The machinima featured above does a great job of showcasing the new ExploreIt! project, opening this weekend (more info about the opening event below!).
Santa Barbara City College challenged us to figure out how to leverage the immersive capacity of a virtual environment to create an educational ‘serious game’ experience that is as engaging and fun as it is educational and inspiring to students deciding which career to pursue. I can certainly remember taking the standardized career tests in high school and deciding to pursue architecture as a career, yet I had absolutely no concept of what architecture school would actually be like, and was only dimly aware of what I needed to do in high school to prepare for it.
Students exploring the new ExploreIt! Career Academy in Second Life and OpenSim will enjoy a far more interactive and engaging experience, and will leave with a much more thorough understanding of these career choices.
ExploreIt! teleports students into an energetic beach-themed village, featuring various career-themed storefronts. Inside each space, they are invited to visit a skybox, where they are immersed in panoramic photography of the real-life classroom spaces or spaces they would be working in, should they choose that career path – photographed ‘on location’ specifically for this purpose. Each skybox features a series of interactive gadgets with professional voice-over recordings that are as entertaining as they are informative. The gadgets are augmented with lots of information and video media describing each career in further detail.
I can’t even begin to describe how much fun it was to have worked with this team on creating the Explore It! village for Santa Barbara City College.
I kept track of the project’s evolution from the very beginning, and published screenshots HERE. It was truly an exercise in cross-disciplinary collaboration, drawing upon the expertise of a wide range of professionals, and I think we came up with a fun, engaging and educational venue for students to explore career options.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sbcc%20Explore%20It/112/46/22
Funding from the ‘SB 70’ awarded to Santa Barbara City College and administered by the California Department of Education has enabled the build of the brand new ‘EXPLORE IT!’ career academy located on its own sim in Second Life.
Launching on Saturday November 6th from 11am-3pm, this truly innovative project has been designed by an all star team and will be used to teach thousands of students from junior high, high schools and colleges to explore career routes in the technical fields of multimedia, culinary arts, the automotive industry, horticulture and hospitality.
Creative scripting technology also means the ‘EXPLORE IT!’ village includes audio explaining each career, videos, interactive gadgets, plus a website with helpful information about the many different careers offered in each main career.
Watch the video at:
http://exploreit.sbcc.edu/video.html
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kQgN7pE3Ew
===================================================================================
Please join us at the opening event November 6th and discover the fun of learning in a virtual world.
Schedule of Events
11am-12pm: BOSL DJ Allenclive Beaumont
12-1pm: Live Music from HatHead Rickenbacker
1pm-2pm-Live Music from Aubryn Melody
2pm-2pm: Live Music from Bones Writer
=====================================================================================
Press Information
The creative team behind the ‘EXPLORE IT!’ project comprises:
DB Bailey (David Denton) – Architecture/ Building
Keystone Bouchard (Jon Brouchard)- Building and model construction
Desdemona Enfield – Scripting
Douglas Story (Dennis Schaefer) – Writing, interactive gadget concepts, voice-over
talent direction, photo compositing, and audio editing
Hilda Diavlo (Nina Jensen) – website development
Zil Jewell (Liz Russotti) – Grant Director
LeaLea Llewellyn(Leana Bowman) Grant writer
Chrome Underwood- Cast avatar design
Persia Bravin-Press and Promotion
=====================================================================================
What is the SB 70 Grant?
California’s SB 70 Grant is the Governor’s Initiative on improving and strengthening Career Technical Education (CTE). The ‘EXPLORE IT!’ career academy was made possible through a grant application implemented, written by and awarded to Santa Barbara City College.
More Information on the SB 70 Grant can be found at:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ct/gi/sb7007summary.asp
