From jokaydia: Exploring Virtual Worlds and Games in Education

Health Education

Second Life provides a range of fantastic opportunities for students and practitioners in health education and related fields, including simulations and demonstrations, multimedia presentations, social learning and immersive exhibits.

Explore the projects below or Return to the Educational Uses of Second Life Homepage.

Centers for Disease Control

The Centers for Disease Control Island (SLurl) is the Second Life home to the real life government agency - the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They conduct and support public health activities with the aim of ensuring health protection through promotion, prevention, and preparedness.

The CDC are currently exploring several virtual worlds environments for public education, collaboration and learning including Whyville, and Second Life, with the aim of engaging people of different ages in public health related issues.

CDC Island in Second Life was developed in 2008, after the CDC had developed its plan for Second Life at a test site commencing in 2006. It includes a number of spaces for meeting and collaboration, as well as displays and information about current public health issues. They also use the space for streaming of videos and podcasts.

For more information vist the CDC's webpage on virtual worlds or read an article about the CDC in Second Life in the National Review of Medicine.

HealthInfo Island

HealthInfo Island (SLurl) was created by the Greater Midwest Region of the National Network/National Library of Medicine (GMR NN/NLM), through a partnership with Alliance Library Systems and provides librarians from around the world with a space to explore the provision of consumer health information services in virtual worlds environments. The project objective is to provide Second Life Residents with consumer health information.

The island is home to a range of useful spaces and resources including:

• the Consumer Health Library which houses an extensive collection of resources and exhibitions on a range of health issues including social anxiety and agoraphobia, and Alzheimer's disease
• a range of Virtual outposts or displays run by the National Library of Medicine's Special Information Services, contractors for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Healthy, an experiment in artificial intelligence
• a display by members of ShockProof, a community of stroke survivors and people who have suffered from transient ischemic attacks
• Ivy Tech, which offers a broad range of nursing instructional videos
• the SL Health Information Outreach Research Lab, created by the Specialized Information Services division of the National Library of Medicine (SIS/NLM)
• ToxTown, an interactive display that includes information on environmental hazards in cities, homes, and workplaces.
• the Accessibility center which aims to encourage awareness of vision, mobility, learning, and other disabilities and offers educational public programs each month. Presenters at these programs address topics related to Center displays about disabilities and accessibility.
• the HIV/AIDS display created to celebrate World Aids Day and to raise global awareness of HIV/Aids related issues.

For further information visit the HealthInfo Island project blog,  visit the HealthInfo Islands Facebook page or watch a tour the Islands of Blip.tv.

The Heart Murmur Sim

The Heart Murmur Simulation (SLurl) was created Jeremy Kemp, Moon Adamant and Eloise Pasteur in 2006 and built as a proof of concept experiment. It provides a cardiac training space where participants visit six patients, listen to their heart rhythms and make a diagnosis.

To access the sound files participants 'wear' a Heart Sim Badge and move through the diagnosis rooms, interacting with the 'patients' to identify the sounds of a healthy heart. The space also includes a simple self-assessment survey which visitors can complete after they have 'diagnosed' their virtual patience.

For further information, watch a YouTube video - Second Life - Heart Murmur Sim, read a blog post Heart Murmur Sim - Assessment of Learning in SL- Interview with a Man in a Surgical Mask or listen to an NMC Campus Podcast about the Heart Sim project.