virtuALBA -  Scotland in real life has beautiful green rolling hills and valleys.  Guests can now visit a representation of Scotland in Second Life created by students from the University of the West of Scotland at http://slurl.com/secondlife/virtuALBA/86/125/33

Students registered in the Collaborative Virtual Environments class, under the direction of Professor Buddy Sprocket, investigated online collaborative tools.  This course is one in the Computer Games Technology degree program.

“The module in total lasted 3 months but Second Life was only part of the module,” Sprocket said.  “Students also had to produce Web presences to accompany the SL stuff and ideally build links between the two.”

The exhibit is split into three sections: inventors from Scotland; Scottish wildlife and Hampden – Glasgow 2014.  Each section had approximately 5 students working on it.

The Scottish Inventors Museum occupies two floors of the building in virtuALBA.  Sixteen inventors are featured with descriptions, pictures and a 3D representation of their invention.  All exhibits feature a notecard and a wiki link detailing further information.  A crowd favorite at the museum is the ATM machine invented by John Shepherd-Barron and created in SL by IWishIWasMichael Flatley.  To this reporter’s knowledge no lindens were actually ever withdrawn from the ATM, but students continued to try valiantly to do so.

Other creative exhibits are displayed throughout the museum.  One display features working radar invented by John Watson-Watt and created in SL by Xavierno Zerbino.  Zerbino also created an amusing Mack raincoat together with stormy cloud, rain and sound effects.  (The Mack raincoat was invented by Scottish inventor Charles MacIntosh.)

“For such a small country we have made many discoveries,” Zerbino said.
 
A wildlife park surrounds the museum building.  Each of the wild animals constructed has a notecard giving background information on them and a wiki link.  The animals are a wee bit larger than expected but wonderfully detailed.   The animals native to Scotland and represented in this park are wild cats, peregrine falcons, badgers, seals, beavers, otters, Aberdeen angus and deer.  A special segment of the exhibit has been devoted to Nessie, the Loch Ness monster.  Stop by to get a close look at a haggis (very cute) and learn about some of their mystery and celebration in Scotland.  Small following haggis and squirrels are available for purchase.

The sports