Richard Dawkins interviews Derren Brown

These two people have qualities that I admire that are very different. Richard Dawkins has the ability to question and Derren Brown the ability to expose, yet in their work each tempers the skill in which the other excels. This is what makes this such a compelling interview. Dawkins could persist at exposing the methods and faulty reasoning of the religious extremist and Brown could question the beliefs and ideology of the tricksters and psychic fakers but each respectfully restricts within them the capacity at which the other excels. To combine the approaches and intellects of Dawkins and Brown would perhaps present the ultimate sceptic but would seem arrogant and less entertaining. The power of each of their perspectives is that the observer is free to pass judgment on the validity of their targets’ position. Rightly so, neither exposes the full severity of their skill directly. They bring down the prey whilst we devour the victim. However much of a free lunch this might seem I’m left with the feeling that I wanted to at least give some chase in the argument, to contribute in some way to the intellectual battering of the pseudo-science and this inspires me to listen to their arguments all the more.

Six sections from the interview.





Episode 3 of 6 has for some reason been taken down. I'l try to get this from elsewhere.

Second Life Viewer 2 Beta, Now Available

Very exciting! The long awaited Second Life Viewer 2 Beta is now available. It’s the ‘web on prim’ every developer has been talking about for years. Content creators can now place Web pages, video, Flash content, and other web media, onto any surface in Second Life. For educationalists this means a qualitatively different way is now possible to access content. Seemingly, a server can now push pages directly into the virtual world on any prim surface. We should see a new level of educational and experimentation developments from this breakthrough upgrade to the Second Life viewer. Check out the official video below for more information. Improvements include:

• A browser-like navigation bar with forward and back buttons. You can even save favourites and review your teleport history.
• A sliding right-hand panel that surfaces the most frequently-used features and makes managing your profile, contacts, groups, landmarks, inventory, and appearance easy.
• Improved Search, powered by Google Search Appliance technology, makes it easier to find friends, places, and cool stuff to buy.
• A superior alternative to invisiprims for non-human avatars. In Viewer 2, a new wearable type, called Alpha Masks, allow you to "mask out" parts of your base avatar to make entire body parts disappear.
• And, you'll enjoy the new contextual help to help you acclimate to the new viewer experience.

We’ll be testing the possibilities and will blog updates here.

Download the beta viewer here: http://www.secondlife.com/beta-viewer

UPDATE 24/2/10: This latest offering looks pretty nasty even for a beta version. The user interface is unintuitive and lacks commonly used functions previously at hand. The graphics engine seems to have been modified in some way as Viewer 2 has crashed every PC I've used it on so far. There doesn't seem to be a way in 'Preferences' to use full screen and even on the lowest settings produces lock-ups on stable high-end systems. Many of the promised features are troublesome or not as claimed as well, according to community feedback so far. Given time I think this could be a success but those familiar with the most recent 1.x viewers or favorite third party viewers won't be moving over to this version until the many glitches have been ironed out.

Using Virtual Worlds to Learn About This One

This guest post is contributed by Pamelia Brown, who writes for the blog associate degree. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: pamelia.brown@gmail.com.

Second Life has already proven to be a valuable way to teach psychology students to diagnose mental health ailments and interact with avatars that can mimic real-world problems. But virtual psychology isn't the only area being utilized by the program.

The University of Arkansas is using Second Life to design model hospitals that might one day be used to guide the layout and building of real-world counterparts. Spearheaded by Dr. Craig Thompson of the computer science and engineering department and Dr. Fran Hagstrom of the rehabilitation, human resources and communication disorders department, the movement seeks to use a Second Life hospital as a way to track and monitor the hundreds of hypothetical situations that face real doctors and nurses every day. For instance, the SL hospital could be used to monitor how inventory is used and how storage closets are designed for nurses and aides. That's the kind of thing that would be expensive and almost impossible to measure in the real world, but the cost-free SL hospital only needs the investment of time before its results can yield dividends.

Similarly, Arkansas State University bought a chunk of land (digital islands cost real-world cash) to re-create its campus online and teach a variety of classes including art history. The methods used are similar to the ones I've noted when it comes to teaching psychology: By pushing students to create situations they'd face in the real world, they wind up with a better understanding of the concepts.

These are just the beginnings of what it will mean to teach via a virtual world, but it's clear that the future of the field is a bright one.

Best Practices in Virtual Worlds Teaching Guide 2.0 now available

Our Best Practices in Virtual Worlds Teaching Guide produced by University of Derby and Aston University in collaboration and funding from the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network and JISC is now available in soft and hard copy. The guide features tips and advice on setting up teaching in virtual worlds using problem-based learning methods. It’s designed primarily for those teaching Psychology, humanities and the social sciences but will be useful to anyone starting out teaching using virtual worlds.

It is available as a free download at the project website http://previewpsych.org or direct from this link http://previewpsych.org/BPD2.0.pdf

 

Virtual World Watch: Surveying virtual world use in UK universities and colleges

Virtual World Watch features the latest UK teaching and learning activities in virtual worlds, they use a series of Snapshot surveys from across UK higher education establishments to gain insight into the actual use of virtual worlds such as Second Life for teaching and learning. Access the web page and download the regular reports here: http://virtualworldwatch.net/

Virtual World Watch is funded by Eduserv. The research is being carried out by John Kirriemuir.


Virtual World Watch maintains a presence on the following social networks.
Facebook: A Facebook group, Virtual World Watch, for occasional news and picture updates, as well as providing a comment forum for HE/FE virtual world users.
Flickr: The Flickr group Virtual World use in UK Education is a place where people can upload and share screen images of their SL installation. Please read and follow the instructions for consistent tagging of images.
Twitter: Short news and other updates (140 characters or less) are provided by the Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/V_World_Watch.