I recall an article bemoaning the lack of scientists in Australia – too many MBA’s mayhap 😉 – so for those of you interested in a different perspective on gathering resources for teaching, a visit to the SL Science Center is definitely in order.
A range of displays and interactive exhibits as well as links to various other SL Science landmarks not to mention URL links around the center make this a must see.
I was especially impressed with the weather map just inside the first building when you TP (Teleport) in. It would be great if our own Australian BOM site could have such a visually impressive representation of weather!
Just do a search for “Science Center” and you will find the place and the group dedicated to the maintenance and development of this valuable area. It would appear to be an international collaboration too. Would be great to see some Aussies represented.
The creater, Troy McLuhan has his own blog subtitled Explaining Science with Second Life. He certainly would and could be classified as a pioneer in exploring the ways and means of enabling science education to be delivered in a way that motivates further investigation by aspiring students and teachers. Both the Science Center and Troy’s blog would certainly be a good inclusion for prospective science teachers as a SL Field Trip and browser read respectively.
Of course, the downside is that you can’t share this with classes in schools (unless you are very, very brave – or stupid), though the URLs are obviously easy to bookmark in a browser and pass on to students.
Given the “mature” dangers associated with SL the challenge in the near future for both Linden Labs and content providers is how to overcome the inherent dangers when such worthy SL areas are sandwiched in areas that contain, let us say, adult content…
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