John Miller, a Nursing Professor, at Tacoma Community College in Washington is spearheading a nursing simulation hosted within Second Life. Scenarios can be simulated which reproduce life-threatening conditions in a safe ‘virtual’ environment. I've written about Second Life before and it seems to me with the work of simulation pioneers like John Miller, the potential of Second Life as a simulator are being slowly If you want to be a nurse then you need to go to school. Many schools are using technological tools to delivery nursing education;

If you want to get a sense of what Second Life is like and particularly what it is like as part of learning, here are some videos that help describe this. | View | Upload your own What videos did I mis

Here is this Month's ASTD Big Question: Second Life Training? More specifically: In what situations, do you believe it makes sense to develop a learning experience that will be delivered within Second Life? If you were to develop a training island in Second Life, what kind of environment and artifacts would you consider essential for teaching? Just as there are considerable differences in blended learning and virtual classroom training, what are some of the major differences (surprises) in training within virtual worlds? First I am going to answer

I just read through a great post by Rich Hoeg which talks about his learning around Second Life. few of the things he points you to: Wikipedia article on Second Life Harvard Course that uses Second Life (prior post ) Overview of course and link to intro Second Life Video Lectures Course Wiki A Second Education - A blog dedicated to education in a Second Life Educational Opportunities of Second Life - Educause How Not to Teach in Second Life - An interview with the Second Life founder These are great resources and will likely open your eyes a bit.

This month's question came from a reader the June 2008 Big Question is: Second Life Training? More specifically: In what situations, do you believe it makes sense to develop a learning experience that will be delivered within Second Life? If you were to develop a training island in Second Life, what kind of environment and artifacts would you consider essential for teaching? Just as there are considerable differences in blended learning and virtual classroom training, what are some of the major differences (surprises) in training within virtual worlds?

Here is a video I created for my "Learning in 3D Class" which contrasts the world of 2D Synchronous tools with 3D Synchronous learning tools. I hope it illustrates some of the advantages of 3D environments and some of the things that can be done to faciliate learning within a 3D environment. The video is based on the work Tony O'Driscoll and I did for the e-learning guild's Synchronous Learning 360 Report .

Here are some interesting videos showing how Second Life can be used to design and deliver health related training and actual client support within a virtual world. This one is focused on nursing education . This one demonstrates various views of how a virtual platform can help mental health and other patients . Here is a video that shows how a "branching story" type interaction is used to provide training to students in a medical setting . __ Catalog of Recommended Books, Games and Gadgets Recommended Games and Gadgets Recommended Books Content Guid

I am always asked for samples of companies using Second Life.  Mainly by other eLearning providers trying to build a case to get a little budget towards getting a foothold in Second Life.  The example of IBM gives credibility for the use of Second Life, however their story is too “big” for most people to effectively use.  These individuals are typically eLearning designers, developers, instructional designers, and subject matter experts.  They are not looking for an entire sim but only needing a parcel to use for doing video.

Every week or so I hear about a company looking to Second Life as a teaching environment. First, I have to say that Second Life is a great Web 2.0/massively multiplayer environment. respect the ability of people to make money in Second Life. respect I I I

Not only that, but it seems that Alejandra Pickett's expertise lies in Second Life, just stroll around her slideshare shows . Thanks to the great College20 community started by Eduardo Peirano, I could read a post by Alejandra Pickett that really blew my mind. The way she build her course is a great example of combining several relevant Social media to enhance a course.