Blog entries

LinguaLand Project (Language Learning in Teen SL)

Fire Centaur — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:50:32 +0100

Hi everyone!

Today I logged into the Teen grid with my Background Checked avatar - and resumed working with Helen Myers on her Lingualand Project with Skoolaborators.
Helen contacted me a few months ago to build some 3D Classrooms for here. She wanted one for each language, all connected with Moodle.

I've completed 3 of the Classrooms for her, and will wait for her to get her feet wet in using them before we connect the rest.

Each classroom has an elevator to Read More...

Updated Oil Spill Script

Fire Centaur — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:21:54 +0100

*** UPDATES ***

Hi, Fire Centaur here,

Today I went through my email, and collected the names of everyone who got my free oilspill simulation!

So far over 50 people have gotten it!

I have made some fixes to it - thanks to a user telling me it had some issues! Thanks Oronoque Westland!

Here are the updates:

1) Before, only the owner could get a cap - after clicking on the pipe - FIXED
2) The oil would stop when the cap was near - FIXED
3) The cap only lasted 10 seconds - tRead More...

Giving away Oil Spill Simulation for FREE FREE FREE

Fire Centaur — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:58:58 +0100

Hi everyone,

I've decided to give away for FREE my oil spill simulation in efforts to raise awareness for the cleanup efforts of the terrible Gulf Oil Spill.
I am hoping educators, and virtual land holders will use this item to engage users virtually to try the simulation and increase discussions about the Gulf oil spill.

P.S. I am not affilated in anyway with British Petroleum.

LICENSE
=====
If you use or blog this, please pay attribution to (FirRead More...

Doing Business in Second Life

Fire Centaur — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:26:49 +0100

Hi everyone,

Below is a picture of me sitting in my private virtual office in Second Life. Yes its true, I have my own virtual office where I can meet clients in the 3D world. Cool heh? Once logged in, my clients can meet with me in FULL AVATAR form - just like the movie! (Except you are not physically embodying another being - its a computerized version!). When meeting, we can use our headsets to talk, exchange virtual items, share presentations, and explore the 3d space togethRead More...

a new scoreboard for Second Life and SLOODLE cometh...

Fire Centaur — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:55:51 +0100

GREAT NEWS!

Hi everyone, Paul here,

I've been busy re-designing the Sloodle Scoreboard which is used in the virtual world of Second Life.
I am pleased to say that I have made some really great strides forward.

Here is a quick sneak peak of the upcoming Read More...

Wayfinding in Virtual Environments

Fire Centaur — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:47:17 +0100

Today I read an SLED post by Rameshsharma Ramloll,

It was about a thesis he wrote regarding Wayfinding in Virtual Environments.
I read his thesis with great interest, because Wayfinding, is a very important issue in Virtual Worlds.

Imagine, as an avatar, you have to navigate through an entire virtual city, either by walking or flying to find an object. This can be quite a task with only your basic arrow-key navigational interface. Most virtual games have maps which Read More...

Oil Spill in Second Life - Facebook Comments

Fire Centaur — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:15:19 +0100

Hi everyone,

Fire Centaur here. Good news!
I've had several users interested and try out my Oil Spill simulation in Second Life.

Today I received comments from a Facebook user about the simulation. It was good to read the comment... as this oil spill is quite a controversial matter.

The reader of my blog commented that the simulation was "in poor taste". Naturally, I was compelled to reply! I'm listing my response below, just so that you have a better idea aRead More...

Oil Spill in Second Life

Fire Centaur — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:24:35 +0100

NEW SIMULATION

Oh no!!! There has been an Oil Spill on English Village!

Hi everyone, I have created an OIL SPILL simulation complete with a game. Your objective is to plug the oil pipe nested far below the surfice of our now brown waters with a cap.

5 packs of thRead More...

Game Buzzer

Fire Centaur — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 01:57:14 +0100

FREE BUZZER FOR EDUCATORS

Have you ever seen a game show where a host asks a question, and players slam their hands down on a large button so that they can answer first?

THINK Price is right, The Family Feud, and Jeopardy

WELL, I created this game piece now for use in Second Life for entertainment and or educational activities.

