I am so very excited about this. I just got news that I was approved to join the MUVEnation free online course. This is also the perfect excuse to come back here. I have been ignoring this blog since the pressure has been on to prepare for the proposal defense.

So to get back on track: the latest news: PRoposal defense is set for Nov 3rd. yet right around the corner. I’ve got my ‘Logistics’ doc on Google so that my chair and I can make sure that I am not forgetting anything. I just emailed him my powerpoint yesterday. and I uploaded my slides on my screen on my parcel. Now I need to script my presentation and my avatar gestures so that I demo what I am defending.

More on the MUVEnation later. in the meantime, here are a few pics I took when I flew over the land earlier today

Woot! and top of the most active groups too! Groovy! Thanks to all the interested and participating members.

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/06/02/inside-the-lab-podcast-a-discussion-on-education-in-second-life/

,

I forgot to mention that the San Diego EdTec Campus in SL made a cameo appearance in Philip Rosedale’s Machinima. Linden Lab created a machinima specifically for the congressional hearing on April 1st, 2008. (no April fool). The Lab said that they were not going to release the machinima, so the only way to access it is to access the congressional webcast directly from the House Committee site and/or download it. The Machinima is shown about 33 minutes into the webcast. San Diego State U. shows up at the 36:10 mark.
http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-ti-hrg.040108.VirtualWorlds.shtml

(May5th: nevermind. Apparently, the vidoe was released separately from the congressional webcast. See it here: http://www.silverandgoldie.com/linden_congress.htm

Excellent!

posts and podcast on the topic:

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce -Congress Hearing on “Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium” http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-ti-hrg.040108.VirtualWorlds.shtml

(access the archived webcast or download it; access the PDF of the witnesses’ prepared testimony)
Summary: First educational hearing on usage of VW; mention of digital divide, policies, regulations, future of the internet, etc; general reactions from Congressmen about SL; Testimonies)

RezEd Podcast, Episode 1- Virtual Worlds go to Congress
http://www.rezed.org/forum/topic/show?id=2047896%3ATopic%3A431

Other important documents
NMC Horizon Report 2008
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf

New Media and Learning Initiatives
http://www.nmc.org/initiatives/new-media-learning

Meme.com summary of the congressional hearing
http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/306

Fffff! The WASC presentation went well. But what a big venue. Our room sat 100 people, about 50 showed up…not too bad considering that this was the last concurrent session between the keynote speakers (James Paul Gee) and a series of paid workshops on Saturday, April 19th.

We had a great spread, the deluxe version. We asked -and got- 2 huge screens, 2 projectors, 2 internet links (after a few shuffling of the passwords), and the expected podium and mic. Really nice.

Here is our blurb on the WASC program p40 (http://www.wascarc.org/documents/ARC%20Program%20Guide.pdf)

Virtualities? The Rich Opportunities and Pedagogical Perplexities of Immersive and Social Learning in Virtual Worlds (Harbor Island II)
Although wildly popular with the 9 million “inhabitants” (avatars) and over 100 institutions of higher education that now have “islands,” Second Life remains unfamiliar to many academics, even as much more powerful virtual worlds lie just over the horizon. This tour of virtual worlds introduces novices and the unacquainted to emerging possibilities for engagement that challenge common assumptions about real learning.
Presenters: Brock S. Allen, Director, Center for Teaching & Learning; Sabine Lawless-Reljic, Doctoral candidate, San Diego State University; Suzanne Aurilio, Assistant Director, Qualcomm Institute for Innovation and Educational Success; email: Brock.Allen@SDSU.edu;

Here can be found the Machinima I created for Suzanne’s presentation (music simulation), and mine (social presence, immediacy behavior, archive-able, machinima techniques and purposes, etc.)
http://willowshenlin.blip.tv

The workshop was a great review of basic knowledge on current and potential SL users. Maybe a few extra resources such as the SaLamander Wiki or the JoKay Education in SL blog would have been useful for the audience. I had my laptop so it was easy to follow, but I suspect that this should have been titled more as a guided discussion more than a workshop. I did not see any other laptops in the room…which would make the workshop idea a bit problematic. Anyway, I got to meet Alan Levine.

Summary of the workshop:
Engaged Learning within Immersive Worlds
This workshop will offer participants an overview of the innovative and varied uses of immersive worlds such as Second Life by educators around the world. Workshop facilitators will highlight their potential for engaging learners, inviting participants to think about how their faculty’s teaching might be transformed within these new environments. Participants will explore student identity, best practices, policies governing use, and subject areas that fit well with the properties of Second Life. Participants will leave with an understanding of the educational uses of immersive worlds, a list of resources and working groups related to Second Life, and guidelines for launching and supporting these applications within higher education environments. We presume no prior experience (or avatar)!
Facilitators: Susan E. Metros, Associate Vice Provost for Technology Enhanced Learning and Deputy CIO; Holly Willis, Research Assistant Professor and Director of Academic Programs, University of Southern California; Alan Levine, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, The New Media Consortium (NMC), email: smetros@usc.edu; hwillis@cinema.usc.edu; alan@nmc.org

A bit of hangup with the approval delay from the Learningtimes.net administrators….but I’ll shortly get on and catch up with the sessions.

