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Please Welcome…FasterCures our newest neighbor in NPC

Please join me in extending a warm welcome to our newest NPC neighbor – FasterCures. FasterCures is dedicated to saving lives by saving time. Our mission is to identify and implement global solutions to accelerate the process of discovery and clinical development of new therapies for the treatment of deadly and debilitating diseases.

Draxtor Despres has once again outdone himself with this great feature video which explains the FasterCures mission and goals for SL.

To find FasterCures online…

Website: www.fastercures.org
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/FasterCures/23454067539
Blog: http://fastercures.blogspot.com/
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/aloft%20nonprofit%20commons/100/68/25

Written by: Beth J. Bates

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Evaluation of the Global Kids Science through Second Life project

Great information from Rafi Santo….

I thought I’d share with you all the recent independent evaluation that was completed about the Science through Second Life project that we ran during the last school year. The project integrated Second Life and wide range of web tools into a standards based high school science class in New York City. Among the findings:

– Students’ attitudes towards science-related careers changed positively with the StSL curriculum.
– Students’ self-efficacy and self-confidence in their abilities to do science-related work increased.
– Compared to the traditional science curriculum, the number of students reporting being overwhelmed by science class fell by 50%.
– Low achieving students’ grades improved significantly compared to the previous semester.
– Students’ collective intelligence skills improved throughout the semester. More students reported that they felt more comfortable working with others to get something done using digital media in the post survey.

Click here to download the report which also includes a detailed program description, and if you have any questions about the project feel free to be in touch.

Cheers,
Rafi

—
Rafi Santo
Senior Program Associate
Online Leadership Program
Global Kids
http://www.globalkids.org/?id=5
http://olp.globalkids.org

Written by: Beth J. Bates

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Inauguration Accommodations at an NPC member’s Horse Farm

Fellow NPCers,

Do a good deed for an NPC member program (Great Strides) working hard to keep the barn doors open (IRL in MD) and pass along this info for Inauguration Accommodations on a horse farm! Full details at: http://www.postlets.com/rts/1641597 or call Terry at: 301-928-8118.

Photo of house attached!

Thanks,

Brad

Brad Lewis, RL
Veri Oddfellow, SL (Aloft Nonprofit Commons Tenant)
Board Chair
Great Strides
www.GreatStrides.org
Brad@greatstrides.org

Attachment Size
130142_BTFhouse.JPG 15.61 KB
P1010006.JPG 195.41 KB

Written by: jharyaconel

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Recent Press on 2009: Virtual Charity, Virtual Socializing & Giving Circles

Hi, NPC & TechSoup Members – Happy New Year!

Here are some articles I found on things to watch out for in 2009, including virtual charity, virtual socialzing/therapy and Giving Circles…enjoy!

SmartMoney (December 24, 2008)
The New Way to Give: Virtual Charity by Reshma Kapadia
http://www.smartmoney.com/Spending/Budgeting/The-New-Way-to-Give-Virtual…

SmartMoney (December 24, 2008)
The New Way to Give: Be Your Own Charity (become a Giving Circle)
http://www.smartmoney.com/Spending/Budgeting/The-New-Way-to-Give-Be-Your…

Ninety Things to Watch in 2009 (including Giving Circles, virtual reality therapy and virtual socializing), Fri. December 26, 2008; Posted: 09:25 AM
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2100520/

Change.org: Recap: Top Trends Shaping Social Entrepreneurship in 2009 by Nathaniel Whittemore, Published January 02, 2009 @ 10:02AM PST
http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/
…including Online Action Platforms:

http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/blog/view/top_trends_2009_4_onl…

Look forward to seeing you all around Nonprofit Commons 1, 2 & 3 in 2009!

Anika 🙂

Written by: GCN

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Canadian Colleges Exploring Second Life in Higher Education – with Mixed Results

This is an interesting blog post from University Affairs about the perceived ups and downs of Second Life as discovered by Loyalist College, the first Canadian college to have a presence in Second Life. The post cites the learning curve to truly understand SL and computer hardware requirements as drawbacks to educating in the virtual world. The college does believe that SL offers the most opportunities for educators.

FULL STORY

I understand that hardware requirements can be an issue, but I am hard pressed to believe that the learning curve is a factor for college students when exploring SL. Thoughts?

Written by: Beth J. Bates

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How Many People Have Visited?

We started tracking traffic on the nonprofitcommons on March 20th, 2007. It was a trickle at first–10 or 12 visitors a day. I thought it might be of interest to give an overview of what we look like as a community. How many of us have come? What have we been using? How long do we stay?

A couple of weeks back, I started doing an analysis of the past two years. I thought it would be interesting give a brief over view of traffic and where that traffic has come from.

Over the last 19 months we’ve been rather busy. We’ve enjoyed nearly 37,500 visits and almost 74,000 page views. Our visitors spend over a minute and half on site. 29,327 unique users have come to the site (although this is a deceptive number–the same person could have visited the site on different IP addresses).

Our visitors come from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Japan, Netherlands. and China.

Written by: Creech

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GimpGirl Community Festival – December 11th

Join us before you head off to the Common Ground meeting on Plush.:)

—-
GimpGirl Community Festival
This is an online, international event that will be held in Second Life, but is accessible to those not on Second Life via IRC chat. See below for details.

Join us for an amazing evening to benefit GimpGirl Community! GimpGirl is a place where women with all kinds of disabilities (and abilities) have come together to talk about what it means to be a woman with a disability since 1998. We currently hold weekly support groups, presentations on relevant topics, free vendor space for members and parties on our parcel. We also have an art gallery with works by WWDs, and events for the general public.

GimpGirl Community Festival Schedule:

5-6pm SLT: DJ Yngwie Krogstad
6pm-7pm SLT: Andreus Gustafson
7pm-8pm SLT: Jana Kyomoon
8pm-9pm SLT: Obeloinkment Wrigglesworth
9-10pm SLT: Kala Pixie (live particle show)

Thursday, December 11th from 5:00 – 10:00 PM SLT/Pacific.
(8:00 PM Eastern Time, for other timezones, click HERE)

NOTE: This gathering is for EVERYONE. Bring your friends.smile

Second Life Location:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/3DE/174/22/21
(THE STAGE IS TO THE EAST AFTER YOU LAND)

IF YOU DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO SECOND LIFE:
You can still attend this meeting online via IRC. To visit our IRC/Second
Life chatroom, go to:
http://chat.on.quickfox.net/GimpGirl

…and choose the option that works best for you.

—
Cheers,
Jennifer Cole, Co-Director and Founder
Second Life: JennyLin Arashi
GimpGirl Community
http://www.gimpgirl.com

Written by: Beth J. Bates