ISTE VEN Focus Sessions 2015-2016
The ISTE Virtual Environments Network's Focus Sessions featured noted practitioners of education in virtual environments, in an interactive setting, monthly in Second Life. These sessions have been discontinued. See the navigation menu above for links to the archives.
June 21, 2016: Lyr Lobo and Spinoza Quinnell on Signature Character Strengths
Lyr Lobo and Spinoza Quinnell invite you to join ISTE VEN on The AU Metaverse in OpenSim June 21st at 5PM SLT and explore edu games and the interactive Signature Character Strengths simulation for understanding yourself and others. Curious about your strengths? Take the VIA Character Strengths survey - it takes 15 minutes: http://www.viacharacter.org/www/Character-Strengths/VIA-Classification
This event is NOT in Second Life. We will travel to an OpenSim Metaverse of grids hosted in the Amazon cloud.
ACCESS: Login to Avacon, OSGrid, Kitely or create a new account prior to the session at the AU Metaverse website at:http://metaverse.austudiox.com:9000
From distant worlds, use this Hypergrid URL in Firestorm or Singularity's Map search field: http://metaverse.austudiox.com:9000
If unsuccessful, remove the http:// and try again. Some browsers add it. metaverse.austudiox.com:9000
How to Hypergrid: http://vwbpe.org/attendees/accessing/hypergrid
Dr. Cynthia Calongne, aka Lyr Lobo, is a professor, author, and researcher with 20 years of experience in developing virtual environments and teaching at Colorado Technical University, and most recently, for CCCOnline. She taught 48 CTU classes and a host of tutorial workshops in Second Life. She began researching immersive VR interfaces for the PC in 1995 after working for 13 years as a software engineer and systems programmer for Air Force Space Command and on Capitol Hill. In 2010, Andy Stricker, Mike McCrocklin, and Cynthia Calongne won the first $25,000 Grand Prize in the Federal Virtual World Challenge for the Mars Expedition Strategy Challenge. Today, they research the integration of games, virtual worlds, open source learning portals and big data analytics.
Dr. Andrew Stricker, aka Spinoza Quinnell, serves Air University by helping to design, develop, and implement advanced and emerging learning technologies into Air Force educational and professional military education programs. Prior to his arrival to Air University Andrew served Vanderbilt University as Associate Provost for Innovation Through Technology. He was responsible for working with academic, technology and administrative leaders to prioritize, plan and execute the infusion of educational technologies and enabling innovations for improving learning, teaching and research. Andrew also served 27 years as an Air Force officer and scientist specializing in behavioral sciences and human-factors engineering. His graduate work was conducted at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas and Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
This event is NOT in Second Life. We will travel to an OpenSim Metaverse of grids hosted in the Amazon cloud.
ACCESS: Login to Avacon, OSGrid, Kitely or create a new account prior to the session at the AU Metaverse website at:http://metaverse.austudiox.com:9000
From distant worlds, use this Hypergrid URL in Firestorm or Singularity's Map search field: http://metaverse.austudiox.com:9000
If unsuccessful, remove the http:// and try again. Some browsers add it. metaverse.austudiox.com:9000
How to Hypergrid: http://vwbpe.org/attendees/accessing/hypergrid
Dr. Cynthia Calongne, aka Lyr Lobo, is a professor, author, and researcher with 20 years of experience in developing virtual environments and teaching at Colorado Technical University, and most recently, for CCCOnline. She taught 48 CTU classes and a host of tutorial workshops in Second Life. She began researching immersive VR interfaces for the PC in 1995 after working for 13 years as a software engineer and systems programmer for Air Force Space Command and on Capitol Hill. In 2010, Andy Stricker, Mike McCrocklin, and Cynthia Calongne won the first $25,000 Grand Prize in the Federal Virtual World Challenge for the Mars Expedition Strategy Challenge. Today, they research the integration of games, virtual worlds, open source learning portals and big data analytics.
Dr. Andrew Stricker, aka Spinoza Quinnell, serves Air University by helping to design, develop, and implement advanced and emerging learning technologies into Air Force educational and professional military education programs. Prior to his arrival to Air University Andrew served Vanderbilt University as Associate Provost for Innovation Through Technology. He was responsible for working with academic, technology and administrative leaders to prioritize, plan and execute the infusion of educational technologies and enabling innovations for improving learning, teaching and research. Andrew also served 27 years as an Air Force officer and scientist specializing in behavioral sciences and human-factors engineering. His graduate work was conducted at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas and Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
May 17, 2016: Beth Ritter-Guth on "Literature Alive!"
