New Media Consortium RSS

New Call for Papers - - Journal of Virtual Worlds Research

Leslie Jarmon aka Bluewave Ogee — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:41:51 -0800

Hello, NMC Members,

Now's the time, after all your hard work, to submit an Abstract about your innovative pedagogical and educational work and research, etc., in SL and in other virtual worlds. My co-editors and I welcome submissions of your abstracts for this special issue wherein you propose your full research papers, research-in-brief papers, “think-pieces”, essays, monographs, interactive online exhibits with accompanying detailed descriptions, and other forms of scholarship.

Theme of our Special ISSURE: Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in Virtual Worlds
Deadlines: Abstract - November 30, 2008.

Full manuscript - January 15, 2009
Publication Date: March 1, 2009

The CALL for PAPERS: http://editor.jvwresearch.org/?p=5

This edition of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is dedicated to
exploring the breadth of designs, pedagogies and curricular
innovations that are actually already being applied to teaching and
learning in virtual worlds. We encourage participation from a broad
range of academics, researchers, educators, and educational
practitioners from across the disciplinary spectrum – including, but
not limited to: curriculum development, educational administration,
distance education, information and knowledge management,
instructional technology, e-learning, communication and education,
sociology, art education, and visual culture. We strongly encourage
submissions that illustrate key findings with examples and case
studies; experimental research; pedagogical innovations; and best
practices for the integration of virtual worlds technologies into the
learning experience.

For further information contact:

Dr. Leslie Jarmon, University of Texas at Austin,
LJarmon@austin.utexas.edu
Dr. Kenneth Y. T. Lim, National Institute of Education, Singapore,
semperveritas88@gmail.com
Dr. B. Stephen Carpenter, II, Texas A&M University, bscarpenter@tamu.edu

The New Media Literacies

NMC — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:58:56 -0800

This short video featuring members of MIT's Project New Media Literacies (NML) "discuss the social skills and cultural competencies needed to fully engage with today's participatory culture." Edited in a modern graphic format, it quickly highlights what is "new" about new media literacy.

Session Types

Nancy Reeves — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:34:17 -0800

Preconference Workshops

These extended-length workshops provides attendees the chance to explore a topic in depth or participate in hands-on training in a variety of new software programs. Preconference Workshops require advance registration and payment of a special fee in addition to the normal Summer Conference registration fees. All preconference sessions which will be held Wednesday, June 10, 2008.

Breakout Sessions

Breakout sessions are 75 minute presentations in a dedicated room. Time should be allowed for a 15 - 20 minute question and answer period at the end of a breakout session. Sessions can include presentations, panel discussions, and hands-on labs. Topics for a breakout session should include any of the above mentioned Session Tracks.

Five Minutes of Fame

The NMC's signature event is back in its original format! Demo your project in five minutes 'cause when the gong sounds, your Five Minutes of Fame are up!

Technology blasts by fast and furious in this fun-filled and entertaining event. Short as it sounds, in five minutes you'll have time to talk about your project's significance; the choices you made in choosing the tools you used; challenges you faced in bringing it to fruition; and how it has been used and might be replicated and/or scaled -- but remember that the clock is ticking!

Projects can include web-based courseware or learning objects; techniques for creating, managing and distributing content; and other creative applications of new media. Faculty projects are especially encouraged. As many as 10 projects will be featured, so add yours to the mix!

Poster and Interactive Sessions

For the fouth time, the NMC will feature Poster Sessions and for the second time will feature Interactive Sessions.

A poster session presentation is an opportunity to showcase a campus or museum project. As in the past all posters will be judged by a group of your peers, with the winners being announced during the Poster Session event held on Thursday, June 11. You may create your poster with any software that you like. The finished size of your poster should be 40" x 60".

An interactive session presentation is designed to showcase new media projects and materials, including online tools, research, and rich content. Wireless connection will be available for all presentations. If you need to use projection for your presentation, you will be required to bring your own projector and screen.

