I remember the good old days in high school when we had to dissect a frog in biology class . The frog was already dead and was preserved in formaldehyde, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a gruesome, and somewhat unnecessary use for a small animal. We were studying the reflexes of nerves and muscles and we stimulated the nerves in the frog’s leg and watch as it moved. I felt sorrow that this unfortunate frog was born and harvested just so that high school students could watch a leg twitch. Fast forward to today.
We now have virtual worlds that are accessible to a global audience where we can potentially watch simulations of virtual animal behavior, physiology, and anatomy.
I am working with a simulation software in Second Life where you can program up to 26 different actions into a “puppet” creature.
If you wish to view this, you can go to my Usability Learning area in Second Life at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RUC%20Seven%20Oaks%20/119/111/24/?title=Usability%20Learning%20Center&msg=Usability%20Learning%20Center
and watch the shrugging penguin.
My plan is to create a virtual frog or turtle puppet that turns itself over and then dissects itself so that a student can observe and learn. Of course, it may look gruesome, but it is a better alternative than dissecting a real animal. I will let you all know how it is going.
The other uses for this puppet software is to show puppet human avatars with a variety of situations that a student must diagnose. You could have an avatar show respiratory distress, cardiac problems, HIV symptoms or other ailments. These virtual world simulations would not replace the advanced studies that are a necessary part of many medical and science studies but hopefully will reduce some of the waste and cruelty that may occur in the beginning studies in these fields.
We now have virtual worlds that are accessible to a global audience where we can potentially watch simulations of virtual animal behavior, physiology, and anatomy.
I am working with a simulation software in Second Life where you can program up to 26 different actions into a “puppet” creature.
If you wish to view this, you can go to my Usability Learning area in Second Life at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/RUC%20Seven%20Oaks%20/119/111/24/?title=Usability%20Learning%20Center&msg=Usability%20Learning%20Center
and watch the shrugging penguin.
My plan is to create a virtual frog or turtle puppet that turns itself over and then dissects itself so that a student can observe and learn. Of course, it may look gruesome, but it is a better alternative than dissecting a real animal. I will let you all know how it is going.
The other uses for this puppet software is to show puppet human avatars with a variety of situations that a student must diagnose. You could have an avatar show respiratory distress, cardiac problems, HIV symptoms or other ailments. These virtual world simulations would not replace the advanced studies that are a necessary part of many medical and science studies but hopefully will reduce some of the waste and cruelty that may occur in the beginning studies in these fields.
