Posts tagged events
Calendar of RL Education Events in Second Life
Nov 30th
I’ve expressed frustration before with the fragmentation of scheduling and event information for real life education events in Second Life. The calendar below is a compilation of public Google Calendars focused on RL Education events in Second Life; the calendars are published and maintained by others. Since they are made publicly available via Google Search, I’m re-syndicating them here as a matter of convenience for myself and anyone who chooses to bookmark the this entry of MUVE Forward.
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Loading ...Baseball Fans Going to NMC Summer Conference?
May 30th
This is off-topic, but I’d rather post it on my own blog than spam the SLED list with it ;-)
If you are going to the NMC Summer Conference, happen to be a baseball fan and would possibly be interested in taking in a Minor League Baseball game at arguably one of the best minor league ballparks in the country, email me at topher (at) muveforward (dot) com. The ballpark appears to be within walking distance of the conference center. Ideally, I’d like to meet up with a group at the conference to go to the game Wednesday evening.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Rousing Success!! Best Practices in Education Conference
May 26th
The Second Life Best Practices in Education: Teaching, Learning & Research Conference kicked off at 2AM (CDT) this morning. If nothing else, it was two things: a marathon and a rousing success. I’m going to blog a few thoughts about several different sessions, but I want to take a moment to comment on the conference itself.
Combining the complexities of running a conference with the complexities of Second Life made this, to say the least, a tremendous challenge. From my experience, it was fantastically organized, managed and presented with tremendous professionalism. I’d like to echo appreciation expressed by the NMC Campus Observer for the organizers:
- Marlene Brooks (SL Zana Kohime)
- Chris Collins (SL Fleep Tuque)
- Doreen Pugh (SL Veritas Variscan)
- Beth Ritter-Guth (SL Desideria Stockton)
Truly a fantastic job!! There were specific aspects of the conference that were particularly impressive to me personally.
Security and moderators were well organized. Neoznet Watts, who I’ve met through Desideria, helped coordinate the security; moderators and other security staff were assigned to a group and had permissions to eject any single individual. There were a few issues with security with one well known report of a griefer and a lesser issue in another session: a Skypecast used as Plan B for audio delivery was “crashed” by a mischievous visitor asking off-topic questions.
The SLCN.TV productions were nothing short of amazing, in my opinion. Having the foresight to plan overflow locations is one thing, but the SLCN.TV broadcast of keynotes and other popular events was tremendous. Honestly, the broadcast was comparable to a news broadcast you’d expect from a standard news station; it caught me by surprise, but knowing the level of expertise of many SL residents, perhaps it shouldn’t have. SLCN.TV will be making the SLBPE 2007 Archives available from their site in the near future.
The opportunity to support the event by moderating a session was enjoyable. I moderated the 3AM session (5AM for me) by Chris Swaine/Eggplant, Validating and Recognizing Skills: A Core Competency Framework. Again, the organizers did a fantastic job of informing moderators of their role via detailed notecards.
The ingenuity of the group was enjoyable to observe. From rolling restarts to difficulties with audio/video feeds early on, the community adapted and found workarounds very quickly. For Chris Eggplant’s session, his colleague Susan Kelly had to step in at the last minute to present for Chris because his car had broken down on his way to the office. Then, the audio was not working; Susan quickly fell back to a SkypeCast as a Plan B, and an attendee to the session, Baldric Commons, quickly set up an audio feed at WorldBridges.net to allow everyone to easily listen to the presentation.
The final report is that there were 1300 UNIQUE AVATARS that attended the conference across all venues! And, reportedly, but unconfirmed, Phillip Rosedale attended a portion of the conference as well. The crazy sleep and session schedule I kept was well worth it; a few photos are posted here.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Second Life Best Practices in Education Conference
May 24th
The Best Practices in Education Conference begins tonight, in about 6 hours (2AM CDT). There are reportedly over 800 individuals already registered with that number climbing by the hour. The buzz on the SL Educator’s mailing list is increasing dramatically. The program schedule promises to provide interesting presentations throughout the 24 hour long conference with a good range of topics: teen grid, quality instruction, case studies/examples, and engaging administrators .
My personal, tentative schedule is (all are CDT):
2:00AM – Breaking Loose: Educators at Large
5:00AM – Validating and Recognizing Skills
6:00AM – Developing Communities of Learners & Practitioners
10:00AM – Drawing on Second Life to Enrich the First Life
11:00AM – Keynote
3:00PM – Keynote
5:00PM – Graduate Student Social
6:00PM – Two Years of Introducing Educators to Second Life
8:00PM – Creating a Community of Practice – SaLamander Project
11:00PM – Observational Survey of Educational Institutions
It promises to be a hectic, sleep-deprived night and day; I hope to help out by moderating the 2AM session. I also hope to blog regarding each session, so you may see a flurry of posts to this blog in the near future.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Presentation for the Greater Houston Education Collaboration
Apr 27th
This morning, I delivered the MUVE Forward: An Educator’s Introduction to Second Life presentation for the first time; I’ve been working on it for a while. I had the opportunity to present as part of a regular series of educational technology related presentations coordinated by the Greater Houston Education Collaboration: a local group that’s doing great things in the area and will likely expand in scope.