Conference Tracks

Nancy Reeves — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:19:14 -0800

This year, the program focused on four key tracks and are described below:

Applications of Emerging Technologies

This track features sessions that explore the newest technoloigies applied to learning, communication, and creative expression, especially ones featured in the Horizon Report. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

The potential of digital storytelling
Educational applications for mobile devices
New forms of scholarship and emerging forms of publication
Web 2.0 applications
Social networking and collaboration in higher education
Strategies for incorporating user-generated content in institutional media and Web sites
Context-aware environments and devices
Immersive learning experiences and spaces
New media applications for advancing global humanitarian efforts
New media applications delivered over high performance networks
Planning and delivery of new media applications for the health and life sciences

all conference tracks

Best Practices

This track is an opportunity to highlight successful projects, practices, or responses to emerging challenges and issues. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Supporting the research mission
Podcasting and use of audio
Video production and delivery
Educational gaming
Examples of new scholarship
Supporting and working with faculty or curatorial staff
Addressing accessibility
Evaluating the impact of technology on teaching and learning
Integrating pedagogy and technology
Live performances and Internet2
Course management systems

all conference tracks

Digital Stories and New Approaches to Content

This track will explore digital storytelling and encourages sessions that cover the art and mechanics of digital storytelling and provides a showcase for the ways in which digital storytelling is impacting teaching and learning. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Teaching with digital stories
Community-based digital story projects
Integration of digital storytelling into curriculum
Collaborative storytelling projects
Best practices for teaching story telling methods
Approaches for teaching digital story production
Hardware and software for digital story creation
Web-based storytelling

all conference tracks

Tools and Techniques

This track focuses on how to best use the latest software and tools for teaching and learning, including sneak peeks at the newest tools, tips and tricks for using old favorites. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

3D and animation techniques
New media tools and applications
Video production and digital compositing
Open Source projects (e.g. Almagest, Sakai, Steve, Connexions, Pachyderm)
Web 2.0 applications
Mobile delivery of educational content
Demonstrations of new software from key NMC corporate partners
New techniques involving established software
2D animation and motion graphics

all conference tracks

Call for Proposals

Nancy Reeves — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:13:15 -0800

2009 NMC Summer Conference Call for Proposals

The 2009 NMC Summer Conference Call for Proposals will open in early December. Check back here and watch your email for futher updates. The deadline to submit a proposal will be January 31, 2009.

The 2009 NMC Summer Conference is hosted by California State University, Monterey Bay in Monterey, California.

For complete information about the conference, including full details on travel and lodging, look to the links to the left or go to the main conference information.

Conference Tracks

This year's program focuses on four key tracks:

Session Types

Session proposals are solicited in one of four types:

Welcome New NMC Members Who Joined in October 2008!

Nancy Reeves — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:55:12 -0800

Please take a moment and welcome the new NMC Members who joined in October 2008!

Histografica

Alan Levine — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:12:01 -0800

Histografica is an interesting resource of user contributed media - they are aming to build a large collection of historical photographstied to the geographic location and time period; so you can search for photos by both time range and location.

For exmple, searching on Washngton DC pre 1904, I found this photo of the Smithsonian Institution from 1898

You can help grow it by either sharing your photos or adding helpful information to exisiting ones via the comments form.

Histografica http://www.histografica.com/

Otis Awarded Grant From The Getty Foundation to Focus on Feminist Art Movement in Los Angeles

suemaberry — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:56:22 -0800

Otis College of Art and Design is one of 15 art institutions awarded a $130,000 grant from The Getty Foundation to participate in the largest collaborative project undertaken by museums in the region.

Otis’ project, A Public Center of One’s Own: The Woman’s Building’s Contribution to the Arts in Los Angeles is part of the Getty Foundation’s larger initiative, Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 which highlights the post-World War II Los Angeles art scene. The Woman’s Building was recognized as a major site of activity especially during the 1970s and forms a significant role in the history of feminist art and art history.

Research for A Public Center of One’s Own will begin in 2009 and will culminate in a scholarly exhibit and catalogue in 2012. Roundtable discussions will be organized between scholars and artists who were involved with the Woman's Building; a timeline of Woman's Building activities will be created along with a list of artists involved; and Otis faculty will assist in developing educational programs to connect to the exhibition. “The Getty Foundation has recognized the rich tapestry of cultural influences that make up the art of Southern California,” says Terry Wolverton, author of Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Woman's Building . “The breadth and scope of this project will ensure that a complete history of the art of this region is presented and preserved.” Leading the project are artists Sue Maberry, Director of Library and Instructional Technology at Otis and Meg Linton, Director of Otis’ Ben Maltz Gallery and Public Programs. They will work closely with scholars Vivien Green Fryd, Ph.D., Alexandra Juhasz, Ph.D., Jennie Klein, Ph.D., Michelle Moravec, Ph.D., and Jennifer Sorkin, Ph.D. in designing an exhibition about the role of the Woman’s Building and the feminist art movement of Southern California.

