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=Welcome to Boracay !=

 Boracay ceased to exist from Jan 2009. It was an island inside Second Life that was created as an experiment. The main purpose of the virtual space was to investigate the potential of this platform, and these types of environments (e.g. Second Life, OpenCroquet, OpenSim, RealXtend, Active Worlds, There, Trinity, Multiverse, etc) for learning in higher education - particularly self-directed team learning, collaborative and informal learning.



The island was an intermixing of serious work and play spaces (see [|Michael Schrage's Serious Play]). There were seating arrangements and tools that you could make appear and disappear, as you needed them. Seating such as a small table where chairs automatically appeared when you got close to them, a display board for pictures (like ppt slides) as well as a whiteboard, a chat recorder that emailed a transcript to you every few minutes and also allowed people to give their consent to be recorded (and this was added to the transcript). There were other seating arrangements outside, such as a more formal seating and stage area and slowly rotating circular seating (a fun thing when you we're outside). And also a video screen to display both video and pictures.

There was an educational exhibit area which included snapshots of Second Life locations and bookmarks (called landmarks) so you could visit educational spaces. There was a skybox some 250 metres in the air for more private meetings. There was also a platform 300m up which was a multifunction area where you coulodn learn to build, go ice skating or have a party with music and lighting effects.



There was a mountain where you could go skiing or snowboarding and also skydiving. There was a beach with a hut to sit and relax, a diving board and surfing. There was a boathouse where you could go sailing, kayaking jet skiing, windsurfing ... or take a ride in submarine and visit the coral reef below. There was a small island that you could cross over to via a hidden bridge and on the isle were elven drums to play and a Balinese gazebo where you could sit and meditate at sunrise and sunset.

There was an outside stage for concerts and watching videos together. There was a machinma theatre where people could watch in-world or out-world videos together and discuss them. There was an outside seating area where up to 5 small groups could listen to or watch different audio and video podcasts together and discuss them via in-world voice or text chat.

Finally, there were two small art galleries with paintings and sculptures - one that you could interact with and wa a lot of fun! Above one of the galleries was a small cafe area with seating, more musical instruments to play, games, in-world magazines on teaching and learning and another on the arts. Performance art in Second Life is something quite magical and if you ever get a chance to see (and listen to) one of DanCoyote and the SkyDancers performances, it is a must do!



If you would like to know more about the now completed project, please contact Corwin Carillon (aka Nick Noakes) inworld.