The New Media Consortium recently announced a competitive award program for educational communities in Second Life and Project Wonderland. Twenty grants totaling $100,000 in cash and development assistance will be awarded this year to fund these educational efforts.

According to the consortium, NMC is “looking for projects that use immersive 3D environments to teach cross-disciplinary concepts that are difficult to teach by traditional means.” The criteria for selection include novel approaches to learning, immersiveness, and broad applicability (across disciplines).

Individual prizes include $500 in cash and $4,500 in development assistance from NMC Virtual Worlds, a program within NMC that provides pro bono services for education. The assistance includes “professional building, scripting, design, animation, avatar design, and/or related services,” according to NMC.

Proposals are now being accepted, and the submission period will remain open until all 20 grants have been awarded. The competitive awards are open to all but are geared specifically toward educators at K-12 and post-secondary institutions. Winners agree to make all finished materials developed as a part of the funded program available for license under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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