Update

Another quick update, there really is so much in the works at the moment it’s hard to go through it all. In brief;

- We are close to completing our ACTIVITY/EDUCATION/RESEARCH framework, which plugs directly into the desired outcomes in the Vichealth framework. This will also allow us to form partnerships in all three areas. To summarise what is happening in those areas;

- Activities

We have a range of activities planned which address many of the individual intermediate outcomes in the Vichealth framework, as well as educating people up to the point where they can truly immerse themselves in this new environment and express themselves.

We are talking to the City of Melbourne about working on the Future Melbourne project with them, something we did quite successfully with TAFE students this year as a trial. The results of this can be seen at http://www.melbourne2051.com. We will also be teaming up with Skoolaborate, a preexisting international Teen Second Life community which has many group activities(international schools are collaborating to build everything on the islands, including several we are taking in.)

- Education

We are piloting the program at a Northern School over the coming weeks after testing a lot of the lessons all year in classes at Vic Uni as well as at the Western school.

Now that we have a clear curriculum of activities we are in a position to match them directly with the desired learning outcomes in these schools.

There are at least two more schools willing to take part in the program, and more who are enquiring, I don’t think too many schools would be saying no at the moment.

I also have a meeting with an educational partnership group who may be interested in assisting us to extend the program to other schools.

- Research

Dr John is working on researching our activities, as well as the methods of research. The framework we have built will allow us to also get a lot of other researchers involved across a variety of areas, all supporting each other. We have very considerable interest in this area, and several meetings over the coming week.