Monday, December 24, 2018

2018 EDU: HG: Mainstreaming Virtual World Learning Colloquium. And some suggestions.


Mainstreaming Virtual World Learning Colloquium
Updated 1/4/2019
A report on a recent colloquium of educators in virtual worlds.  And some suggestions for making more use of the affordances of virtual worlds

The Empty Classroom
  • Saturday, December 1, 2018 - 9:00 AM to 2:30 PM
  • We weren't in a conference room.  We were comfortably at home.
  • Nevertheless, we were meeting with two dozen colleagues.
  • This Colloquium was a week before OSCC (Open Sim Community Conference).
  • How can people afford the time and money go to 2 meetings in a month?
  • Mainstreaming Virtual World Learning Colloquium

Contents

  • Where can you hold a time-spread convention?
  • Program and video link (TBD) 
  • Colloquium reprise at OSCC 
  • About the colloquium
  • Unconventional conventions
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Where can you hold a convention a time-spread convention?

  • In a virtual world (MUVE).   
  • No travel cost.  No travel time.  No carbon footprint.  
  • Less than 30 seconds to get there from anywhere.
  • All we did was show pictures and talk to each other.
  • Which is all we would do in a colloquium of the old-fashioned kind.
  • We could have one of these meetings every quarter--or even weekly.  
  • Don't ask me why we do it this way.  
  • My question is why do people still do it the old way. 
  • Unconventional thinking about conventional conventions in the virtual worlds

Program and video link

  •   -- Central Time –
  •   9:00 – 9:15 a.m.       Welcome - Kay McLennan, Tulane University
  •   9:15 – 9:45 a.m.       Rachel Umoren, University of Washington
  •   9:45 – 10:15 a.m.     Eileen O’Connor, SUNY Empire State College
  •  10:15 – 10:45 a.m.    Joyce Bettencourt, Nonprofit Commons
  •  10:45 – 11:15 a.m.    Barbara Truman, University of Central Florida
  •  11:15 – 11:45 a.m.    Andrew Stricker, Air University
  •  11:45 – 12:15 p.m.     BREAK
  •  12:15 – 12:45 p.m.    Cynthia Calongne, Colorado Technical University
  •  12:45 – 1:15 p.m.      Valerie Hill, Community Virtual Library Database
  •    1:15 – 1:45 p.m.      Crista Lopes, University of California-Irvine
  •    1:45 – 2:30 p.m.    Questions & Audience Discussion Period
  • Note that the presentations were 30 minutes: 
  • 20 minutes talk, 5 minutes QA, 5 minutes intermission. 

Video link

Colloquium reprise at OSCC 

Colloquium:  talking together
  • We talk together all the time in virtual worlds (MUVEs)
  • HG address:
  • cc.opensimulator.org:8002:OSCC Expo Zone 3
  • Put the HG address in the Find bar of your world map.  Click Find, TP
  • Get a landmark when you are there.
Like poster presentations
Click image to enlarge
Each presenter has a poster place
Presenters could offer
follow-up meetings
Many universities are represented

A model for unconventional conventions

  • Online means: No travel time.  No travel costs.
  • Allows more frequent meetings.   Don't wait a year to catch up.
  • Meet more often, have shorter meetings.  Use the location.    
  • The internet, the browser, the resources of the web.
  • .-
  • This model should sell on cost-effectiveness alone.
  • Not to mention low carbon footprint and redefining "disability."

Plan for a floating conference on education in virtual worlds

  • The conference meets 48 weekends for one hour.
  • Getting there is as easy as turning on the television--and much more interesting.
  • Eight universities sponsor six weeks each.
  • The conference creates its own blog from presentations, proposals, etc.
  • Proposals are in the form of executive summaries posted in the blog.
  • Selection is made by the sponsoring university.
  • These are poster presentations of 15 minutes each.
  • Presentation: 6-10 minutes, remainder is QA.
  • Presenters can return later to present more.
  • Presentations are captured on video and posted promptly.

Poster presentations

  • Poster presentations: Language of the previous century for the oldsters.
  • The information is presented in posters (web pages in the modern era.)
  • The posters are out in advance (Posters =MOAPs in the modern era)
  • The presenter has a scheduled time for a summary and QA session.

Executive summary

Video capture and posting

  • Video capture is done by sponsoring university.  
  • Each presentation is captured and posted separately.
  • The presentation and QA may be separated for shorter videos.
  • Post the videos on the conference blog in the week following.  

Could the products here be considered peer reviewed?

  • Only if we are prepared to be even more unconventional.
  • We do have plenty of people who would qualify as peers.
  • We do have videos.  We could ask peers to volunteer to review.
  • We might ask those who want peer review to submit a text copy.
  • That is a bit more conventional.  We would not ask for something on paper.
  • That would be too old-fashioned.
















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