Virtual Worlds Learning
The New MERLOT 3D Virtual Campus – A Vision:
SifyTechnologies, MERLOT, and the University of Oregon ally to increase efficacy of learning and quality of online learning materials and services
- A virtual gathering place for answers and discussions on virtual learning environments
- A community environment that allows faculty and students to converge, interact, and collaborate freely in a risk-free atmosphere
- A workplace that allows for cross-institutional and interdisciplinary collaboration and leverage
- A repository of links and expert-vetted learning materials that have been developed using 3D virtual learning environments
- Development and dissemination of Learning Design and social networking methodologies for learning in the virtual worlds.
- A collection of proof-of-concept virtual learning objects on a variety of topics that are most relevant and best-suited for virtual worlds such as nanotechnology, genetics, nursing and rehabilitative care, visual and performing arts, leadership, problem-solving, and collaboration, ecological and systems thinking, archeology, extreme scripting and computer programming, architecture and design, catastrophic weather simulations, historical recreations of events, periods, and trends; and natural sciences such as evolutionary biology, molecular biology, physical chemistry, atomic chemistry, quantum physics, and applied mathematics.
The SaLamander Project
The SaLamander Project has been established to support the professional development of faculty in their efforts to provide excellent academic programs for students learning in the virtual world of Second Life. The website is the first (and not only) means to provide professional development services.