Virtual Worlds for teens

Articles

Teen Grid: Eye4You Alliance Claudia Linden interviews teen and adult in Second Opinion, Linden Lab Online newsletter, March 2007

Meet the New You: In Teen Second Life, Librarians can leap tall buildings in a single bound and save kids from boring assignments-all before lunch School Library Journal, January 2007 by Kelly Czarnecki and Matt Gullett

Topeka Shawnee County Public Library in the News InfoIsland blog, January 2007

My So-Called Virtual Life: as teens experiment with identity in virtual reality environments, marketers are rushing to meet them. Here are some things they should keep in mind." by Anastasia Goodstein, BusinessWeek, December 2006

A YALSA Tech Guide to Online Virtual Worlds Created by members of the Teen Tech Week committee with help from Kelly Czarnecki.

Libraries in Virtual Worlds with teens

• Teen Second Life

Eye4You Alliance Island the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, Alliance Library Systemand SirsiDynix. Partners: Lower East Side Girls Club of New York, Chicago Public Schools Department of Libraries and Information Services, Squirrelverse

Oz Islandthe Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library with Hope Street Academy

Presentations

Teaching & Learning in Massively Multiplayer Virtual Worlds: Second Life Adventures in Learning December 5, 2006

Serving Teens: A Second Life Discussion March 29, 2007

YALSA members in Second Life and/or Teen Second Life

Second Life has two 'grids' which run on separate servers. The Main Grid or 'MG' is for ages 18+, the Teen Grid or 'TG' is for ages 13-17 year olds and adults that have completed a background check. You must be affiliated with a project on the Teen Grid to have the background check processed. Approved adults will have an avatar for the Teen Grid (TG) and one for the Main Grid (MG) since the grids do not allow back and forth movement between avatars.

BlueWings Hayek (MG)/ Saryn Fanwood (TG) Kelly Czarnecki- Eye4You Alliance Island Co-Leader

Cerulean Vesperia (MG) / Sabriel Petronius (TG)

Eiseldora Reisman (MG) / Eiseldora Weissenberger (TG)

Lucy Theewues (MG) / Linda W. Braun

Klutzy Marx (MG)

Elaine Tulip (MG)/ChicagoGal Oh (TG) Lisa Perez - Chicago Public Schools Dept of Libraries CPS in Second Life

flameandflight Hax (MG)

Eirene Janus (MG)/Freda Fraina (MG) Naomi Malone - http://slmodelun.org

List of Virtual Worlds

Cyworld
'A new way to connect with the people in your world. Design a 'Minihome' A place to tell stories and bring your dreams to life'
Entropia Universe
'The first virtual universe with a real cash economy'
Meez
'Expressing yourself online and having fun doing it'
Neopets
'the greatest Virtual Pet Site on the Internet'
Synthravels
Virtual travel agency
There
'an everyday hangout where you can have fun with your friends and meet new ones'
Virtual Worlds Review
Snapshot of virtual worlds
Whyville
'where 1.7 million registered "citizens" come from all over to learn, create, and have fun together.'