Well then, it sure has been an exciting year in 2008 for me. I have built several blogs, learned amazing things about the realms of Virtual Reality, found many new online games to explore, and so much more! I am really looking forward to the many adventures that await me in 2009… this will certainly be a year that will take us all to a whole new level and heights in excitement with developing technologies.

I would like to end this years posting with a place I find totally fascinating, and which I cannot wait to find out more. Here one can find one of the web’s most powerful Virtual Reality experiences, which lets us visit and chat in incredible 3D worlds that are built by other users. Do you think you have what it takes to build your own world or Virtual Reality game? If so, then Active Worlds may possibly be the place for you, where in minutes you can create fascinating 3D worlds in which others can visit. The Active Worlds Universe is a community of hundreds of thousands of users who chat and build 3D virtual reality environments in millions of square kilometers of virtual territory.

What can you do in Active Worlds?

* Build your own 3D virtual reality home on the Internet
* Shop online in our own 3D virtual reality mall and chat with store clerks
* Explore over 1000 unique virtual worlds
* Make new friends and chat with people from all over the globe
* Play interactive 2D and 3D games
* Choose from a vast range of avatar identities and chat with other avatars.

Virtual Education

Active Worlds has an Educational Universe for those who wish to add a whole new level to their teaching and learning experience. Since the inception of the Active Worlds technology, it has been a hit with teachers around the world. From architecture departments to science labs to ThinkQuest projects, Active Worlds has been adding new dimensions to learning for over four years.

In response to the growing demand from educators, Activeworlds Inc. launched The Active Worlds Educational Universe (AWEDU). The AWEDU is a unique educational community that makes the Active Worlds technology available to educational institutions, teachers, students, and individual programs in a focused setting. Via this community, educators are able to explore new concepts, learning theories, creative curriculum design, and discover new paradigms in social learning.

The technologies being created and shared here are simply amazing! I had so much fun in 2008, and I have a pretty strong feeling that 2009 will bring many new concepts and Virtual Worlds to play in.

May you step forth into a fruitful future with many exciting moments, and true friends to help Light your Path.

Teri
~

I am still trying to find the time to get my daughter going with SecretBuilders. We keep finding new games and worlds to check out, and there simply isn’t enough time in the day! Anyhow, I really like the mission and the looks of this Virtual World for kids, and as it comes highly recommended I am going to pass along a piece of news…

SecretBuilders, the educational kids world that launched earlier this month, announced a partnership today with the Huffington Post to encourage kids to sound off to President-Elect Obama. SecretBuilders emphasizes activities like creating drawings or artwork and writing essays, and the new contest asks kids to submit a letter and picture to Obama. The winning entry will be featured on the Huffington Post on Presidents Day with runners up featured on Slate and Gamezebo and added to CNN’s iReport. The winner will also receive $500 cash and $500 to donate to charity or a school.

Kids can visit a themed environment for interaction and click on an avatar of Arianna Huffington to visit her virtual home, which features contest-related activities. The contest is also supported by KidZui, Art in Action, Wild Planet Toy Company, Naseeb Networks, and Stone Soup magazine.

As always, I am happy to hear peoples thoughts on this and other great Virtual Worlds you have experienced or wish to check out. Have a virtually great moment!

Ah, I love Wintertime! What a great time to spread some holiday cheer. We are experiencing an unusual amount of snow here in Portland, Oregon, and what fun we are having! We are not used to having so much of the white stuff right outside our front door, and so this is a delightfully special treat for us. Playing in the snow is one of our favourite outdoor activities, and not having to drive all the way to the mountain to find it is a wonderful blessing. Luckily for us we had already stocked up on groceries, and most of our Holiday shopping was either online, or pretty much taken care of before the snow decided to come drifting our way.

Even though I have the pleasure and convenience to work independently from my own home, I am always delighted to recieve holiday cards and birthday cards from the various businesses I associate with. This personalization serves to remind me of them, and is quite endearing. So I love to pass along great tips and ideas of places to find special and elegant selections of greeting cards for my business friends.

So if you are here visiting my Virtual space today, and are in need of a fresh place to gather some Corporate Holiday Cards, then please consider a visit to GalleryCollection.com to find a great selection of personalized greeting cards for all occasions. I really like the style and elegance of the cards I have browsed through thus far, and was quite enchanted with the Museum Art Masterpiece collection of cards. I love Old World art, and I found much to satisfy my great sense of art and beauty to satisfy my particular tastes. They even carry assortment boxes, and from what I can see, these would come in very handy throughout the year as they are quite lovely.

GalleryCollection.com is a leader in the greeting card industry, and they are helping spread a little christmas cheer by sponsoring f*r*e*e downloads of the Charles Dicken’s “Christmas Carol” on the Daily Lit.com. What is the Daily Lit, one might ask? Well, it is a Digital book store where we can take the virtual route and read our favourite literature online. DailyLit lets you read entire books in short, customized installments sent to you by email or RSS. Now this is virtually cool!

As the parent of a ‘tween, I am pretty stoked when I learn of new Virtual projects and Worlds which are not only interactive, yet provide education of the world around us in the process. We are totally into the Earth and Nature as well. What more can one ask for, than to enter a magically colourful Virtual World that brings us more than just loads of fun? This world appears to fit into my high standards of online safety, to ensure only the best experience whilst our children enjoy exploring and adventuring to their hearts content.

