Virtual Worlds, Avatars, free 3D chat, online meetings - Second Life Official Site Friendbar - The Twitter and Facebook Toolbar Virtual world language learning Virtual worlds are playing an increasingly important role in education, especially in language learning. By March 2007 it was estimated that over 200 universities or academic institutions were involved in Second Life (Cooke-Plagwitz, p. 548).[1] Joe Miller, Linden Lab Vice President of Platform and Technology Development, claimed in 2009 that "Language learning is the most common education-based activity in Second Life".[2] Many mainstream language institutes and private language schools are now using 3D virtual environments to support language learning. History[edit] Virtual worlds date back to the adventure games and simulations of the 1970s, for example Colossal Cave Adventure, a text-only simulation in which the user communicated with the computer by typing commands at the keyboard. Three-dimensional virtual worlds such as Traveler and Active Worlds, both of which appeared in the 1990s, were the next important development. The 3D world of Second Life was launched in 2003.
Metaverse Roadmap: Pathways to the 3D Web Kurrently - A real-time search engine for Facebook and Twitter. Hot Potatoes The Hot Potatoes software suite includes five applications that can create exercises for the World Wide Web. The applications are JCloze, JCross, JMatch, JMix and JQuiz. There is also a sixth application called The Masher, that will compile all the Hot Potatoes exercises into one unit. Hot Potatoes was created by the Research and Development team at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre. Commercial aspects of the software are handled by Half-Baked Software Inc. Hot Potatoes has been freeware since October 2009. Hot Potatoes was first released in version 2.0 in September 1998, at the EuroCALL conference in Leuven, Belgium. References[edit] Stewart Arneil and Martin Holmes (1998). Stewart Arneil and Martin Holmes (1999). Stewart Arneil and Martin Holmes (2001). Stewart Arneil and Martin Holmes (2003). Stewart Arneil and Martin Holmes (2004). Stewart Arneil and Martin Holmes (2008). External links[edit]
Artificial General Intelligence in Second Life Virtual worlds are the golden path to achieving Artificial General Intelligence and positive Singularity, Dr Ben Goertzel’s, CEO of Novamente LLC and author of “The Hidden Pattern: A Patternist Philosophy of Mind” explained in his presentation “Artificial General Intelligence in Virtual Worlds” given at the Singularity Summit 2007 earlier this month. According to Goertzel, Singularity is no longer a far future idea. About a year ago Goertzel gave a talk “Ten Years to a Positive Singularity — If We Really, Really Try.” The slide that opens this post was in Goerzel’s presentation. It depicts an Archailect, Archai from the Orion’s Arm science-fiction world — a mega scale brain, “sophont or sophont cluster that has grown so vast as to become a god-like entity.” What is singularity? Harnessing the wisdom of crowds in the quintessential rapid prototyping environment for embodied virtual agents — Second Life – may well turn Artificial General Intelligence into an idea with traction.
The CIA Open Source Center Tracks the Pulse of the World Through Facebook & Twitter The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has a crack group of analysts tracking the Internet, including tweets and Facebook messages, that takes the pulse of the world. Located in McLean, Virginia analysts at the CIA Open Source Center are known as the "vengeful librarians" according to a report from the Associated Press. It is sometimes disconcerting to know what the U.S. intelligence complex is doing, right in your backyard. Open Source Center Set Up After 9/11 The CIA facility was set up after a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission. The Green Revolution in Iran in 2009 was when social media like Facebook and Twitter really came to the forefront of the center's analysts. The U.S. media does much of the same thing, albeit on a much smaller scale. (Disclosure: I worked for TBD.com at the time and was in the newsroom during the Discovery Building news. Tracking Facebook, Citizens, The World Facebook has been long accused of having secret ties to the CIA.
Self access language learning centers Self access language learning centers are educational facilities designed for student learning that is at least partially, if not fully self-directed. Students have access to resources ranging from photocopied exercises with answer keys to computer software for language learning. These centers are an outgrowth of a style of learning that can go by several names: learner-centered approach, learner autonomy or self-directed learning. These centers exist primarily in Asia, Europe and North America. Use of such facilities and the pedagogical theory they are based upon has its advantages and disadvantages. Proper use can result in a feeling of empowerment and better learning outcomes, but getting to the point where students and teachers can exploit them effectively can be problematic. Definition[edit] Self access language learning promotes the approach where students study independently choosing from among different resources that are available. Examples of self-access centers[edit]
Second Earth This version of the story contains additional content that was not published in the print edition of the magazine. This bonus content appears in special boxes found throughout the story. The print version of the story can be found here. A thunderhead towers at knee level, throwing tiny lightning bolts at my shoes. I’m standing–rather, my avatar is standing–astride a giant map [SLurl] of the continental United States, and southern Illinois, at my feet, is evidently getting a good April shower. The weather is nicer on the East Coast: I can see pillowy cumulus clouds floating over Boston and New York, a few virtual meters away. The red polka dots over Phoenix and Los Angeles indicate a hot day, as I would expect. Once you've downloaded the appropriate software from Second Life and Google Earth, many locations mentioned in this story can be accessed using special links in the copy. “Any clue why this dot is blue?” “Let me check something,” Manbi/Corbin responds.