Literature Alive!, run by Beth Ritter-Guth (Desideria Stockton in Second Life), has been active in Second Life for 9 years. The 82 literary builds have ranged from small builds (Puritanical Writings) to full sim spaces (Dante’s Inferno).This interactive lecture will highlight the various builds created over the past nine years including the works of Gloria Naylor, Dante, and Chaucer. One recent project was the Immersive Experience of Medieval Quest during the VWBPE Conference.
Beth Ritter-Guth is the Director of Instructional Design and Director of American Honors at Union County College in Cranford, NJ. She is the Advisor to the Gaming and Animation Society and the Cyber Security Society. Her hope is to inspire K-12 and college curriculum committees to teach programming languages and cyber security as part of the standard curriculum. She believes that coding is the universal language of the future and can help strengthen global relations. When not sitting in front of a computer, Beth loves nature and is fond of hiking, geocaching, kayaking, and swimming.
Beth Ritter-Guth is the Director of Instructional Design and Director of American Honors at Union County College in Cranford, NJ. She is the Advisor to the Gaming and Animation Society and the Cyber Security Society. Her hope is to inspire K-12 and college curriculum committees to teach programming languages and cyber security as part of the standard curriculum. She believes that coding is the universal language of the future and can help strengthen global relations. When not sitting in front of a computer, Beth loves nature and is fond of hiking, geocaching, kayaking, and swimming.
April 19, 2016: David fliesen on "Knowing Your Game Audience"
David Fliesen (SL: Joey Aboma/ OpenSim: Sun Tzu) is a 3D Content Developer at AvaCon, where he also helps as a community manager for the Free Virtual Land for Social Good Organizations (https://www.avacon.org/blog/events/free-virtual-land-for-social-good-organizations/). He graduated last month with a BFA in media arts & animation from the Art Institue of Virginia Beach and has a broad range of virtual worlds and serious gaming experience -- developing courses for Rasmussen College in Engineering Virtual Worlds and the MEDATAR serious medical game proof of concept for the U.S. Air Force's Surgeon General. His portfolio is online at: http://character-animator.weebly.com
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"Knowing your Game Audience" will help you understand how to best reach "the player" by better understanding WHO they are and WHAT motivates them to play. This Focus Session will include opportunities for learning your own player type, taxonomy of game pleasures, and personality types -- as together we explore everything from psychographics to demographics to better know the players of our games.
March 15, 2016: Spiff Whitfield's Wild and Crazy Ideas
Spiff Whitfield (Andy Wheelock in RL) has been awarded the Thinkerer Award from VWBPE, the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference. He will give us a retrospective of his work so far in Second Life and OpenSim, with the Virtual Pioneers and ISTE VEN. He will talk about his up and coming projects and how they tie in with Second Life builds, and reveal his super secret upcoming projects. Spiff has been on the other side of the ISTE VEN Speaker Series many times; now it's his turn to share some of his wide-ranging work and knowledge with us.
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February 16, 2016: Phelan Corrimal and Letty Luckstone on VWBPE
Please join the ISTE Virtual Environments Network for an evening with Phelan Corrimal and Letty Luckstone. The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference (VWBPE) is coming up on March 9-12, and there is an amazing array of offerings this year. Come get a preview of what's coming up! Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education is a global grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments. This open conference is organized by educators, for educators, to provide an opportunity to showcase the learning that takes place in this community of practice. All educators are encouraged to present, attend and take part in this discussion of collaborative deeper learning and co-presence in virtual worlds and games. Kevin Feenan, Letitia De Leon, and Lorraine Mockford (SL: Lorivonne Lustre) are the executive directors for the conference.
Kevin Feenan (SL: Phelan Corrimal) is the Founder of Rockcliffe University Consortium. Kevin holds an MBA from the University of Toronto and has a background in Organizational Desgin, IMIT Application Architecture and Development, Business Analysis, and Education. Rockcliffe (http://urockcliffe.com) is an association dedicated to the development of best practices in education and technology. Rockcliffe focuses on the relationships between researchers, students, and instructional designers to develop new methods of creating, and transferring, knowledge. Rockcliffe has a strong expert base using the latest advancements in 3D visualization and gamification.
Letitia De Leon (SL: Letty Luckstone) is an associate professor in the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, with an EdD in curriculum and instruction, whose research interest is on how adult learners learn, what motivates them, and what can have transformative effects on their professional identities.