About the symposium
http://www.nmc.org/conference/2008-spring-symposium

Data Mashups (Horizon Report 2008 extract)
http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2008/chapters/data-mashups/

The 2008 Horizon Report
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf

The Horizon Project Wiki
http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/Main_Page

ReLIVE08

The Open University is pleased to announce an international conference for Researching Learning in Virtual Environments to be held at its campus in Milton Keynes on the 20th and 21st of November 2008.

This conference will be of interest to anyone researching learning and teaching in virtual world environments such as Second Life.

The conference organisers are keen to construct a programme that features diverse and innovative research approaches to learning and teaching in virtual worlds. Given the emerging practice associated with virtual worlds, the conference committee are also keen to receive papers reporting on the experience of learning and teaching using virtual worlds that relate practice and outcomes to literature and research in this area. We anticipate that submissions will reflect a range of research methods and will examine issues such as rigour, methods of sampling, relationships between researchers and researched, and the ethics and politics of the research process.

Our keynote speaker is Edward Castranova, Associate Professor in the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr Castranova is an expert on the economies of large-scale online games and has published extensively on the topic, including his most recent book Exodus to the Virtual World.

Please find more details at our website on http://www.open.ac.uk/relive08

Social scientist Nick Yee speaks at Metanomics: http://www.slcn.tv/metanomics-nick-yee

(note: the show takes a few minutes to actually get to Nick Yee. and then a few more minutes before Nick starts speaking about relevant topics)

Watching the beginning of the recording makes me all the more aware of the need of some immediacy behaviors when presenting didactilly. The close-up of the host and the speaker were great, but since there were no lip sync on the avatars, the lack of movements (head, hands, upper body) produced a boring event to watch (remember: i am watching a recording). I think I saw some low immediacy gestures such as the tip of the foot moving (the one that was resting on top of the knee. but this disappears when the camera closes up on the faces.

It’s a Small World: How Virtual Communities Are Changing the Ways We Relate -March 12, 2008

http://alum.mit.edu/lt/learning/broadcasts/index.html

“…Speakers:

• Hello Avatar! What Virtual Worlds Mean for Human Communication
  

  Professor Coleman will discuss her research on the use and design of avatar-based virtual worlds and how they are entering popular use in networked communication.

  Beth Coleman, Assistant Professor of Writing and New Media

• What Kind of World Would You Make: Second Life as Thought Experiment
  

  Second Life and other virtual worlds represent a powerful demonstration of what I call Participatory Culture. From the start, it was marketed as a world which would be created through the collective contributions of its users. And because users come with many different motives and from many different kinds of settings, Second Life represents a hybrid media environment, one where commercial, nonprofit, governmental, educational, subcultural, and amateur contributors seek to reshape the world in their own images. Each of these groups are deploying Second Life as the site for thought experiments which allow them to rethink their real world institutions and practices.

  Henry Jenkins, Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities

Moderator:

• Steven R. Lerman ‘72, SM ‘73, PhD ‘75, Dean for Graduate Students; Class of 1922 Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering; Co-director for the Singapore-MIT Alliance; Chair, Faculty Advisory Committee of the MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW); and Director, Center for Educational Computing Initiative.

Viewing Opportunities

Participating Areas
Several local Clubs will be hosting receptions and an opportunity to view the broadcast as a group, allowing you to explore a fascinating societal phenomenon from an academic viewpoint, as well as connect with the local MIT community and network with fellow alumni.

• Tampa Bay, FL
• Cambridge, MA
• Minneapolis, MN
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• Southwest Virginia

Individual Viewing
If you don’t live in a city hosting an event, you can log onto this Web page to view the broadcast from your personal computer. Check back on March 12 for the link. The live broadcast from Cambridge will be at 7:00 p.m. EST. Please note: there will be limited slots available for live viewing, although the link will remain active for viewing after the broadcast time.”

I am waiting for info on possible registration fees for the individual viewing.**********

March 6th -MIT-SL events coordinator answers:
“There is no fee for viewing the broadcast online. Up to 200 people can atch it live at 7:00 p.m. EST. The content will then be archived and available on the same web page (http://alum.mit.edu/broadcasts) around 10:00
p.m. EST.”

Groovy!!!

Early-bird registration for Innovation 2008 (http://education-2008.org) closes March 15, as does early-bird reservations at the Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center in Breckenridge, Colorado.

This conference, co-hosted by Innovate, brings together world-class scholars and educators along with business and governmental leaders to formulate a vision for the future of education and the role of technology in that future. Previous attempts to integrate technology into education may have met with difficulties because solutions have not taken into account the total social system around teaching and learning. With that in mind, we will look at what’s next not just in technology, but also in the social, cultural, and methodological dimensions of education to shape a realistic appraisal of the present and a forecast for the future. Our intent is to bring together leaders in education, business, academia, and government in a conference environment organized around these themes to produce significant new ideas, perspectives, and initiatives.