Creating an English Course in Second Life

Fire Centaur — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:51:35 +0100

Hi everyone, just a quick update. Today I logged into Second Life and created a classroom in one of English Village's office tower for the American Tesol Institute. I connected several Sloodle Tools from the classroom in Second Life with their Moodle Website. While logged into their Moodle website, I began laying out lesson plans to occupy the students for the first 3 weeks. Since most of the students will probably be new to Second Life, I included several tutorial videos for them to follRead More...

Found the Hacker Security Hole and now is Patched!

Fire Centaur — Thu, 06 May 2010 06:33:05 +0100

Hi everyone! A few weeks ago, my site got hacked by someone who claimed to be a hacker from Syria! Although I should have been really upset, as the hacker managed to delete all of my website files, and cost me 1/2 a day of work to bring my site back up to date - I actually felt a little bit of a tingle in my heart - "Aha! I must be doing something right, enough to get my site noticed, and the object of a hackers interest! Nice!" Fortunately for me, my server automatically backs up my siteRead More...

Programming Live in Secondlife

Fire Centaur — Wed, 05 May 2010 09:38:53 +0100

Second Life is quite a dynamic environment. In order to create code, you actually have to log in with your avatar, walk around, create an object, like a cube, and place it on the ground, then write scripts which reside inside the object you just created.

In this picture above, my avatar Read More...

Second Inventory - transferring content between virtual worlds

Fire Centaur — Mon, 03 May 2010 06:32:24 +0100

Hi everyone,

Many of you know me as Fire Centaur in SL, and I am Paul Preibisch in Vancouver in RL. This blog you are reading, is the latest addition to the B3DMultitech.com webpage that I set up to communicate with you some of the work I am doing to help educators who are using Gaming to deliver education.

Joomla CMS Content Management System

Fire Centaur — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:37:01 +0100

Hi everyone!

I haven't written a blog post about my use of the Joomla Content Management System, so just in case you thought B3D Multitech only does Second Life, guess again! I have been developing and experimenting with Joomla and Drupal Websites for quite some time now. This website you are looking at, was developed using Joomla. I know Vancouver is a DruRead More...

Avatar GameShow

Fire Centaur — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:24:43 +0100

I pulled an old project out of my 3d inventory the other day, very cool project! Once I get some more time, I want to finish this one! It's called 'The Avatar GameShow"

The idea is to present a Trivia Question Game, where the object is to answer as many questions as possible within a given time frame of 2 minutes.

To enter the game, avataRead More...

Sky Pods

Fire Centaur — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:10:38 +0100

Hi everyone,

Recently, I have been involved in an interesting development project for Skoolaborate.
You can read about it here on the Skoolaborate Projects Page and on the Pacific Rim Blog here Basically, I am creating Sky Pods... which can be used for language learning activities. Sky Pods sort of work like a speed - dating activity.

Instructors sit in chairs which are numbered using a white label, and students sit in numbered chairs which have a black label. TRead More...

Site Hacked!

Fire Centaur — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 09:17:49 +0100

Hi everyone,

Well if you tried to access my our web page the past two days, you may have noticed that we were down! Our site got hacked! Using various techniques, the hacker was able to login to our Joomla system and delete all of our files! Fortunately, we keep nightly backups so were able to restore. The hacker did cost us as it took some time to repair the damage. I actually personally contacted the hacker though, and instead of sending an email full of curse words askRead More...

Educators are using the Sloodle Scoreboard!

Fire Centaur — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:16:41 +0100

Hi everyone,

I am proud to see the use of the Sloodle Scoreboard, I programmed in Second Life for the Sloodle.org project. This scoreboard system is useful for motivating and engaging students.

The Sloodle Awards system Scoreboard is a 3D object which connects to the Moodle Learning Management System using notecards for configuration.

The scoreboard displays all the users in the class on a display surface. Teachers can add points to the scoreboard by clickiRead More...

Skoolaborators Speaking Pods

Fire Centaur — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:52:17 +0100

This post was taken from the Skoolaborators Fan page here: http://ow.ly/1ACps

"Whenever we did speaking exercises in the past, we used a tool that was originally designed for "speed-networking". In other words, the participants sat in chairs that automatically paired themRead More...