting articles in the mainstream media on virtual environments and health. The first is in the Jerusalem Post, showing the benefits for the vision impaired. You can view the full article here. The second appears in Information Week and covers the use of Second Life by Chicago [...]
Therapy in Second Life
The usually tabloid Second Life Herald have an interesting but short interview with a Dutch hypnotherapist who conducts therapy in Second Life. Of course, there’s nothing new about therapy in Second Life – our sister site The Metaverse Journal interviewed two counsellors back in March 2007 – you can read that interview here. If you [...]
Book Review: The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction
Nicola Johnson from the University of Wollongong in Australia, recently released a book titled The Multiplicities of Internet Addiction – The Misrecognition of Leisure and Learning. It’s an engaging read, not least for the very objective look it takes at the concepts of internet addiction and framing the issue within the realities of a net-connected [...]
HIV/AIDS education and virtual environments
(This story originally appeared over at The Metaverse Journal) The Virtual World’s Story Project (TVWSP) is a partnership between Jena Ball (SL: Jenaia Morane) and Marty Keltz (SL: Marty Snowpaw). We’ve previously covered one of their other story quests and they’ve certainly been prolific in the health and education field. Their latest project is focused [...]
Medical and nursing education: more media attention
One of the advantages of being a regular (daily) observer of virtual worlds news, is you get a fair idea of trends. One growth trend over recent months has been the interest in the health applications of virtual environments. One of the better pieces of media coverage is one by the Wall Street Journal. It’s [...]
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