“A Public Center of One’s Own will highlight the participants, contributions, and works of art that contributed to the formation of feminist art history, something that needs to be considered in the broader scheme of western art history,” says Fryd. “Too frequently, approaches are taken that privilege New York, but, the movement in Los Angeles was quite different and equally influential,” adds Moravec. Also participating in the project are Sondra Hale and Terry Wolverton, who are current members of the Woman’s Building Board of Directors and co-editors of From Site to Vision: The Woman’s Building in Contemporary Culture ; and Otis professors Meg Cranston, Marlena Donohue, Parme Giuntini, Suzanne Lacy, Kali Nikitas, and Kerri Steinberg.

“There has never been an exhibition or scholarly exhibition catalogue that has fully explored all the contributions of The Woman’s Building to art history,” says Maberry, who was involved in the Woman’s Building as a Program Director. Artist Suzanne Lacy echoes the significance of the project, “As critical as the WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibition, curated by Connie Butler has been in the recent recognition of a completely under-explored era in art history, this exhibition proposed by Otis will be even more central in revealing the radical political and pedagogical impulses of this important art movement.”

Wikipedia for Schools - that's right - and for your iPhone too...

Keene Haywood — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:54:54 -0800

Critical as many people are of using Wikipedia as a reputable source for information. I would argue that while it does contain the mistake or two and has been subject to high profile vandalism, it is getting more and more reliable. In fact, high profile malicious tinkering only makes Wikipedia buckle down even more. Despite the criticism, it is a great place to begin delving into a topic one knows little about. The links at the end of entries can lead you to more content that would require a bit more searching to pull together as well. For technology related topics, it is quite a good reference. Nevertheless, academia has had a hard time embracing Wikipedia for now. But for school children, the UK organization SOS Children has managed to put together a downloadable version that has been checked and cleaned up of more "adult" related content and made available to anyone. You can burn it to DVD for places that do not have web access. I think it is a good thing to see this happen. Many people dish Wikipedia without really knowing much about the editoral process or what is behind it, but with some attention projects like this one can be great for education. If a comprehensive Wikipedia made available for download is appealing to you it might be worth checking out. While geared towards school kids, keep in mind that many 5th graders are considerably smaller than adults :) Here is the intro for the package from Wikipedia (of all places)...

This 2008/9 Wikipedia DVD Selection is a free, hand-checked, non-commercial selection from Wikipedia, targeted around the UK National Curriculum and useful for much of the English speaking world. It has about 5500 articles (as much as can be fitted on a DVD with good size images) and is about the size of a twenty volume encyclopaedia (34,000 images and 20 million words).

Also of note is the iPhone app for Wikipedia that allows you download the motherlode of references into your iPhone or iPod Touch and take it with you, no wires or wireless connections needed...its a stand alone app. Just be careful you don't suffer from the iPhone Know it All syndrome at your next cocktail party. Download with care...

Keene (The University of Texas at Austin - DIIA)

Monittering Twitter...

Keene Haywood — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:33:50 -0800

As the education world begins to get its head around Twitter and the concept of microblogging, a potentially useful way to use this is to look at keywords that are tied to location. Such a tool exists and is quite interesting, almost mesmerising, to watch. But it can also be a quick way for teachers and students to get a snapshot of Twitter posts for a given location. The website Monitter allows one to key in a location and up to three key words and it will then pull Twitter feeds onto the screen. Recording a screencast of the results could be useful in a number of academic areas such as journalism, communications and new media. Plus its just plain fun. So even if you are not Twittering, you can at least play the bystander role and watch others. Along the same lines, Google's hot trends at its zeitgeist website is also interesting to peruse.

Keene (UT-Austin)

Assessing PLE/LMS systems

Alan Levine — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:20:26 -0800

We are starting the processing of evaluating our commitment to our current LMS. We have done some informal surveys in the past but would like to do a real needs assessment to determine what system would best serve our needs - be it Blackboard, Moodle or something else.

Has anyone gone through this process recently and how did you go about gathering input - surveys, focus groups, something else? Any advice or examples would be a tremendous help. As an aside, what did your school end up going with?

Jason Mellen (Bowling Green State University)

Annelie Rugg (UCLA)
UCLA undertook a major assessment of LMS needs for both instruction and collaboration, leading to the choice of Moodle as the underlying software for our Common Collaboration and Learning Environment (CCLE). The entire process is documented at http://oit.ucla.edu/ccle/. Some of the documents in the lefthand navigation menu are not publicly viewable, but it should give you some ideas on what we were looking for.

