Oct 20

If you are a researcher, institutional manager or practitioner involved in technology-enhanced learning and teaching, Innovating e-Learning 2009 will be of interest to you. Delegates from further and higher education and from overseas are welcome.

Proceedings take place in an asynchronous virtual environment which can be accessed wherever and whenever is convenient to you. The 2009 conference also includes opportunities to participate in real-time sessions in Elluminate® (a tool for interactive online collaboration, provided by Netskills), see presenters on video, meet other delegates in the Virtual Coffee Shop and try your hand at new tools and techniques. There will also be sessions using Second Life, with the support of the Regional Support Centres.

The online conference website contains further details of the event and how to participate.

There are two sessions focusing on virtual worlds. These are in theme 2, which runs for 48 hours from 8.30am on Thursday 26 November 2009:

Exploring the potential of virtual worlds for teaching & learning
Kathryn Trinder (Glasgow Caledonian University). Facilitated by David White.

What is it about 3D Virtual Worlds that have captured our interest so much? The educational community is all a-buzz with these things, possibly more so than any technology we’ve encountered before, even the humble iPod… but perhaps this provides us with a clue?

VWs, such as Second Life, are not just one technology – they are infinite yet initially empty spaces, provided with tool kits that are full of developing & evolving technologies that can make up an entire world, bulging with possibilities as yet unexplored. Or at least they can be if, we are told, we have the imagination.

Over the last couple of years Glasgow Caledonian University has been exploring, developing, and teaching in Second Life. This session will present the background of the work plus demonstrations of some of the projects. With the help of the teachers, and maybe one or two learners (if we can catch them for a moment in their busy lives), we will show a range of subject disciplines and consider some of the findings from these projects.

As you will see GCU has been, like many others in H.E., piloting ideas and building on those, but the rhetoric in our educational communities suggests that we should already have moved on from these early stages of development. But how, and what?

Have we, perhaps, been conned by the speed of ‘change’ on the Internet into rushing to judgment about the role of new platforms? How much do we really understand at this point, and how much more will evolve over the next few years?

Perhaps we should consider how we can avoid repeating what we already do in the physical world, and, instead of building 500 seat virtual lecture theatres, embrace pedagogies beyond our traditional models? Or what about the broader issues around social cultural boundaries and internationalisation? And can we make use of all of this to extend the use of VWs to better support our students who increasingly reside online?

Choosing the best virtual world for your teaching needs
John Kirriemuir (Consultant). Facilitated by David White.

There are many virtual worlds, of which an indeterminate subset have potential use in education. Wikipedia lists [1] 66 pages for “Virtual reality community”, most (but not all) of which are arguably stand-alone virtual worlds. Yesha Sivan [2] quotes “more than 100 other worlds”. And these virtual worlds are being developed, and eliminated, at a rapid rate …

An increasing number of these, such as Second Life, OpenSim and OLIVE, have been used in a wide range of teaching and learning situations, in universities and colleges across several countries. A sample of UK university academics who responded to an October 2009 Virtual World Watch [3] report on choosing virtual worlds had considered, or used, 15 different such environments between them.

Even when an academic has a stable list of virtual world options, the criteria for comparisons is a complex area in itself. Websites are littered with comparative charts of different complexity and criteria. Sarah Robbins, as part of her PhD research, undertook a facet study [4] of around 60 virtual worlds. From this, she has made a useful Google spreadsheet of her data available online. But many teachers and lecturers in academia do not have the time, or knowledge base, to develop and use their own complex framework.

So how did they, or should they, choose which virtual world is the most appropriate for their particular teaching needs? Are their selection criteria driven by pedagogic needs, or by resource, time or political pressures? And when should an academic consider using a virtual world at all?

And what of your experiences with virtual worlds? Having used one in a formal teaching initiative, would you choose a different one if repeating the exercise? What were the most important advantages, or disadvantages, of using the virtual world that you did?

We do not necessarily have the answers either, but we hope that you may…

References

1 Wikipedia index page for Virtual reality communities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Virtual_reality_communities
2 Sivan, Y. (2009). Overview: State of Virtual Worlds Standards in 2009, 2(3). https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/article/view/671/539
3 Virtual World Watch: http://www.virtualworldwatch.net
4 Virtual Worlds Facet Study, by Sarah Robbins: http://is.gd/3PtmL

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Oct 18

Call for Papers
Beyond Distance Research Alliance, University of Leicester
Learning Futures Festival Online 2010
“Positively Disruptive”
7th – 14th January 2010

Beyond Distance Research Alliance is a research and development centre with an international reputation based at the University of Leicester, headed by Professor Gilly Salmon. Beyond Distance will hold its 5th annual Learning Futures Festival Online 7th-14th January 2010. The festival title, “Positively Disruptive,” reflects the promise and challenge of innovative and future learning, moving from sharing good to outstanding practice and presenting risks and difficulties as well as new horizons.

