The Always Educational Conference.
For the Always education communities of the future.
For the Always education communities of the future.
Virtual worlds have people in many different time zones. Interest groups, such as educators, can't all get together at the same time. On the other hand, we can easily visit the same virtual world build or web site several times a day. Here are suggestions on how to combine the benefits of virtual worlds with the advantages of social media to get the communication benefits of conferences on a persistent and low cost basis.
- Last January I pointed out that virtual worlds called for a rethinking of conventions:
- Unconventional thinking about conventional conventions in the virtual worlds.
- A recent meeting of VWER discussed the problem smaller scale communication.
- Educators in virtual worlds are always doing things.
- We always have things to report on.
- VWER meets once a week. We are never without news
- We don't need an annual conference, we need an Always Conference
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- What would an Always Conference be like?
- Look below the break
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News and Notes
SciFi Film Festival
- SciFi Film Festival 2015 has a submission fee but
- For videos shot in Second Life, University of Western Australia
- pays the fee.
- Deadline for Regular submissions Midnight – 1 August 2015
- Deadline for Late Submissions Midnight – 29 August 2015
Summer of Arts submissions open Monday on Metropolis
- Summer of Arts 2015
- Open to artists now.
- Open to everyone September 25, 2015
Scroll down for News, Notes, and Info
- Entertainment on the Hypergrid
- OpenSimWorld: HyperGrid Destinations Directory
- OpenSimWorld: upcoming events
- Calendars: Entertainment in the virtual worlds
- More news in my blog roll (column on the right)
What educationally valuable activities happen at educational conferences?
- Presentation of papers
- Informal Q&A sessions with the authors
- Distribution of notes, references, and other material not ready for publication
- Demonstrations, displays, and hands-on experience with instructional resources
- Informal conversations among people who recognize common interests
- Interviews between job seekers and people with positions on offer
How could these be changed from annually to always?
Presentation of papers>Persistent presentations
- The usual presentation consists of speaking, slides, and text handouts.
- That presentation can be made persistent as a video with web links.
- Presentations at VWBPE have been recorded and archived for continuing use.
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- Note how the illustrative video below provides a persistent presentation.
- Unlike ephemeral presentations at a conference, this presentation has a weblink.
- I can reference for my article because it has a persistent weblink.
- Over time, the presentation may reach a wider audience over the web
- Than it ever could in a short conference.
- Skip the first 3 minutes
- Watch on YouTube
- Google Draw
Informal Q&A sessions with the authors
- A lot of discovery and learning happens after the presentation.
- In the form of the Q&A session and subsequent informal chats.
- And these cut off as soon as the conference ends.
- Unless you have arranged for follow-up.
- Create a conference blog. Give authors publication/edit rights for their work.
- Authors may post the presentation or links to it.
- Q&A can go on in comments on the post or to subsequent posts by the authors.
- Readers can search the blog for a particular author to follow that presentation.
- Blogging in virtual worlds. How to... Summary
Distribution of notes, references, and other material not ready for publication
- Already done by web. A conference blog would carry the links to everyone.
Demonstrations, displays, and hands-on experience with instructional resources
- Use videos and 3D displays in virtual worlds
Informal conversations among people who recognize common interests
- Google+ Communities
- Facebook Groups
Interviews between job seekers and people with positions on offer
VWBPE is developing as a model for future conferences
Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) started as an annual conference. But VWBPE now also exists in social media as a continuing virtual world community for keeping up with modern educational developments.
- Facebook group. About 1,800 members
- Google+ community. About 400 members
- New members are welcome to join and post about their work in virtual Worlds
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Related
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News and Notes
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How to handle a Hypergrid address in Firestorm
- Example HG address: grid.kitely.com:8002/Cookie II
- Paste the HG address in the World Map, next to Find. Click Find, TP
- When you get to the grid, look for TP to local destination or use world map.
- Testing HG addresses and address forms. Failure is not forever
- Travelling with Firestorm. Local, nearby, ingrid, Hypergrid, summary
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- Annotated screen shots made with Jing
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