Melanie Kroening (Mesa Community College)
We are getting ready to start the process so I am gathering similar data as well. Here are some additional links I'm finding useful. The Mohawk one I find to be the one I like best as a model as it involves the faculty and students more, I know I the past we haven't interviewed other schools using the systems so I am interested in ensuring we do a vendor 'background check' of sorts this time around as well as its interesting to hear from similar schools what they think and I think that's a piece we've missed in the past.

http://lmsreview.mohawkcollege.ca/rfp.html (in progress)
http://www.csuchico.edu/tlp/LMS2/minutes.shtml (2005)
http://www.ltrc.mcmaster.ca/lmseval/index.html (April 2008)
http://information.anu.edu.au/daisy/infoservices/1804.html (in progress)
http://at.ufl.edu/~cmsag/ (2002)
http://www.isu.edu/itrc/resources/moodle-info.shtml (2007)

FYI right now we run Blackboard CE 6.2.3. In the past we've done a simpler review process, we started with a general survey of faculty, have had open demos by the vendors with faculty being invited, and then had follow-up surveys and would forward all data to the administrators for decision making. We are talking about faculty focus groups at the beginning of the process this time around so I'd be curious how you structure your review as well :-)

Donna Petherbridge (North Carolina State University)
NC State University's process for moving from WebCT Campus Edition to WebCT (now Blackboard) Vista is documented at:
http://delta2.ncsu.edu/slic/

This move was not "recent" (e.g. 2003/2004), but there are some documents there they may be of use to you.

Currently (2008), we have a Moodle Pilot Implementation Team, comprised of representation among the Distance Education & Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) group, and 4 college representatives - who are instructional/academic technology staff. To begin looking at Moodle, we held two focus groups in October 2007, and invited as many groups as we could think of, getting the "go-ahead" from our faculty & partners that yes, looking into open source was a good idea. You can see the documentation for this project at: http://wikis.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php/LMS_Strategy and note that we've had recent open update sessions as well as several assessments that gather pilot user input , and plans to put together committee structures to help us continue to get user input, no matter what our final decisions are related to what LMS we use.

PS I am at Educause and went to Louisiana State University's session today on their selection of & transition to Moodle. See their info at http://appl027.lsu.edu/itsweb/cmsweb.nsf/

Otto Khera (USC)
See the 2006 MIT Report: "MIT Peer Comparison on Course /Learning Management Systems, Course Materials Life Cycle, and Related Costs."
http://web.mit.edu/emcc/www/MIT-WCET-C-LMS-Final-Report-07-19-06.pdf

We found this to be very helpful here at USC.

DI von Briesen (Central Piedmont Community College)
As the resident Moodle bigot, I can tell you that the following schools on my radar have switched to moodle (just a sampling, but I’m sure they did some analysis prior to the jump).

Guilford Technical Community College (NC) (Amy Brown is contact)
Isothermal Community College (NC)
Blue Ridge Community College (NC) (Alice Crisp is contact)
Louisiana State University
Lane Community College (OR)
Athabasca U in Canada
Open University in the UK

And many others… Then there are some (like my school) that operate Moodle alongside Blackboard- adoption seems to be almost entirely based on which instructional developer/faculty member new employees work with first. There is an advocacy forum on moodle.org at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=2784 (you may need to create a login to access this, but you should anyway if you’re doing this research)

What’s interesting to me is that each school ends up doing their own evaluation, when in fact most schools have the same needs and the same choices, and at the end of the day, any matrix you come up with will not really capture the differences. For example, you can check off that the tools have forums, but what about number of steps to grade each forum? Ability to organized threads? Ability to link to student profiles from each thread, and so on.

You will of course also find people become attached to what they know, for better or for worse. This tunnel vision makes it hard to look with fresh eyes at a different product. I personally feel that the only way for an individual to know is to teach (not evaluate, or check off, but TEACH) classes with each platform. Administrators will base their decision on other things, like support, ease of modification, etc…

In terms of collecting data, I’d highly recommend google forms, which make it very easy to create, publish and collect results from users with no fee or limit of responses- and as part of google docs spreadsheets you can do some basic charting analysis.

An interesting approach might be to look at schools that did NOT switch after doing the evaluation, and figure out why. My experience has been that the biggest nut seems to be conversions of existing courses. There exist no easy and straightforward tools to do entire conversions – though we do them with a combination of tools – but even those take some heavy tweaking.