The Festival will include synchronous and asynchronous e-tivities led by top practitioners in e-learning research – a great opportunity to us to work together to create, explore, and present for discussion a variety of plausible alternative futures for learning and teaching approaches in Higher Education.

The Festival will also feature a number of short-paper presentation sessions for which we invite submissions related to the following themes:

1. Economics: why waste a good crisis? Economic challenge can be an opportunity to create solutions and methods that are less expensive, cleverer, and better than before! The economic crisis may be just the opportunity e-learning has been waiting for to show that it has come of age.

2. Opening the e-doors to learner generated and open content: contributing or shrieking? The open education movement can be polarising, but whether you love it or hate it, it looks as if it’s here to say. Let’s have some healthy debate here.

3. Learning from the learners: do they know? Today’s learners can exercise greater choice over what to learn – and how to learn it — than earlier generations, and are more demanding customers. The role of learner experience in shaping the content and the delivery of the curriculum has been debated for decades. Do we have innovative answers for the 21st century?

4. Personalising the info-cloud: rain or sun? Today’s learners have amazing opportunities to personalise their learning and work informally with each other. But worries for HE include security risks and loss of privacy. How can we make the benefits outweigh the risks?

5. Silos in universities: can you make the connections? Is your quest too complex? Innovation in universities can be hindered by lack of communication between and even within departments. Success stories happen when individuals employ creative strategies to bridge the gaps. Tell us yours!

6. Learning from failure: if you had your time again…? Often the most valuable data is gathered when things don’t go according to plan. Time to share, time to expose, time to learn from each other…

7. Geo-everything: we know where you are – where are you going? GPS, mobile learning, Google Earth – what is the future for learning in this virtual global village we inhabit today? Tell us how you’re deploying it.

8. Second Life for the Second Decade: are we human or are we avatars? Second Life sometimes reflects First Life and sometimes contradicts it. Image and Build! Establishing an online identity is key to collaboration – can your avatar tell us how?

If you’d like to submit a practitioners paper and present during the conference please read carefully.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS: 23rd October 2009
NOTIFICATION: 13th November 2009.

All selected presenters will be required to register for the conference at a special rate of GBP 25. Maximum 2 presenters per paper.

Criteria for selection
• Quality of submission
• Relevance to and balance of festival themes
• Value to the learning technology and academic practitioner community
• Demonstrated level of innovation and future orientation

Please submit your abstract (400 MAX words) outlining
1. Theme to which it relates
2. Title
3. Presenter(s), name(s) , institution(s), role(s)
4. E mails, telephone numbers.
5. 3 lines maximum summary
6. The context
7. Outcomes, advantages,
8. Challenges, and
9. Implications for the future of learning

Reviewers panel consisting of researchers and practitioners will select the final submissions. Abstracts should be submitted by visiting http://www.le.ac.uk/beyonddistance/festival/ and following the instructions to submit an abstract. Abstracts must be received by 23 October, 2009. Notification of selection will take place 13 November, 2009.
Final submissions of up to 1500 words must be received by the festival organisers by 11 December, 2009. Full papers will be posted online.

Presentations for the Learning Futures Festival Online will take place through a live online environment, which will enable participants to see the presenter via the presenter’s webcam, hear the presenter and see the presentation online. Presentation materials may take the form of PowerPoint or any other application. After the live presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session.
Selected presenters will be requested to enable their papers and presentation to be created as an Open Education Resource.

Keynote speakers will include:

Dr Stephen Bax – Reader, University of Bedfordshire; formerly Principal Lecturer in Language Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University where he directed CRADLE – the Centre for Research, Assessment and Development in Language Education, and directed the Department’s In-House MA programme in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). He has published widely in Teacher Education and in Computer Assisted Language Learning, is an elected Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists and speaks Arabic, Spanish and French. He is also interested in Akkadian and other ancient and modern Semitic languages and has authored numerous websites, including language-learning sites for the BBC World Service.

