Tim Wang's eLearning Blog

Julian posted this video on his blog over the weekend and it is quite funny to watch. It's a demonstration of the Second Life avatars and social networking behaviors using first life avatars. Make sure you turn on your speak, it makes a bit more sense with the SL sound effects. :)

Julian points out that the virtual communications in the massive multi-user 3D world are some what limited due to the mis-leading avatar figures. This is an interesting point. When we introduce SL to faculty members, we often say, "it's not a game, it's a simulation". But is it really? A simulation suppose to be an imitation of some real thing, but the avatars in SL reminds me too much of the game Sim...

He also points out that the Croquet SDK offers developers an opportunity to change whatever they need about the way people are represented with virtual environments. It looks like people at the University of Minnesota are working on some interesting Croquet Avatar R&D, would love to find out more about their development.