The presentation was an interesting experience; we had several different technologies running over the top of one another. There were roughly 20 individuals attending the meeting in person at the AT&T Technology lab at the College of Technology at the University of Houston; we had a number of attendees that were participating via live streaming audio/video; there were members of both of those audiences that were also logged into Second Life, and I believe we had one individual that attended in SL only, which we weren’t expecting and didn’t support very well this time around. Furthermore, our audience was an interesting blend of educator’s that had used SL to some extent (anywhere from 1 day to 2 months) along side those that had perhaps heard of the virtual world. The GHEC site has the archive of the video stream; the web-based version of the presentation is online at http://topherzwiers.wikispaces.com
Depending upon interest from those that attended the meeting in person, I may offer the same presentation/tour of SL via SL only on May 25th: blending that activity into my attendance at the SL Best Practices Conference.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative in SL via NMC
Mar 20th
Anyone else trying to recover from Spring Break? ;-)
Trying to keep track of learning and conference opportunities regarding Second Life or MUVE’s in general is difficult. One such opportunity coming up this next week is the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Spring 2007 Focus Session activity in Raleigh, NC. The session, Immersive Learning Environments: New Paths to Interaction and Engagement, will occur March 27-28.
Fortunately, there will be several sessions from the event streamed into SL for those of us unable to physically attend the event. NMC Campus will be providing virtual access to Richard Van Eyk’s presentation Generation G and the 21st Century (schedule and slurl available via link) on March 27th; from the NMC Wiki:
The growing use of games in learning may signal a new pedagogical approach to educating the millennial generation. We’ll examine the theory behind the effectiveness of games; what the past can teach us about if, how, and when to implement digital game-based learning; and what this will mean for schools.
NMC will also be streaming a number of sessions on the 28th including:
- Cyberinfrastructure-enabled Learning Environments for Gen-Z
- Collaboration, Immersive experience and Interaction – The Innovation Cycle
- Virtual Learning Environments in 3D
- Immersion and Engagement in a Virtual Classroom: Using Second Life for Higher Education
- The Bar May Not Be As High As You Expect: Considerations in Implementing an Immersive Learning Environment
Full details are available via the NMC Wiki for the event. I’ll be trying to fend off other committments to attend these sessions.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...TED 2007 in SL
Mar 9th
Sometime over the past year, I discovered online archived presentations from TED 2006. If you’re not familiar with TED, you should be – particularly given that you’re reading this blog. From the TED.com website,
TED brings together more than 1000 thought-leaders, movers and shakers . . . in Monterey, CA every year . . . for four days of learning, laughter and inspiration. They hear not just the latest ideas in Technology, Entertainment and Design, but also Business, Science and the Arts . . . in fact ANY subject area offering something fresh and important. This unique breadth of content, and the quality of the people who deliver it are what make TED special.
Personally, I think that’s understated. In my words? TED is an extraordinary meeting of some of the most incredible minds and talents in the world. Take a look at the TEDTalks link from their website; several of my favorite presentations from last year are Jeff Han (8/1/06), Ray Kurzweil (11/14/06), and Sirena Huang (8/8/06).
Here’s the cool part, and the reason I’ve posted this here. I’ve thought over the past year that it would be an incredible experience to attend TED in person. While I’m not physically in Monterey, CA with that group of people, Topher is standing on TED Island in SL – enjoying the live stream of TED arranged by Kiwini Oe (with SL, I believe) who is in fact at the conference. AND, I’m able to network and discuss the issues with others also attending TED through SL.
Granted, sitting on my couch may not be the same experience as being in Monterey, but the interaction I now have the opportunity to engage with other professionals interested in TED is very worthwhile, much more real than watching the stream via a website and chatting about it, and it’s an opportunity I would not otherwise have had without SL. Again – the networking capabilities of SL are unparalleled; it makes virtual networking more valuable and possible than it has been previously.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Event. Computing the Future: The 3-D Net
Mar 7th
I just commented yesterday on how important it is for Second Life educators to keep an eye on the NMC Campus blog and calendar. Merely a day later, an incredible opportunity and event has been announced by NMC.
On March 16 @ 10AM PST, Dr. Daniel Reed, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will visit the NMC campus to discuss – via NMC’s audio channel – the potential advances coming to education and research in the next ten years.
This event underscores the importance of monitoring the NMC “goings on” and the incredible networking opportunities available via Second Life. I consider this a can’t miss presentation for those interested in new technologies and the impact they may have on learning environments.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Fragmented We Will Be . . .
