Web 2.0 and SL

Initially I was going to write about the use of web 2.0 tags and repositories of SL objects e.g. SaLamander and MERLOT. Especially in comparison with the web 2.0 repository project that I work on CLAReT, which is developing an ontology/folksonomy for language teaching and learning with the input of teachers and others with expert knowledge in languages/language teaching. I was reminded of this by the article on (Yew, Jolt vol no 4 http://www.jolt.merlot.org/vol2no4/yew.htm) in comparison with my own project (http://claret.ecs.soton.ac.uk) after the comments on vocabulary and defining what terminology was, the polysemy of words and so forth. The CLAReT project is the first stage in the process of offering a formal agreed set of words to allow for a place to start, to help reduce vocabulary problems but also to allow for the creation and expansion of the learning domain too. The tags will be explorable with a concept map which would offer an interesting addition to the MERLOT/SaLamander project, which I was interested in.

I've played a lot with blogging inworld, and then thought about relationship that data can play in world too. How to interact with websites and so forth, and what role this could take pedagogically, for instance and language learning in relation to the SLURLblogging tool, posting to FLICKR and the other SL imaging site and so forth. I'm very motivated by these sorts of mashups, particularly when the content is fed back inworld.

However, what has really got me thinking today is the HUD that Mali gave me - Tiny Empires - which connects me to a network of unknown people. I find myself constantly watching the updates and am quite involved with the game. The date is now March 1183 and 6 months have passed since this morning... There is huge potential for this game to be modified to a role play or problem-based learning context, most obviously in humanities but also elsewhere. With a link to content in web 2.0 sites, and a MMRPG type interaction combined with SL simulation, there are very interesting possibilities indeed! I am motivated to find technologies that mean I don't have to leave my nice comfy virtual world too often. Particularly when everyone notices I'm lost in my browser. (Nearly as bad as being lost in my inventory, but not quite.)

Now I've just hatched my turtle Turnip, and I have to look after her like a Tamagotchi. Luckily I can check out Turnip's health via the website http://www.kunstgebaeude.de/secondlife/mypets.php?alias=you name Still in beta, but the role play possibilities are endless here too. Unfortunately, Turnip's eggmate exploded when I tried to hatch her. :)