January 19, 2016: Stephen Xootfly and Nova Saunders on Science in Virtual Worlds
Stephen Gasior (Stephen Xootfly in virtual worlds) focuses on advancing and communicating biology in his professional career. As a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow, he published several journal articles in the areas of DNA repair, cancer biology, genomics, and biotechnology. As an educator he has taught molecular biology and human anatomy and physiology lab courses as well as lectures in genetics, human anatomy and physiology, and freshman biology. He is working to create more virtual world biology activities and plans to continue in a capacity that helps people understand and appreciate biology and technology. Stephen founded the VIBE Grid, an OpenSimulator virtual world.
Marion Smeltzer (Nova Saunders in virtual worlds) is a graduate student from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and President of the Indiana County Archaeology Society. Her goals are to educate and promote the aspects of archaeology in terms and visuals that can be utilized by both classroom teachers and the general public. Her real life archaeological investigations can be seen on Nova Archaeology on the VIBE grid.
December 15, 2015: Pamala Clift on Avatar Relationships
Author of The Virgin's Handbook on Virtual Relationships (http://goo.gl/PGzucg), Pamala Clift is an authority on navigating the complexities of human interactions as avatars in virtual worlds. She gives a monthly State of Being presentation at Rockcliffe University in SL (http://www.virtualhandhold.com/State-of-Being.html), which is strongly recommended for anyone in virtual worlds. Pamala's bio is available here: http://www.virtualhandhold.com/About-CEO.html.
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November 17, 2015: Joyce Bettencourt: OSCC
Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir in Second Life) is the Online Community Manager for TechSoup Global’s NonProfit Commons in Second Life community. In addition, she is Creative Director of The Vesuvius Group, a collaborative studio specializing in developing online immersive and social environments for community-building. She is also co-founder and Vice President of AvaCon, Inc. and served as President from 2010-2014. Joyce is a 2012 graduate of the Singularity University Graduate Studies program, focused on applying exponential technologies to addressing Global Grand Challenges. Previously she was digital media producer for the Online Leadership Program at the educational nonprofit Global Kids and helped produce digital media learning content, events, and the social issue game CONSENT!
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Joyce will be talking with us about the upcoming Open Simulator Community Conference (OSCC), held this year on Saturday, December 5, 2015. OSCC is an annual conference that focuses on the developer and user community creating the OpenSimulator software. Organized as a joint production by Core Developers of OpenSimuator and AvaCon, the virtual conference features presentations, workshops, keynote sessions, and social events across diverse sectors of the OpenSimulator user base. More information can be found at http://conference.opensimulator.org/2015/.
October 20, 2015: Ran Hinrichs: doing It!
September 15, 2015: PaleoQuest Journey!
Do you like the thrill of the hunt? Are you ready for danger? Then put on your gear and join us as we go on an epic journey into SL's own version of Jurassic park - PaleoQuest.
Led by Helena Kiama, we will attempt the first of five quests, dodging rocks spewn from active volcanoes, crossing rickety bridges, outwitting territorial pterodactyls, and entering an Egyptian tomb with perils of its own. Will you survive? At the end of the first quest, the survivors will get a chance to discuss how they can incorporate some of the ideas and challenges they faced into their classroom to engage students. How to Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWxDQkzIb_s Meet at ISTE VEN Focus Sessions: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduIsland%209/24/105/22 |
August 25, 2015: William Schmachtenberg, Ph.D.
International Collaboration and App Creation
This presentation will discuss an app development project conducted this past Summer with Marianne Hellberg, a teacher in Sweden. Dae will also discuss other projects coming up. You can download the VEJ (Virtual Education Journal) article on this topic (not yet published) at: http://www.evwll.co/VEJ/IC.docx
Dr. Bill Schmachtenberg (SL: Dae Miami) is a high school Earth Science teacher in Franklin County, VA. He is also a college professor of geology and paleontology at Ferrum College in VA. He is a member of VSTE and ISTE in RL and SL, and has been a VSTE facilitator for a few years. He is a research associate at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. Tonight he will be discussing collaborative projects he did over the summer. Although he is well known for his work with Unity 3D, he has promised to try to do the impossible: talk without mentioning Unity!
This presentation will discuss an app development project conducted this past Summer with Marianne Hellberg, a teacher in Sweden. Dae will also discuss other projects coming up. You can download the VEJ (Virtual Education Journal) article on this topic (not yet published) at: http://www.evwll.co/VEJ/IC.docx
Dr. Bill Schmachtenberg (SL: Dae Miami) is a high school Earth Science teacher in Franklin County, VA. He is also a college professor of geology and paleontology at Ferrum College in VA. He is a member of VSTE and ISTE in RL and SL, and has been a VSTE facilitator for a few years. He is a research associate at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. Tonight he will be discussing collaborative projects he did over the summer. Although he is well known for his work with Unity 3D, he has promised to try to do the impossible: talk without mentioning Unity!