Free OpenSim Virtual World Content
A great list of websites that offer free virtual world content: http://opensim-edu.org/blog/freebie-websites/ http://zadaroo.com/ http://opensimcity.org/ http://myopensim.com/ http://jessoe.wordpress.com/research/alive/freebies-download/ http://enerhax.com/ http://fleepgrid.com/store/ http://minethere.blogspot.com/2013/04/free-terrains-and-oars.html http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2011/06/where-to-get-content-for-opensim/ https://www.virtual-me.org http://secondlife.mitsi.com/cgi/freesculpts.plx?count=198 http://www.outworldz.com/cgi/freescripts.plx...
Activities and Assessments in Virtual Worlds
A great Slideshare presentation explaining how virtual worlds can be used as an assessment or learning tool. Activities and Assessments for Virtual Worlds from Staci...
Educational Uses and Benefits of Virtual Worlds
The uses and benefits below were compiled through research and personal experiences with virtual worlds in an educational setting. Conduct synchronous discussions and lectures using chat and IM features may actually prove to be more engaging for today’s gamer generation than traditional instruction Build a virtual classroom complete with embedded content (web-pages, video, lessons, homework, etc.) makes instruction and learning more mobile allows students to review classroom content in a immersive 3D environment Virtual field trip allows student to explore a historical time period or simulated expereince (tsunami) in a 3D environment may allow them to conceptualize a time period better that just traditional 2D images and text Have students build their own simulation or historical reconstruction using prims. Use a screen to show students a historical picture to aid in the construction. This way, students are actually creating content for future classes. provides an opportunity for students to construct their own knowledge instead of being told promotes higher order thinking and...
Using the Firestorm Viewer with the Educational Version of SOAS
Sim-on-a-Stick (SOAS) the school version allows any educator or person to start their very own virtual world from a thumb drive. SOAS has the Imprudence viewer built right into the SOAS software package. However if you really want to implement media-on-a-prim in your world, the Firestorm viewer is your best option. Getting the Firestorm viewer to work with SOAS takes a bit of code editing. This tutorial also assumes that you will be using the Firestorm viewer to access the virtual world from a separate computer than the SOAS server computer. Making the world ready For outside access 1. First, we need to find out the IP address of the computer that will be running SOAS. To do so click on run in the start menu 2. Next, type in cmd to launch the cmd window 3. Next, type in ipconfig in the cmd window. Note the IP Address 4. Next , navigate to config-include inside your SOAS_EDU folder. (SOAS_EDU>diva-r20232-b>>bin>>config-include) 5. Open the MyWorld.ini file. Replace all instances of “127.0.0.1” with your IP address from step 2. Save the file a. A simple way to do this is by using the find and replace function of the text editor or Wordpad program 6. Next, do the same with the RegionConfig.ini inside the Regions folder. Replace all instances of “127.0.0.1” with your IP address from step 2. Save the file. (SOAS_EDU>diva-r20232-b>>bin>>Regions). Accessing Your SOAS world with the Firestorm viewer 1. Download and install the Firestorm viewer for Opensim 2. Open the Firestorm viewer and click on Viewer and then click on Preferences 3. Click on Opensim in the menu 4. Go up to Add new grid and type in the IP address on your SOAS server computer followed by the proper port. i.e. 192.168.1.112:9100 5. Click Apply. You should now see “simonastick” in your grid list 🙂 6. To access the world, Just type in Simona Stick as the username and 123 as the password. Last, select simonastick from the grid list ...
Start a Secure Virtual World in your Classroom!
Sim-on-a-Stick (SOAS) is a free, open-source software package that can help any educator start their own virtual world. The school version of SOAS even has adult and child avatars that are school appropriate. Starting your won virtual world using SOAS is much more secure than Second Life and other virtual worlds. Their is also no adult content. To start your own educational version world using SOAS … Download the SOAS educational version software Extract the files from the archive Double click the “Click to Start” file inside the SOAS_EDU folder Next, you will see a command window open. Let the commands run. Eventually the Imprudence viewer will open after the commands have completed. (In virtual worlds, you explore the world using a viewer) To log into your newly created world… Use Simona as the First Name Use Stick as the Last Name Use 123 as the password Note: It’s a good idea to change the password of this user before deploying the virtual world This user is the overall administrator of the entire virtual world Now, enjoy your...