I remember a little over two years ago, when I discovered how immersive virtual worlds could be, how I said to my wife that I would really like to teach kids about this type of stuff. Well this summer, I had the opportunity to do just that. A couple of weeks ago I held my first class in a virtual world other than Quest Atlantis…for kids younger than 18 anyhow. It was extremely exciting and the students who attended my class (7 of them) were extremely engaged and learned a ton. I never imagined myself as a type of person who would teach a computer camp, but that is exactly what I have become. The kids learned to navigate through, build, and communicate in an opensim environment. Several of them also started getting into the scripting process and began designing some amazing things. I will be lucky to be working with a couple of the students this year on some STEM projects and truly look forward to what they will be creating.
Those thank you’s are for my good friend, Joanna Kay, a fantastic teacher/web-designer from Wollongong, Aus, who stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to work with my students and deal with any crashing issues that we would experience over the week we spent on the Island of Montana in Jokaydiagrid. I ran the class through a local college of technology as our school district is not yet ready for the new challenges working in an opensim environment presents. I think that one of my teachers, Sebby, might be in charge of making them ready. Below are pictures from camp.
