A Virtual Learning Community for UT Arlington
Beginning September 1, 2011, UT Arlington in Second Life became the UT Arlington College of Nursing in Second Life. Look for exciting developments in nursing education utilizing virtual worlds for simulations, collaboration, research and distance learning through the coming year!
September 2010
Thanks to generous support from Dr. Donald Bobbitt, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs; Dr. Gerald Saxon, Dean of the Library; Prof. Elizabeth Poster, Dean of Nursing; and Prof. Beth Wright, Dean of Liberal Arts, the UT Arlington Second Life project will continue through the 2010-2011 academic year.
Planned for Spring 2011:
- Collaboration with UT Brownsville to create a variety of roleplaying simulations for Criminal Justice students
- Exploring beyond Second Life:
- Open Simulator based hosting and sim development with interconnectivity through the Hypergrid protocol
Planned for Fall 2010:
- Carnival of Knowledge - an interactive environment with carnival-style games to learn information literacy skills
- The College of Nursing Genomics Journal Club resumes meeting in Second Life on September 9, 2010
- Collaborating with the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the MD Anderson Cancer Center to create an ER simulation for nursing and medical education
- Collaborating with the MD Anderson Cancer Center to develop a community building program for nursing students and newly graduated nurses to support their entry into the workforce
September 2009
The UT System, through its Transforming Undergraduate Education initiative, has provided all UT System institutions the opportunity to extend their campuses beyond their physical boundaries in a new way: through the virtual world of Second Life.
The Building Immersive Instructional Experiences and Learning Communities in Second Life project has funded the initial infrastructure - the rest is up to us!
What do we have?
- 3 Second Life islands dedicated to UT Arlington
- Spaces for classes or small groups to meet
- 4 small auditoriums and 1 large auditorium for lectures or other presentations
- A Welcome Center featuring information about the campus
- Space for a gallery or other exhibition, with adjoining café and two conference rooms
- Available space for individual faculty, staff, students, or UTA groups to have offices, meeting space, or a spot to call home
- A "Sandbox" for individuals or groups to practice Second Life building skills or to work on collaborative projects
- A Second Life Orientation area, to help you learn how to use Second Life
- As yet undeveloped space, so there is room to grow for additional uses
What can we do?
- Have a group project to work on? Meet in Second Life instead of driving to campus on a Saturday afternoon
- Practice language skills with real native speakers in re-creations of real world locales relevant to the language and culture being learned
- Build to-scale 3D models of your architectural designs that you and your collaborators can walk through with your avatars
- Present your digital or digitized art in a 3D environment, broadening your audience beyond current geographical limits
- Realize your creative vision using Second Life tools, enabling you to present works that might not be possible or practical with physical materials
- Design and conduct research projects
- Design 3D interactive simulations to provide additional learning experiences for your students
- Host meetings with geographically distributed participants where everyone feels fully present, without travel and without the "talking head" experience of video-conferencing
- More ideas? Contact us!
What people are saying:
- Students meet up online (page 1, 8) - The Shorthorn, November 8, 2010
- The 33 News features the UT Arlington College of Nursing, September 8, 2010
- UT System Conference to held entirely in virtual world (page 1, 3) - The Shorthorn, June 16, 2010
- Second Life gets second chance (page 1, 6) - The Shorthorn, March 25, 2010
- Commute from bed to the Web (page 4) - The Shorthorn, Sept 29, 2009
- Online class enters virtual world (page 1, 3) - The Shorthorn, Sept 23, 2009
- U. of Texas System Buys Land in Second Life - The Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept 15, 2009
- The First Statewide Rollout of a Virtual World Learning Environment: The University of Texas System in Second Life - Second Life Blog (Linden Lab), Sept 15, 2009
Want to learn more? Wondering how to do any of the above? Let us know! We can make it happen!
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Nursing Education Events
Jan 16, 2013 Workshop: "Meaningful Use" more info
NBC 5 TV - "Learning in a Virtual World"
UTACON in SL grant and research activities
