1. Virtual Worlds in Government Virtual Worlds in Languages Paulette Robinson, PhD National Defense University “A global learning community for government’s most promising information leaders.”

2. Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds  History  Purpose  Working groups  Communication channels  Federal Virtual Worlds Events http://www.ndu.edu/irmc/fedconsortium.html

3. IRM College Second Life Government Center Welcome Center Crisis Center Conference Center - 60 Meeting Rooms 25 Auditorium for 220 (in June 08)

4. Benefits of Virtual Worlds  Collaboration from anywhere  Teleworking  Collaborative work projects  Education and Training  Synchronous Communication  Text chat  Voice  Body Movements  Bloghub.com  3-D representation of objects  Avatar personalization  Presence and Transference  Can be fun

5. Challenges of Virtual Worlds  Emerging Technology  Learning Curve: Movement and actions are not intuitive  Security  Avatar level  Network level  Content  Cost of development  Ability to share content  Worlds are not interoperable  Identity  Privacy

6. Areas of Virtual World Use 1.Information Delivery (e.g., NOAA, NASA, CDC) 2.Meetings (IRM College Government Center) 3.Education and Training 4.Prototyping (facilities) 5.Analytical spaces (individual and group)

7. Types of Virtual Worlds  Over 100 virtual worlds in existence  Most common in the government  Second Life  Forterra (built on Olive platform)  Active Worlds  Qwak (build on Open Source Croquet platform)  Nexus (National Guard)  RFI—NASA (new world on the horizon)  RFP—Air Force MyBase

8. Forterra Worlds

9. Active Worlds

10. Places to Learn Languages in SL http://languagelab.com/en/

11. Place to Learn English Language  http://www.avatarlanguages.com http://www.avatarlanguages.com  http://slenglish.com (free) http://slenglish.com Avatar Languages SL English

12. Resources for Teaching Languages in SL  SL Languages Conference (http://www.slanguages.net/home.php)http://www.slanguages.net/home.php  http://SLEnglish.com http://SLEnglish.com  http://www.Bloghub.com http://www.Bloghub.com

13. Questions???? Paulette Robinson Asst Dean for Teaching, Learning & Technology Information Resources Management College National Defense University Washington DC robinsonp@ndu.edu 202-685-3891