SL places

I spent some time over spring break looking at interesting places in SL, and here is what I found:

Nonprofit commons (112, 56, 24) is a gathering place for nonprofit organizations in second life.  It is also a very well built up place with more greenery than I've perviously seen in world.  They offer tours, give you free stuff, and create a networking environment for nonprofit organizations so check them out.

Shakespear Island Sim (138, 104, 37) pictured bellow was a fun place to visit as well because of the historical recreationism and because it is a cross section of two digital worlds (Sims in Secondlife).

Exploratorium (170, 146, 25) is the Second Life space of the San Francisco Exploratorium, and at the time I visited they were celebrating Pi month.  I liked this because it's an example of an educational space within SL and a real life space taking up a virtual real estate.  

Bartle test

This is an interesting test because it seems to ask the same questions in a lot of different ways. I wonder if this is to make people break out of thinking about how they would like to be seen and answer the questions more honestly on the whole. I also found that my avatar persona is more aggressive and violent than my real persona which was rated "Socializer"

I'm planning to read more about this test's background to find out how players apply this knowledge, as well as how the test was created.

project idea

I think the digital world environment can have a lot of educational applications. I am specifically interested in using it as an ESL tool -- an ESL garden if you will where your avatar can walk through a virtual space in which certain objects and situations will present an opportunity to learn new vocabulary or practice existing vocabulary. I am trying to work out how to do this without breaking the immersive feeling of the game and how to allow avatars, and consequently users, to learn from each other.