NMC reveals plans to triple size of Second Life Campus in 8 weeks

Last night after the opening meeting of the new Science Group at the equally new Science Center I received an invitation to a press conference on NMC campus where they unveiled the detailed plans for their extension.

NMC are really doing some fabulous work bringing educators and other knowledge transfer professionals into Second Life with all the necessary life support mechanisms (from teaching avatars to sit the right way round on a chair to how to bring images in from Flick’r). Larry Johnson (Pixel in SL) said that the current campus supports a total population of around 1000 avatars – so the expanded Campus is virtually a necessity as SL continues to expand.

I was chatting with a very busy person who remarked that NMC are enabling the recommendations made by leading educational psychologist, Dr John Bransford in a recent SL presentation to permit one researcher to build on the work of others or to get credit for working as a team – something, incidentally, that is commonplace in scientific disciplines like particle physics and astronomy. Dr Bransford is the Director of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Science of Education Center called Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE).

Here is my picture of NMC’s new campus model. Congratulations to Hiro Pendragon and Infinite Vision Media on winning the contract.