Training Tech Solutions Blog

At Claudia L’Amereaux’s cool keynote today, we watched a presentation, projected onto a screen in the lecture hall, that showed a 3D virtual world, inside of which we watched an avatar give a presentation projected onto a virtual screen, which, for a while, contained a live video feed of the presenter, back in San Francisco.

If you can unravel what that means for training, let me know, but I felt that it was a notable moment nonetheless . . . But can layers, somewhat counter-intuitively, add transparency?

As Claudia memorably mentioned, in a conference call you might just stare at the phone—but certainly your eyes could be doing something more. Can adding a layer to a mundane meeting, an extra step of a computer screen and an active avatar, help understanding, engagement, and maybe retention?

Maybe. But other possibilities are more obvious (and exciting). Claudia spoke of Ceasefire Island, the Second Life replication of real low-income Chicago neighborhoods to help train ex-gang members to diffuse violence. And I was talking to presenter John Walber, who described an insurance company putting Second Life to good use by building a virtual, damaged house to train their insurance adjustors with (real) virtual practice.

- Kris Stokes

Here a few interesting links Claudia mentioned:

Second Life Education Wiki: http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

Second Life Educators mailing list: https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators

Professional Educators and Trainers of Second Life group: http://groups.google.com/group/petsl

IBM Keynote at Best Practices in Education Second Life Conference: http://slcn.tv/bpe-chuck-hamilton-and-holly-stewart