Tag Archives: metaverse

ReactionGrid’s new website is up!

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After much work by the entire team, ReactionGrid’s new website is now live.

We’ve been banging away at it for many weeks now, and I’m very proud of the results.

A lot of effort was spent on both the graphic design and the information design.  It was a complete overhaul from the previous site.

Our primary goal with the new site was to have something that looked beautiful, that clearly explained what ReactionGrid does, and that gave people an immediate sense of what our Jibe platform is all about.  I think we accomplished our mission.

And it looks groovy on mobile devices, too. 😉

If you have any feedback or constructive criticism about the website’s content or design, please leave it in the comments.  Thanks!

Take care,
– John Lester
Chief Learning Officer, ReactionGrid Inc.

Video of panel on “Virtual Worlds Revisited” at the 2012 Chicago eLearning and Technology Showcase

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I  just participated in a wonderful “Virtual Worlds Revisited” panel discussion as part of the Chicago eLearning and Technology Showcase.  The panel was organized and moderated by Mike Kemmler, and participants included virtual world innovators Anders Gronstedt , Mark Jankowski and Karl Kapp.

The panel was held in Second Life, but the focus of our discussion was firmly on the future of new virtual world platforms and new modalities for immersive learning.  We were projected into the physical world meeting room in Chicago where about 30 people attended in person.  Here’s a summary:

Still deeply entrenched in Gartner’s Trough of Disillusionment, is it time to revisit virtual worlds?  Mike Kemmler hosts a virtual panel discussion via Second Life with a distinguished group of virtual world innovators, presenters, consultants, and authors, including Anders Gronstedt, Mark Jankowski, Karl Kapp, and John “Pathfinder” Lester. Panelists address the current state of learning in virtual worlds, explain platforms they see organizations using for immersive learning, and discuss current challenges and future possibilities of using virtual worlds for learning.

Thanks again, Mike, for this great opportunity.  It was an honor to be on a panel with such a stellar group of pioneers in virtual worlds and immersive learning.


NOTE: The audio from Second Life is bit choppy for the first 30 seconds, but then clears up perfectly for the rest of the video.

-John “Pathfinder” Lester

Speaking at the Academic Librarians 2012 Conference – Syracuse University, June 12-13

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I’ve been invited to attend and speak at the Academic Librarians 2012 Conference at Syracuse University from June 12-13.  This conference will be a great opportunity to connect with folks interested in building the future of immersive learning and information literacy.

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“We were here” – Discovering Footsteps in the Wilderness and Flags across the Hypergrid

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I started the Hypergrid Adventurers Club because I think the development of Hypergrid-enabled interconnectivity between Opensim grids is a beautiful and fascinating evolution.  And in my experience, if you want to help cultivate growth and innovative uses of a new technology, it’s a good idea to do whatever you can to build a supportive community around it.

Recently I noticed a very interesting phenomenon across the Hypergrid.  On regions in areas that allow visitors to build or rez objects, some people are planting flags.

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My Presentation at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology

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The Department of Computer and Information Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway is hosting a seminar this week on “Virtual Worlds & Educational Technologies.”

The seminar will be held on Wednesday April 25th from 11:00-14:00 CEST, and it’s free and open to both staff and students.  Here’s a summary of speakers and topics: Continue reading →

Hypergrid Adventurers Club visits a Myst and Uru inspired world: Devokan Trust on OSGrid

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Yesterday, the Hypergrid Adventurers Club visited OSGrid to explore Devokan Tao, the central hub of a collection of regions called Devokan Trust.

The entire area is inspired by Myst and Uru.

About 10 of us made the journey across four different grids, and you can follow in our footsteps by looking at our travel plan.

Our guide was Dot Macchi, who explained the history of the project to create a Myst/Uru inspired world built by many different people.  It’s an amazing collaborative effort.

What we found were places of such stunning artistry and subtle aesthetics that I’m at a loss for words to describe them any further.  So I’ll simply share pictures.

Thank you again, Dot, for spending so much time with us and explaining the beautiful storyline behind it all.

Continue reading →

“The effects of virtual space on learning: A literature review”

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If you’re interested in the use of virtual worlds in education and immersive learning, it’s always a challenge finding good research papers on the subject.

Which is why I was so excited today when I discovered Olle Sköld’s paper “The effects of virtual space on learning: A literature review.”

It’s a fantastic resource full of great references and summaries, and it’s also very timely (was published in Jan 2012).  Best of all, the full paper is freely accessible online.

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An Educator’s Field Trip to a Jibe Virtual World

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Marianne Riis works at the Multi-User Virtual Environments Research (MUVER) Lab at Aalborg University Copenhagen in Denmark.

She’s teaching a class focused on interpersonal Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) this spring, and recent topics have included avatar-based communication.

Marianne decided to bring her 89 student class on a field trip into my demo Jibe world.  Here’s her detailed report.

I think it’s fantastic when educators share experiences like this.  It helps educators and students learn from each other, and it also helps virtual world platform providers learn how to make their technology as useful to educators as possible.

Thank you, Marianne!

Marianne Riis and her students visit my Jibe world

-John “Pathfinder” Lester
Chief Learning Officer
ReactionGrid Inc.

Presentation at 2012 Follow the Sun: “Integrated Reality and Next Generation Virtual Worlds”

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Follow the Sun 2012 is a free online conference that runs from March 27-30.  Here’s a summary from their website:

“Digital Futures Institute, Beyond Distance Research Alliance, Athabasca University, and our commercial partners are proud to provide this year’s 48-hour, online learning festival at no charge to all participants. The theme of this year’s conference moves beyond educational technology to examine knowledge development and exchange across the disciplines.”

I’ll be giving an online presentation on Thursday March 29th at 2:30am EDT (yes, that’s 2:30am).  The topic will be “Integrated Reality and Next Generation Virtual Worlds.”

Here are my slides on SlideShare to give you a preview of what I’ll be talking about, and I’ll update this blog post with a recording of my presentation after the conference is over.

Update 3/29/2012: Here’s the recording of my presentation.

–John “Pathfinder” Lester
Chief Learning Officer
ReactionGrid Inc.

Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts – Virtual Broad Art Museum in Jibe

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The Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts (IDIA) at Ball State University is a research and design studio exploring virtual reality, simulation, games and interactive interfaces.

IDIA been commissioned to design and build a virtual presence and artworks for the upcoming Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.

And they’re building it with ReactionGrid’s Jibe platform!

For more information, check out IDIA’s project website.

–John “Pathfinder” Lester
Chief Learning Officer
ReactionGrid Inc.