What is Begonia Island?

Background:

We had been following the amazing work of a number of educators using virtual worlds in education and began our own journey by participating in Quest Atlantis, a 3D virtual world especially designed for middle school students. You can read more about our Quest Atlantis journey by visiting our school’s blog.

Initially, we followed the work of Steve Collis, Marianne Malmstrom and Peggy Sheehy as their students developed exciting places of learning such as Booralie Island, ToMorrow Island and Ramapo Islands.

More recently, we learnt of the work by educators using OpenSim such as Vicki Davis, Trevor Meister and Rich White. You can learn more about their exciting virtual worlds projects by reading this excellent post, Educators in Virtual Worlds on OpenSim – the Pioneers, from the Learn 4 Life blog.

The student engagement, innovative curriculum and a host of other reasons, led us to explore the possibilities of developing our own virtual world.

Choosing ReactionGrid:

After exploring a number of different options for our students to develop their own 3D virtual world such as Active Worlds, Teen Second Life and OpenSim, we were fortunate enough to learn about the services of ReactionGrid.

There were a number of reasons why we chose ReactionGrid.

• “PG” virtual worlds community aimed at educators
• Ability to allow safe access for our students via our school’s network
• Affordable pricing plans and flexible options
• Different methods of support that are provided at no extra cost
• Highly professional, efficient and helpful staff who understand the needs of schools

About Our Sims:

We have two separate areas known as Begonia Island and Begonia Gardens. Our private space, Begonia Island, is an area for our students and teachers to use in a number of ways. It is a place to create, share, explore and participate in interactive learning activities. Just like our intranet, Begonia Island is made up of users from the school community.

In order to provide opportunities to share and collaborate with students and teachers from other schools, we also have Begonia Gardens, a public space located on ReactionGrid.

Why “Begonia”?

Our school is located in a large rural town where, each year, we celebrate  the wonderful Begonia Festival. The spectacular begonia displays fill our Botanical Gardens and visitors enjoy the beauty and colour of a number of activities over a long weekend at the beginning of Autumn.

Virtual Worlds Project Proposal – ReactionGrid

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