Future Projects

The Digital Humanities consists of two area within Second Life™, the virtual Georgian London (centred on the eighteenth-century Strand and Whitehall) and Island 18 (representing Fleet St and Fetter Lane in the same period).

Currently areas of the virtual Georgian London site are being used in a range of innovative courses across discipline areas and in universities separated geographically by hundreds of kilometres. Academics and their students in these institutions are working collaboratively on projects with common or complimentary themes. There have also been expressions of interest from students wishing to develop research projects within the virtual London at Honours and Masters levels as well as within the public sector, as part of museum internships based at the University of Adelaide.

The future possibilities for use of The Strand and Island 18 in education are limited only by our imaginations. Opportunities are open to academics and universities who wish to be involved. The members of the ‘Getting A MUVE On’ project team are convinced of the pedagogical benefits and exploration of further potential and are keen that this technology be utilised in ongoing research in the Humanities in Australia and beyond and, indeed, in national and international collaboration.

Among our ongoing aims are to:

• Generate interest and involvement from scholars and educators,
• Continue to build and improve existing structures and facilities,
• Include and host courses at a variety of institutions and across disciplines,
• Build a national teaching team to utilise and add to existing structures and uses as well as to share ideas and resources and collaborate on future research projects, 
• See students working collaboratively and learning from each other in innovative ways across courses, disciplines, faculties, universities and across the globe in real time,
• Develop a package of teaching and study resources which evolves with the technology as well as with teacher and student input.

The future of this technology is not limited to eighteenth-century studies nor, indeed, to the university sector alone. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to take this virtual London to the public by involving them in public forums or lectures online? Potential also exists for collaboration with other universities and with the wider tertiary education industry. For example construction has begun on a building which will translate career-ready and workplace training workshops and courses into innovative, interactive and self-paced workshops and courses.

For more information about we can help you take your teaching and/or training into the twenty-first century, please see the Potential Uses page.