Finally, be sure to factor in elements of community with your analysis- i.e. to what extent can one join user groups, get help or discuss teaching with other people with regards to that platform.

Milt Nielsenn (Texas State University)
Two, almost three years ago, we did a review on different systems, looking at replacing Blackboard for a lack of growth in tool set, less than the best support and rapidly increasing cost. Consequently, those issues were at the top of our list of characteristics to be supported by a new LMS. As we opened our list to open source, while exploring the cost issue, we also included concerns about long term viability, cost if any existing support structure we would rely upon suddenly disappeared, the cost of “going it alone,” the probability of “going it alone,” design that supported continuous addition of viable tool sets introduced by faculty and students, and scalability to deal with expected growth in student population and use of an LMS. Database flexibility also showed up. At that point Moodle had not developed to its current state. We selected Sakai. Moodle is really liked for its simplicity of use. In contrast, Sakai, is liked for its customizability and complexity in that it allows for broadened and more variance in its use as a student or faculty project communication tool amongst other things. Our list seemed at that time to best fit with Sakai. We have not started our formative system evaluation at this point, so I cannot comment on the growth of Moodle, which based upon comments of some of our contemporaries is fairly significant. I would just emphasize doing as detailed front end analysis to include many areas of growth and all the really costs so you don’t have to replace again soon, especially if you choose an open source tool and make the associated commitments.

A major source of input was the faculty requests and complaints about the current system. Inputs from our instructional technologies advisory group (which includes our early innovators as well as some technologically challenged) were also helpful. We also looked at the marketing of commercial LMS’s and evaluated their “new developments” for viability and value. Subsequently, we had our help desk team and the advisory group evaluated our list of expected characteristics, as did as our instructional design and software production teams.

Kathy Fernande (California State University)
From CSU Chico, we have put up our rubrics and our committee notes on how we decided 3 years ago to go with our "Next Generation Learning Management System."
http://www/tlp/LMS2/ While the specifics of the rubric and evaluation questions could change, the process was very good.

Meanwhile, at the CSU Chancellor's Office, we did both an RFI and RFP (Request for Proposal) process early this year (2008). This process is not about the Chancellor's Office deciding what the 23 CSU campuses will use for an LMS. Rather, this process is to qualify the vendors and products to ensure we've done our due diligence and surveyed the market appropriately. Due to our strict accessibility issues in the CSU, only Moodle and Angel made the cut the first time. We are currently in another round of doing an RFP for the CSU. This process was very helpful to the CSU campuses to have all this information available to consider while determining what process their campus would use to make a decision on their future LMS. Not every campus has done their strategic planning on this but every campus who has used a different process to determine their outcome based on campus technology committees and processes already established at their campus to make academic technology decisions.

[Attached] is a copy of our current CSU LMS Request for Proposals. This document doesn't "give answers" but does cause the institution to reflect and question all aspects of an LMS so that appropriate consideration can be given to all aspects of choosing an LMS for the future.

Apple's 2008 Insomnia Film Festival

Don Henderson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:03:39 -0800

"Turn 24 hours into a 3-minute masterpiece."

Starting October 22, 2008, college and high school students can register for the third-annual Insomnia Film Festival.

Students teams have 24 hours starting the morning of November 15, 2008 to write, shoot, and edit a 3-minute film. Films will be voted on by the public and a panel of celebrity judges to decide which teams are awarded the grand prize of a Mac Book Pro and collection of Apple software.

Get the info and track the winners at:http://www.apple.com/education/go/insomnia/nmc

Apple's 2008 Insomnia Film Festival

Don Henderson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:17:29 -0800

Starting October 22, 2008, college and high school students can register for the third-annual Insomnia Film Festival.

If you earn the #1 rating from either the public or the pros, you'll land one of two grand prizes. Everyone on your team will get a MacBook Pro, Final Cut Studio 2, Logic Studio, Shake, and a year's worth of One to One personal training to help you use them.

Watch this space...Web 3.0 is coming...or is it?

Keene Haywood — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:42:22 -0800

Hindsight is 20-20 and no one can really predict the future. In terms of the internet, the term Web 2.0 is starting to seem a bit long in tooth. It is incredible to see where the web has come from just a few years ago. It is a bit harder to predict where things are heading, although a few of the experts have given their two cents about it, which was recently written about on the ReadWriteWeb blog . The big buzzword for the next iteration of the web is "semantic". This word is being bandied about within the context of personalization, artificial intelligence and highly contextualized search. In other words, the prediction is that the web will become a version of itself that is smarter, more powerful and more meaningful to each individual user. It is the lack of true semantics in web technologies that create such a time suck for many people. The paradox of finding lots of information that is exactly what one needs and nothing useful at all that is where the web is today. Search engines and the computers that deploy them cannot read our minds...yet.