Dr Chris Davies lectures at the Oxford University Department of Education, where he is course director for the MSc in eLearning and Research Associate of the Oxford Internet Institute. Among Chris’s current projects are the Becta-funded “Learners and their Context” project, looking into learners’ uses of technology in the home for learning, as part of the UK Government’s Harnesssing Technology Strategy. He organises the ESRC-funded seminar series The Educational and Social Impact of New Technologies on Young People in Britain, and is a member of a cross-disciplinary team working on the first stage of a project to develop a computer-based digital tool for supporting adult learners.

Contact Terese Bird (Beyond Distance Learning Technologist) with specific enquiries at t.bird@le.ac.uk

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Apr 21

A presentation given today at the Virtual Worlds conference, organised by JISC RSC Northern, in Sunderland.

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Apr 17

The Virtual Worlds Conference takes place this tuesday coming (April 21st) in Sunderland. And it’s a pretty impressive line-up of UK academic virtual world developers, the best seen at an event so far this year.

Twittering will, inevitably take place. In fact it’s already started. There are three conference tags currently being used:

#rscn09 (official)
#rscnvw09 (RSC VW event format)
#ItsGrimUpNorth (most used)

There’s also an aggregator of social media content for this event, set up by Kathryn Trinder.

Several Most of the speakers twitter. Here are ones known about; if you are speaking but not on the list get in touch and you’ll be added:

Shaun Allan
Simon Ball
Kate Boardman [Presentation]
David Burden
Anne Cunningham
Gareth Davies
Jane Edwards
Shri Footring
Ferdinand Francino
Harold Fricker
John Kirriemuir [Presentation]
Daniel Livingstone
Annabeth Robinson
Garfield Southall
Steve Thompson
Kathryn Trinder [Presentation]
Lisa Whistlecroft

And a few of the conference organisers are also using twitter:

Paul Miller
Cam Swift

Hope to see you in Sunderland next week!

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Apr 13

Kate Boardman is the head of e-learning at the University of Teesside. As such, she is involved in a number of Second Life activities within the university and has created a fair amount of “stuff” herself in-world. In this weeks podcast, she describes her path to using Second Life, and some of the issues she has dealt with in using this media within an academic environment.

If you want to see her in the flesh and hear her speak, then Kate is doing the 3pm keynote presentation at the Virtual Worlds event in Sunderland on the 21st April. Her slides can be viewed online:

Kate can also be followed on Twitter.

The podcast interview with Kate can be found on the ‘Start the Week’ podcast page.

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Feb 22

Virtual World Watch is speaking at a trio of JISC RSc events in March and April:

March 17th: Wolverhampton. Virtual Worlds in Education Forum. Organised by JISC RSc West Midlands.

March 31st: Cambridge. The Reality of Virtual Worlds. Organised by JISC RSc Eastern.

April 21st: Sunderland. Virtual Worlds Conference 2009. Organised by JISC RSc Northern.

If you are interested in VWW speaking at your event, about some aspect of the use of virtual worlds in UK teaching and learning, then please get in touch.

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Dec 02

Virtual World Watch will next be speaking at an all-day event in Glasgow, Scotland, on January 16th 2009.

Maximising the effectiveness of virtual worlds in teaching and learning

Target audience: Learning Technologists, Policy Makers, HE and FE Lecturers

This joint event organised by JISC CETIS and Eduserv will provide a range of perspectives on the use of virtual worlds in HE from experienced practitioners.

Specifically, this event aims to explore the following issues:

  • What are the teaching situations for which Virtual Worlds are best suited?
  • What are the policy issues which arise from using Virtual Worlds for Learning and Teaching?
  • What are the technical characteristics/constraints of Virtual Worlds which have an impact on their use in Learning and Teaching?

In addition, attendees will gain an understanding of why some experts believe that Virtual Worlds will have a large impact on Education.

Virtual World Watch is speaking at this event, between 10:45 and 11:25: Who’s teaching? Who’s learnng? The state of Second Life in UK HE and FE.

The whole programme is interesting, with experienced SL practitioners speaking, so consider signing up.

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Nov 20

This is taking place in Milton Keynes (in the Real World), on November 20th and 21st. It’s a pretty exciting programme of good and interesting speakers and is thus worth keeping an eye on and exploring, if you aren’t there (RL or VW) already.

#relive08

More…

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Oct 19

Virtual World Watch is at the following events, if you want to discuss the use of Second Life and Virtual Worlds in UK universities and colleges:

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