Virtual Worlds News

Mingoville Pairs Books, Events with Virtual World

The teaching-oriented Mingoville virtual world -- an online destination for tweens and teens to learn English -- soft launched in Denmark two months ago. Last week, the group announced a hard launch, some user stats, and bit more of the company's long-term business model.

"Learning English doesn't only take place inside the classroom," said Mingoville's founder and CEO Stephan Stephensen in a statement announcing the hard launch. "It was clear to us we had to be where the kids were -- using social media as a teaching tool."

Scottish University First in UK to Teach Virtual World Development

Glasgow Caledonian University, a school based in Glasgow, Scotland, is actively creating a 3D Web project and a major component of this project is a "complete, integrated module" that will teach students everything they need to know about 3D virtual worlds.

Study to Question Training in Virtual Environments

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health have secured a grant totaling $1.6 million from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The money will fund a study to determine if collaborative virtual environments designed to improve public health preparedness and response planning really work.

Given the plethora of health-related sites already in Second Life, it's going to be a disappointment for those vested in SL to read their efforts are for naught, should the study's results indicate so, but that's unlikely given the school's existing reliance on virtual environments for training and education.

Too Cool for School? Not Philip Rosedale

Some of the big names who delivered commencement addresses at colleges and universities this graduation season have included President Barack Obama, who delivered an address at both the US Naval Academy and Notre Dame; Ellen DeGeneres, who appeared at Tulane University; Smokey Robinson, who struck a note with graduates at Berklee College Of Music; and Google CEO Eric Schmidt who delivered the commencement address at Carnegie Mellon University. To virtual worlds aficionados, however, none compare to tomorrow's appearance of Second Life founder Philip Rosedale, who will helm the graduation ceremony of Bryant & Stratton College, a school which focuses on minting business degrees, taking place in Second Life.

8D Taps Language Learners, Bots, Microtransactions

Last summer, Boston-based 8D World secured both big name game talent and big bucks on its road to virtual worlds fame. With $7 million in a Series A funding from Spark Capital and Gobi Ventures and the presence of traditional game veteran Rick Goodman, the company promised an upcoming virtual world that would connect people around the globe. This week, the business model behind the start-up was revealed as a language-learning online destination targeted to kids; one that relies on bots as teachers.

The world, known as Wiz World Online, has already been launched in a beta version in China. The company is using bots as teachers for now, aiming to assure parents the site is a safe haven for kids. Over time, however, the company plans on transitioning to a VOIP model with live teachers.

Second Life's Health Care Options Praised

As use of virtual spaces steadily increases among businesses, there is a similar increase in use among those in the health care field, say researchers at the University of Toronto. Looking solely at Second Life, researchers saw a wide array of health- and illness-related activities on the rise in the virtual world.

These activities include education; training programs for physicians, nurses and medical students; an increased presence of disease-specific support and discussion groups; and fundraisers that benefit medical research (with real-world dollars going into coffers).

Daden Develops Virtual War Room

Daden Limited yesterday announced Datascape, an application it has melodramatically labeled "an information war room for the virtual world."

Datascape creates a 3D environment that allows users to zoom into maps, plot geographic data, view CCTV and webcams, plot 3D data, show slides and objects, view RSS and Twitter feeds, and analyze GPS and earth-sensing data all in a shared immersive environment.

Case Western Announces Use Of Private Second Life

Last month Linden Lab announced that 9 partners had signed on for the alpha of Second Life in a box. At the time, public partners included Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), New Media Consortium (NMC), Intel, Northrop Grumman, and IBM. Yesterday Case Western Reserve University, with help from the NMC, added its name to the list. 

Worlds.com Partners With Pearson For Educational Worlds

Worlds.com announced today that it has signed an agreement with Pearson to develop a series of virtual worlds to potentially be used within existing Pearson education programs. This isn't Pearson's first foray in to virtual worlds, but it does seem to be building out its options.

Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin told me that his company is working with a broad range of divisions within Pearson, demoing the platform and its capabilities. Current efforts range from proof of concept to prototypying with existing groups that have never developed content in the virtual worlds space to beginning the process of implementation.

University of Maryland Dental School Integrating Second Life

The University of Maryland Dental School  is one of the top-ranked dental programs in the U.S. and Canada. It's also working to be on of the most technologically advanced. The school is adopting Second Life as a training tool, letting offering students lessons in best dental hygiene practices to infection control and anatomy. It's not the only one, Case Western has also been investigating virtual worlds as a dental training tool.  Beginning this fall, though, Maryland is also going to be introducing the virtual world to all of its first-year students as part of its orientation program. 

"What we are doing is developing a 3D virtual world that we can use to engage in global outreach, teaching, and perhaps collaboration," said Carroll-Ann Trotman, BDS, MS, associate dean for Academic Affairs. "So far, it has been reasonably well received by both students and faculty. This is another tool-one of several instructional tools that faculty can have to work with. Each faculty member will approach this with their own ideas." [via University of Maryland]