The Open University is in SecondLife in the Teen Grid (Schome Park, see
http://www.schome.ac.uk/) and has a couple of islands in the 'adult' grid too.
I've been exploring SL since December 2006 (mainly in my own time). I'm a
Library person with an interest in the potential that SL has for providing
library services/delivering education.
I also attended most of last week's Eduserv Symposium on virtual worlds &
learning ('in world'). There are issues (as highlighted by Stephen Downes
and others) that are pertinent to SL's use within education and elsewhere
(server architecture/scalability, service availability/reliability,
proprietary software, ownership/management, fees/economy, silos/walled
gardens etc). But I agree with Joanna Scott (Nature) that it's important to
be in SL, exploring the possibilities, whatever the eventual outcome re the
SL ‘tool’.
Other than the OU Librarians who are in SL, so far I have only met one other
UK librarian in world (from Liverpool University). There are many
libraries/librarians/edtechs from the states in there, and a few from
Europe. It would be great to meet up with more fellow UK librarians in
world. I'll be there at 2pm tomorrow - I'm Teresa Arliss in SL. Thanks Phil
for setting up this meeting.
Best regards
Anne
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