I am currently taking a course on Second Life with the Consultants-E.
The metaverse is truly unbelievable. Here is a report on my latest field trip, which I did with Nik Peachy.Ā First, we visited the Virtual University of Edinburgh. Nik spotted a large hot-air balloon, we scooted over and were uplifted (literally and metaphorically) over the venue. It was peaceful, sometimes visually stunning, but curiously devoid of people.
Nik knew of a fascinating place, dedicated to the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh. We teleported there, and it was truly amazing ā 3D versions of the paintings in which you could actually enter. A must-see. Virtual Starry Night Luctesa 110,127,25.
The next stop was Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Hotel & Tourism Management.Ā It seemed to haveĀ potential for running courses, training people in the art of hotel management.
Finally, we visitedĀ aĀ planetarium. It was like a hallucinogenic trip, much better experienced in flying mode, with models of the planets, not to scale. Lots of lights. Location: 142-239-38.
Some thoughts: maybe it was the time of day, but SL did seem deserted. That was quite an eery feeling, but exciting too. The wander though the paintings, including Starry Night, was a great example of something which could be done in SL but difficult to imagine in the real world. With a group of students, one could imagine this could be an incredible task. Is this where we are ā a new experience is upon us, but we at the chalk face now need to link it to our pedagogies. Seems like the āskies the limitā in terms of what we could ādoā with students here. Maybe good news for CLIL ā what better way to do astronomy than floating around the solar system, had it been to scale.