So of course, when I hear the news, I love to pass the information along to my fellow Virtual travelers. Here is what I discovered today…

Good Egg Studio announced today the open beta of Elf Island, a  virtual world designed to teach good social and environmental values to tweens. The world offers the typical games, customization, and social elements of virtual worlds but is setting itself apart through “Mirrored Gaming,” or quests that ask users to complete activities in the virtual world that are mirrored in the real world. The first, a project with Habitat for Humanity International, lets users build virtual houses that mirror the construction of houses in Honduras.

The Founders of Elf Island

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and with good reason. Elf Island is the brainchild of a dynamic husband and wife team, Craig and Liz Kronenberger, who decided to blend their entrepreneurial spirit with their philanthropic passions.

As the parents of twin boys, Craig and Liz noticed a glaring lack of redeeming and socially responsible games in a virtual environment for kids. Prompted to act, in June 2007 the Kronenbergers created the first virtual world dedicated to harnessing the power of fun to help kids develop positive values and empower them to make a difference. The couple coined the phrase “Gaming for Good, TM” connecting the online world to the real world.

As pioneers in the virtual and communications worlds, Craig and Liz previously co-founded Spunky Productions, a consumer kids and family entertainment digital media company. At Spunky they worked on several campaigns including “Harry Potter,” the online music release of Ê”The Wiggles,” the exclusive launch of the online campaign for the home video release of Universal Studio’s “The Grinch,” starring Jim Carrey, and the online game launch of “CapComÕs MegaMan” and “Viewtiful Joe.” It was there that Liz and Craig co-created “Claus.com,” which they sold in 2000. “Claus.com” was the number one kid’s Christmas site when it was under their direction.

Armed with the creativity, the tremendous knowledge of the dynamic virtual worlds that captivate youth, the extensive advertising and marketing experience, and the proven business acumen, this dynamic duo is now channeling their passions into Elf Island. Craig, as the President of operations, is lead visionary for bringing this youth-oriented web site to life, while Liz spearheads the marketing and non-profit arm of the company. Of course, all the while, their young sons have been their inspiration.

A few weeks ago I was directed towards a place for young humans to adventure and build as they nurtured their imaginations. Visit a land full of magic, and learn enchanting new things about the world around us. You can even do fun activities to help earn money for your school… how cool is that?

What is SecretBuilders?

SecretBuilders is a virtual world for children 5 to 14 years old (children of all ages are most welcome) powered by a web 2.0 community of children, parents, educators, writers, artists and game developers. On SecretBuilders, children will explore virtual lands, undertake quests, play games, maintain a home, nurture a pet, and interact with their friends. Children will also be able to publish and share their writings and artwork with each other and have tons of fun doing it all!

Here are Three unique features which distinguish Secret Builders from other online children’s sites and gaming places:

Children will be the creators and not just consumers. They will help build this world with their ideas, critiques and contributions. We will directly solicit their input on building out lands, contests, activities, games and features, and in many cases, they will see an immediate implementation of their ideas and suggestions. This world, which is for them, will be created by them.

Children will be exposed to concepts in science, math and the humanities through games, quests, contests and “conversations” with the historical figures that populate this online world. They will be introduced in fun, subtle ways such that they won’t even know they’ve learned a piece of history, a famous line from literature or something about philosophy. SecretBuilders is not meant to be an educational site but through immersion in activities, quests and games their school education will be enriched.

Children will exercise the creative spirit present in each child through many art- and writing-based activities, all of which will be maintained in an online library to be visited again and again. They will be able to participate in a variety of writing contests, maintain blogs and diaries, create artwork, produce photo/video items as well as discuss and interact on works published by someone else. This ability to publish their own works as well as see and comment on that of others creates a vibrant, dynamic community that will enhance other creative classroom activities.

Final Notes – Wow, it seems to me that SecretBuilders carries all the criteria for a fun AND educational Virtual World for children. Of course, I love to play too, so I am certain my daughter and I will have many hours of enjoyment with this one. We have not yet ventured forth into this Magical land, yet you can be certain that we will be most happy to update our findings and pass them along.

If you would like to venture forth into a fantastic place, visit SecretBuilders and let me know what you think! If you are already an avid builder, I would love to hear from you as well. What is your favourite aspect of this world? Do you have some good stories to share about your exciting quests and gameplay? Who are your favourite famous people in whom you have discovered? Please feel free to share!

This is a good day for me! My youngest son decided to get me an early Christmas present… ‘Warhammer Online’!! Okay, so I get excited over new online games. I am certain I have mentioned on this blog how much I LOVE Dark Age of Camelot, so it is an easy guess to figure out how happy I would be to get my hot little hands on this long awaited MMORPG created by the genius of Mythic Entertainment.

Well, I only just downloaded the game, so I cannot rave, errr… comment on my gaming experience as of yet. This will come soon enough, that is certain. For now I will just say that I have entered the game with absolutely no problems, glitches, or other ugly things happening, such as lagggg. Everything looks great, and the game play is different from DAOC, and quite colourful and enchanting.

I will of course be fixing the settings to my own personal preference, and I LOVE how the chat can be set to fade away for when I am feeling the bug to venture out alone with little distractions. Don’t get me wrong, I love to socialize, yet some days I am a solo hunter just out looking for adventurous quests to challenge my intellect and hunting prowess. And since I am an avid roleplayer, I will be joining a roleplaying server to get the most out of my experience.

Well then, better get to it. I am too excited to put it off any longer, so I will promise to keep folks posted on my adventurous activities and magically dangerous quests as they unfold!