Jan 24th
The Real Life Education (RLE) Community in Second Life will be tragically and ironically fragmented if we continue our current “scheduling” and “calendar-itis” habits. In short, SL offers an in-world search feature to help residents find events in which they’re interested; the problem, to me, is that RLE Groups are not using the feature. Instead, they are creating their own web-based calendars in services all over the web. Second Life CAN bring us together, but if we continue to fragment the information that facilitates our meeting, networking and collaborating, we’re limiting ourselves as a community. That’s both tragic and ironic, especially since there’s a solution that meets everyone’s needs.
In the past week, I’ve diligently watched and searched the SL global events listing, and the RLE events are few and far between. At the same time, I have also been watching blogs and other feeds via a news reader and have noticed a good 10-15 RLE events that have occurred or will be occurring in the near future. If we do not, as a community, make an effort to use the in-world events tool, two things will occur to inhibit the collaborative growth of RLE in SL.
First, educators trying SL for the first time will find a virtual world that seems to severely lack RLE content and opportunities. If new educators dropping in-world for the first time stick around more than a few days, what are they going to use to search for RLE events? They’re going to use the in-world events calendar, and what are they going to find when searching for RLE events? Nothing appealing. As of this moment, there are 92 events in the education category scheduled as much as a month into the future: February 27. ONLY TWO of those are RLE. New educators will leave if they find only prim building and BDSM in SL on the list of “educational events.” The wonderful events available in Google Calendars spread across thirty different blogs are absolutely useless in that regard.
Second, educators that are intent on sticking around and learning and finding as much as they can – like myself – will be incredibly frustrated with searching the web seven times over
to find the scores of web-based calendars that have or will be created. At the very least, if RLE events are not scheduled via SL’s integrated tools, our ability to network and collaborate will be artificially and unnecessarily constrained.
The most frustrating issue for me, currently, is that Linden Labs facilitates the use of BOTH in-world and web-based calendars, but the RLE Community is not using the available tools. If you want a web-based calendar of just your events to put on your website, it’s possible to schedule those events in-world and have a web-based calendar generated automagically. And, by doing the manual entry in-world, residents searching there will be guaranteed to find your event. Here’s the process:
- Create your events in Second Life originally; when you do, use some sort of a unique identifier for your group: a combination of letters and/or numbers that don’t occur naturally in language.
- That information will be ported automatically, as are all Second Life events, to Eventful.com.
- With an account at Eventful.com, you can create a personal or a group calendar that will automatically add public events scheduled via the website based upon the keywords you specify. “What” is your unique identifier, and “Where” is Second Life. Violin! You have a dynamic, automatically updated web-based calendar for all of your in-world events.
- Not good enough? Don’t like the Eventful.com interface or features? A google hack? (yeah, I know… me too). Go to your Google Calendars and Add Other Calendar and point it to the iCal format/feed of your Eventful calendar. ! You now have a Google calendar that is also dynamic and automatically updated as you add or modify events in-world. You can then use the RSS/iCal feeds for the calendar as well as the embedded HTML code for putting the Google Calendar into your website.
Try it and see. I created a TUi – Second Life calendar at Eventful calendar which automagically adds events with “TUi” in the title (what) and occurring in Second Life (where). I then created the TUi Calendar from my Google account by pointing to the iCal format of the Eventful calendar which enabled a Google-style web-based calendar and the ability to embed that HTML Google calendar into a website (see below). I didn’t have to go that far, however; I could have just used the Eventful embedding feature. Second Life CAN bring us together, but if we continue to fragment the information that allows us to come together, we’re limiting ourselves as a community. That’s both tragic and ironic.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...History: Marie Antoinette in SL
Jan 22nd
Info Island II announced an event relevant to History classrooms. The event will be Friday, January 26th and Saturday, January 27th – both at 6pm PST. The description of the event . . .
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France in the 18th century, who was beheaded before the French Revolution, will visit Second life Library and the “Throne Room” on Info Island II . . . Marie will tell her story and introduce you to the people in her life during 18th century France. A young woman born at the wrong place at the wrong time, she will share her story from her point of view in an eighteenth century French environment with life size pictures of the people in her life. Contact Lorelei Junot for more information.
This event highlights two capabilities of Second Life of interest to real life educators. First, SL can credibly enhance role playing for educational purposes. I look forward to seeing, “hearing from” and perhaps interacting with a virtual representation of Marie Antoinette. Second, SL enhances the accessibility of subject matter experts; I’ve alluded to this capability before, but it can be summarized in this instance with a question, “How often do college or K-12 classrooms have access to an individual with enough in depth knowledge to assume the persona of a historical figure?” Not often, so I hope the event takes advantage of the opportunity to truly underscore the unique capabilities of SL in real life educational environments.
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