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
Call for chapter submissions: Serious Games
If you’ve got an interest in writing on serious games, this may be your thing: CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS Proposal Submission Deadline: September 5, 2008 Serious Game Design and Development: Technologies for Training and Learning A book edited by Dr. Janis Cannon-Bowers & Dr. Clint Bowers University of Central Florida Purpose and Goals of the [...]
Counselling, online therapy and virtual worlds
It’s coming up to a year since we interviewed DeeAnna Nagel and Kate Anthony and discussed counselling in online environments broadly and in virtual environments more specifically. Over that time, the Online Therapy Institute has continued to grow. One example of this is the announcement of a five-hour course on online supervision. Anyone who works [...]
Midwifery, Birthing and Second Life
For the past couple of years I’ve been aware of the work going on in New Zealand with midwifery training and Second Life, mostly thanks to the updates over at SLENZ. Machinima maker Pooky Amsterdam dropped me a line about a film she’s helped produce that explains the role of Te Wāhi Whānau – The [...]
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 [...]
Relay for Life (Second Life) 2009
A yearly highlight in Second Life is the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. The 2007 and 2008 events were big successes, with more than 55 million Linden Dollars (approximately 200 thousand US dollars). Teams have started forming and if any health-related teams are forming, do let us know and we’ll promote your fundraising efforts. [...]
Interview – Evelyn McElhinney, Glasgow Caledonian University
Coming from a nursing background myself, I’m always fascinated by the work going on in virtual environments in regards to nurse education. To some extent it’s a natural fit in that clinical simulation is a pivotal part of the education process for nurses anyway – using virtual environments is simply an extension of recognised practice. [...]
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 [...]
Virtual worlds for the elderly and disabled
An Italian virtual worlds developer, ISN, has announced the roll-out of the Oasis Foundation Virtual World Project. Funded by a non-profit organisation in Italy devoted to assisting the elderly and disabled, the project aims to: 1. Act as communication and collaboration environment to inform, communicate and interact with the public in an innovative way. 2. [...]
Faster Cures
Machinima guru Draxtor Depres has created an excellent piece on the entry of a new health non–profit into Second Life. In Draxtor’s words: Faster Cures is a self-described action tank, focused on changing the culture of medical research. They recently entered Second Life, planning to use its potential to the fullest. Draxtor Despres found out [...]
World of Warcraft Addiction: send in the field teams
The UK’s Telegraph newspaper has run a very interesting article on the issue of addiction and World of Warcraft. The key quote for me from the article, from Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Richard Graham: He has called on Blizzard Entertainment, the company that makes World of Warcraft, to waive or discount the costs associated with joining [...]
University of Nottingham’s Maternity Ward in Second Life
We’ve covered maternity simulations previously, but I though this one was worth passing on as well. The University of Nottingham have created a maternity ward and they’ve produced a ten-minute machinima outlining its aims and outcomes to date. You can read more about the University’s work more broadly in Second Life here, or watch the [...]
A better system? Teaching healthcare virtually
Rather than assessing their students through a paper-based examination, or even by having real, live people come in to pretend to be patients, it is starting to become more common to hear of healthcare educators asking their students instead to use computer applications and tools featuring digitally-created patients. There are a myriad decisions that need [...]