In several years time we may look back and think that our Google searches were oh so elementary. Indeed these searchers are starting to appear this way now. Many of us rapidly adopt the first link or first page of results as the end all be all of the Google search findings. Yet the web is incredibly deep and finding specific information will only becoming more challenging. Making sense of that information and giving it to the end user in ways truly benefitting is when the web will make another leap in its evolution. The web has succeeded in connecting many of us on our planet. Many more are still waiting in the wings to be connected but it will happen whether through WiFi, cellular networks or good ole' hard wired modems. The web has also succeeded in being a platform for sharing, collaborating and empowering individuals to express themselves like never before. This is rattling the chains of traditional, hallmarks of communication and media such as publishing, broadcast tv, radio, the movie industry and of course music. Presently, the web and its search engines are okay at finding things but they will get much better. What will be a bigger boon to users is when information can be tailored to their specific needs and interests giving back information they know is reliable, up to date and accurate. Mark Johnson, a developer from Microsoft, who is interviewed in the ReadWriteWeb post, succinctly sums up much of what the the next iteration of the web may be like:

the next era of the Web will represent greater understanding of computers.' He went on to suggest that 'if Web 1.0 was about Read and Web 2.0 was about Read/Write, then Web 3.0 should be about Read/Write/Understand.' Specifically he said that 'a computer that can understand should be able to: find us information that we care about better (e.g., smart news alerts), make intelligent recommendations for us (e.g., implicit recommendations based on our reading/surfing/buying behavior), aggregate and simplify information. . . and probably lots of other things that we haven't yet imagined, since our computers are still pretty dumb.

As another interviewee comments, there are still plenty of problems in the world that will keep Web 2.0 alive and well for awhile, but technology marches on and emergence of new directions for the web will be interesting to follow. And perhaps the web will also become more of a tool to tackle many of the worlds problems... Publisher Tim O'Reilly, who coined the term Web 2.0, has recently called upon developers to turn their attention to solving the big problems in the world with technology. Indeed perhaps the next iteration of the web will start to make sense of just where all the strands are going and how we all fit into those strands. The term web can be visualized to be quite messy or quite organized. Right now its quite messy, a child still learning its way in the world, but hopefully the web will start making more sense to each person who uses it whether for learning, helping others or solving the next big hurdle the world faces. And then we will begin to do things with the web that we could only imagine before.

Keene

Rock the Academy Symposium Opening Reception

Alan Levine — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:39:33 -0800

The twelfth in the series of NMC Virtual Symposia, Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning, opened last night at NMC Conference Center with a nicely attended reception.

This fourth of these online conference held completely in Second Life, Rock The Academy is intended to explore the ideas and activities that are changing/revolutionizing the shape of education today. With some meeting and greeting, NMC staff welcomed attendees from as far away as Hong Kong, Australia, and Austin ;-) and one NMC staff member stationed in Iceland.

At the reception, participants took on the challenge of our Treasure Hunt; you can try it yourself by looking for the instructions in the treasure chest placed out in the Grace Hopper Expo Center. This activity had people looking all over the Conference Center sim for the magic lamps that handed out clues to a puzzle. Top prizes (L$2500) went to Marcia Kjeller and Chimera Cosmos for getting in their answers first-- and Marcia was gracious enough to turn over her prize to the avatar that was newest to Second Life- Shaffer Parx who had made his avatar at just 1:00PM yesterday.

We then went down to the Cooper Coliseum for some fabulous live music from the very talented Jean Munro:

There is just something that is so exciting and what makes Second life special to be virtually together with a live performance.

The Symposium opens today with a welcome at 10:00am PDT by NMC CEO Larry Pixel (aka Larry Johnson) and we have a great opener in Desideria Stockton (aka Beth Ritter-Guth) on "Teaching Naked: An A-Z Guide to Open Access Teaching". Other sessions today touch on using Wikipedia and YouTube in Academic Research; Virtual Cinematography, History of Ideas via the BBC's In Our Time. and Infrastructures and Sandboxes in Second Life.

Today we are really rocking!
http://www.nmc.org/2008-fall-virtual-symposium