Conference program at http://www.education-2008.org/

Jan 6: ZeroG SkyDancers III – Virtual Flight Choreography PremieresDanCoyote Antonelli is accustomed to breaking new ground. Even in virtual worlds he is considered avant guarde. The real man controlling that avatar, DC Spensley, has been wowing virtual audiences since 2006 with art installations that would not be possible in real life, but perhaps the most coveted ticket in all of Second Life is one to a performance by his ZeroG SkyDancers. On January 6, 2008, the premiere of the highly anticipated, third, completely redesigned production of ZeroG SkyDancers will debut.

Seating is limited, but the show will run every week during the first 90 days of 2008, to accommodate the most guests possible. Tickets will cost $10 US ($3000 Lindens) a piece. For ticket information, please contact DC directly at dc@spensley.com.

When: Jan 6, 9:00 PM PST check local time http://timeanddate.com/s/nt5

Where: TBA

Info: http://sl.nmc.org/2008/01/02/zerog-iii/

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Jan 7: NMC Campus Teachers Buzz: Orientation Experiences

We’ll meet at NMC Orientation to discuss strategies, ideas for orienting new users and providing ongoing support for all SL users.

When: Jan 7, 4:00 PM PST check local time: http://timeanddate.com/s/nt0

Where: NMC Orientation (68,107,32) http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Orientation/69/107/32/

More Info: : http://sl.nmc.org/2008/01/03/buzz-2008/

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Jan 8 and 9: 10 Challenges & Solutions to Teaching in SL

Lisa Dawley has arranged for students in her EDTECH 597: Teaching & Learning in Second Life class (Boise State University, EDTECH Island) this past semester to present their findings on the Challenges & Solutions for Teaching in Second Life

Part 1: January 8, 2008, 6:00 PM PST check local time: http://timeanddate.com/s/n3f

Part 2 January 9, 2008, 12:00 PM PST check local time: http://timeanddate.com/s/n3g

Where: NMC Conference Center (68,209,22), in the Muriel Cooper Coliseum. http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Conference%20Center/68/209/22

More Info: : http://sl.nmc.org/2007/12/10/challenges-solutions/

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Jan 10: Immersive Education Pre Summit

A “virtual pre-summit” as it precedes the January 12-13 Digital Media Summit to be hosted again at Harvard. This will recap the Dec Immersive Education Day at Harvard with followup discussion

When: January 10, 2008 at 10:00am PST check local time: http://timeanddate.com/s/nt3

Where: NMC Conference Center

More Info: http://sl.nmc.org/2007/12/10/media-grid/

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Jan 15: Virtual Reality Room Announcement

Virtual Reality Room to be released for Free Educational Use

Thanks to the partnership between the New Media Consortium, the Info Island Archipelago, the Commonwealth Islands for not-for-profits, and Stephane Desnault (aka Stephane Zugzwang in SL) educators and not-for-profits will be able to obtain free, fully functional Virtual Reality Rooms at Farnsworth Station in the NMC Conference Center sim beginning January 15.

When: Jan 15, Time TBA

Where: NMC Conference Center

More Info: http://sl.nmc.org/2007/12/21/vrr/

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Jan 21 NMC Campus Teachers Buzz Session Vetting Second Life Learning Materials: MERLOT’s SaLamander Project

Wainbrave Bernal (aka Jonathon Richter, University of Oregon) will lead a session on SaLamdner Project “The project mission is to enlist people to collaborate to find, index, and discuss aspects of the 3D Virtual World “Second Life” that has educational value and share in the research, development, and training opportunities associated with those factors.”

When Jan 21 9:00am PST

Where: TBA

More Info: http://www.eduisland.net/salamanderwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

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Feb 4 NMC Campus Teachers Buzz Session: Show Us Your Gadgets!

Demo and share free tools developed for.by for educators.

When: Feb 4, 4:00 PM PST

Where: NMC Labs (sandbox)

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Feb 21: NMC Campus Teachers Buzz Session: Virtual World Project @ Otis College of Art and Design

Associate professor Mrags Writer (aka Michael Wright) took three Classes of Otis digital sophomore students in world where they developed and created content based on class-developed themes. The project, which was created on the Otis Island, required team building, out of the box creative thinking, introducing students to working with 3d & 2d virtual tools, working with a budget (3000 lindens per class), and working with a limited amount of building blocks (3100 primitives per class). Three hours of in-class time and 10 hours of outside of class time were devoted to this project. None of the 55 students had second life experience. The themes developed were “Heaven and Hell”, “Pirates and Atlantis” and “Lost World and Mythology”. The results of this project can be viewed in world, Second Life, at the Otis Island (128,128,0). Wright will lead a tour and answer questions.

When: Feb 21, 9:00am PST