The Most Complete Twitter Application List Available - 2011 Edition I believe this is the best, most complete and accurate list of valuable Twitter applications available on the internet right now. To be fair, I absolutely have merged and plagiarized other older and outdated lists that I found (the larger ones are credited below). However, I spent a good deal of time to clean out the dead applications, delete the apps that were overly quirky or being developed, focus more on the apps that increase productivity, and add in many of the new great apps that have come out over the past six months - particularly in the productivity / business apps section where my primary interest lies. I have also tagged the tools that cost money / have a premium option ($) as well as if they have a valuable free option (F/$). Finally, while application selection can be a personal thing, I tagged my favorite app (*) in each category. Simple Web Based Clients and Twitter Viewing Tools Twitter.com (*): Can't go wrong with this -- web, iPhone, etc. Track The Latest Trends and Tags
Input hypothesis The input hypothesis, also known as the monitor model, is a group of five hypotheses of second-language acquisition developed by the linguist Stephen Krashen in the 1970s and 1980s. Krashen originally formulated the input hypothesis as just one of the five hypotheses, but over time the term has come to refer to the five hypotheses as a group. The hypotheses are the input hypothesis, the acquisition–learning hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis, the natural order hypothesis and the affective filter hypothesis. The hypotheses put primary importance on the comprehensible input (CI) that language learners are exposed to. Krashen's hypotheses have been influential in language education, particularly in the United States, but have received criticism from some academics. Outline[edit] The five hypotheses that Krashen proposed are as follows: The input hypothesis. The comprehensible input hypothesis can be restated in terms of the natural order hypothesis. Corollaries of the input hypothesis[edit]
Les 7 bifurcations de la Réalité virtuelle (3/3) : Hommes, machines et jeux Par Rémi Sussan le 19/01/10 | 5 commentaires | 2,745 lectures | Impression Fin 2007, Rémi Sussan nous offrait une passionnante plongée dans les Mondes virtuels qui a donné lieu à publication d’un livre aux éditions Fyp : Demain, les mondes virtuels. Avec les 7 bifurcations de la Réalité virtuelle, Rémi Sussan s’essaye à une mise à jour du sujet. L’occasion de regarder, ce qui a évolué, ce qui n’a pas bougé. Reprenez votre avatar, nous retournons dans les mondes virtuels ! (3e partie) Les humains contre les machines L’homme n’est pas seul dans les mondes virtuels. Il y a une autre façon de voir l’opposition entre être humain et machines ou programmes. Le premier exemple est celui de la sociologie artificielle. L’autre voie consiste à étudier les mondes virtuels traditionnels, peuplés d’êtres humains revêtus de leur avatar. Se pose bien sûr l’éternelle confusion de la carte et du territoire. Paideia contre Ludus La mésaventure d’Edward Castronova est exemplaire à cet égard. Rémi Sussan
Conditions générales de mystification Écrites en petits caractères et dans un jargon peu accessible : ce sont les magnifiques "conditions générales d'utilisation" (CGU). Que nous avons ici cartographiées. Un monde de combines et d'hypocrisie. Dans les séries américaines, on lit leurs droits avant toute chose aux personnes interpellées par la police. Les CGU (Conditions Générales d’Utilisation) ou ToS en anglais (Terms of Service), ce sont ces pages interminables, écrites en petits caractères et dans un jargon juridique difficilement accessible au commun des mortels, que nous acceptons généralement sans les lire en cochant une case. Pour nous aider à y voir clair dans cette jungle des CGU, OWNI publie cette semaine une infographie (voir aussi au bas de l’article) analysant les conditions d’utilisation de quatre géants du Web : Google, Facebook, Twitter et Apple. CGU : à prendre ou à laisser ? De telles actions collectives ont déjà été couronnées de succès dans le passé. Nul n’est censé ignorer la loi (même les CGU…)