View this tutorial to learn how to enable gestures for your avatar. From waving hello to acting confused, to showing your dance moves, you can use the gestures inventory to bring your avatar to life!

View this tutorial to learn how to apply a texture to one or more sides of an object. It’s a simple way to add depth and realstic features to an object.

We are very excited to announce that we are to run a free webinar series aimed at educators on the area of Game Based Learning. To this end we have partnered with the leaders in research in GBL in this country, the Game Based Learning Research Group based in Waterford Institute of Technology, led by Dr. Patrick Felicia, PhD.  Patrick is a passionate believer in the potential use of GBL principles in classroom settings and has a wealth of experience in research in this area. He is the author of Digital Games in Schools – A Handbook for Teachers.

Our first webinar, Game Based Learning – An Introduction, is scheduled for Thursday, August 18th at 7.00pm and will be run through the global educators’ network, Learncentral.org..  During this webinar, Patrick will be introducing the concept of Game-based best backlinks indexer Learning, explain how it can be employed in instructional settings, and provide practical information on how to harness this engaging medium.  For more details and to register with Learncentral for this event click here or send if you would like to attend the whole series please forward your email address to webinars@missionv.ie.

Bio: Dr. Patrick Felicia

Patrick Felicia, PhD, is a lecturer, course leader and researcher at Waterford Institute of Technology, where he teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students. He obtained his MSc in Multimedia Technology in 2003 and PhD in Computer Science in 2009 from University College Cork, Ireland.

Patrick has a keen interest in the design and development of engaging educational multimedia-based application for secondary and third level. He is specialized in Game-Based Learning, Multimedia, Educational Psychology, and Instructional Design.

He is Editor-In-Chief of the International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL) and has also served on program committees for international Game-Based Learning and Technology-Enhanced Learning conferences and journals.

Patrick is currently conducting research in the fields of adaptive educational games and user profiling in video games. He is also investigating the factors that may facilitate or prevent the integration of GBL in primary, secondary and third-level education.

In addition to his research on GBL, he also focuses on promoting best practices for GBL amongst educationalists (e.g., keynotes and workshops), a task he believes is crucial for a wider understanding and acceptance of GBL.

Follow Patrick on Twitter. and on his GBL blog.

View this tutorial to learn how to program objects in Opensim using Scratch to add interactivity to your virtual world.

View this tutorial to learn how to link objects in order to manipulate them as  a unit.

View this tutorial to learn how to add a script to your object in Opensim, great for adding interactivity to your objects.

View this tutorial to learn how to make “floating” signage to direct visitors around your virtual world.

Last week, the Irish Symposium on Game-Based Learning (iGBL) was held at Waterford Institute of Technology. It featured over 16 presentations on Game-Based learning with a fantastic keynote presentation by Michael Hallissy of the Digital Hub. There was so much energy and commitment to change in our education system in evidence at a later round table discussion, it was totally inspiring.

Game based learning makes sense to me, I see it at home on a daily basis where amazing collaborative and highly creative learning is taking place and all through the medium of XBox live.   I see machnimas (animations) being made, stories being scripted and sets being built and all in a dymanic, virtual world setting were users can generate their own content. This is such a rich, constantly changing, multimedia environment which begs the question how can our 20th century classrooms compete?  The good news is that they don’t have to, as educators and parents we can embrace game based learning principles and use them to motivate and engage children in their own learning.

We were very pleased to be asked to take part in an Australian ICT in Education Podcast Series called the “The Ed Tech Crew“, hosted by Darrel Branson (The ICT Guy) and Tony Richards from itmadesimple.com.  We were also joined by Fred Boss, CPD Project Manager of the NCTE who gave a great account of the current state of ICT use in Irish Schools. Listen here.

If you’re interested in the use of technology in education there is a wealth of fantastic podcasts on the Ed Tech Crew’s site.