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NERCOMP EVENT
SLUGfest (Second Life Users Group) 2009
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Come join the Second Life Users Group-- the SLUGfest!
Most colleges and universities have begun to look at or dabble in virtual worlds like Second Life. This event will provide descriptions and demonstrations of some of your colleagues' early projects and experiments in using this environment to support teaching and learning. We will end with a discussion panel to answer your questions about implementation and practical issues.
Workshop Organizer/Host: Steve Taylor of Vassar College
Date/Time:
Friday, January 23, 2009
9:00am - 3:00pm
Registration begins at 8:00am
Location:
Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center
14 Mechanic St.
Southbridge, MA
Click
Here for a Map
Click Here for Directions
Special instructions:
Pricing:
NERCOMP Members: $125
Non-Members: $250
By clicking on the "Register" button below, you are indicating a commitment to attend and will be held responsible for the registration fee.
Your fee can be refunded if you notify us of a cancellation at least 8 days prior to the event via email to nercomp@nercomp.org.
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Additional Information
Event Schedule:
8:00am - 9:00am Registration and Coffee
9:00am - 9:50am Language Learning and Practice in Second Life
Speakers:
Katharine Galaitsis, Director of Online Education, Corporate, Continuing and Distance Education, University of Massachusetts - Boston
Anna Seyedhassani, Instructional Design student and Italian Instructor, University of Massachusetts - Boston
Buon Giorno! This session demonstrates how language learning and instruction, in this case Italian, can be supported in Second Life. Anna Seyedhassani will discuss her capstone project in Instructional Design on this topic, and Kitty Galaitsis and Anna will give examples of innovative ways to use SL, such as a virtual fieldtrip, to provide much-needed help to our American students to foster language fluency and cultural exposure without leaving home.
10:00am - 10:50am Universe of Music in Second Life
Speaker: David Patterson, Professor of Music Department of Performing Arts, University of Massachusetts - Boston
This past summer and fall some 20 students opted to produce a project in Second Life in lieu of the usual course paper for the online course, Universe of Music. The intent was to engage in this technology as much as possible. This exploration was undertaken on the recently acquired umb ccde island. Here, student avatars gathered, exhibiting their newly built “prims” and their connections to musical culture and tradition. Their projects included narratives in audio chat, animation, samples of sound: some made live, some using recordings, some integrating sound scripts, some linking YouTube. These presentations were filmed using the Web 2.0 tool, screencast-o-matic. Students found themselves thinking about music in new ways and stretching their imaginations through their flutes, pianos, drums, shofars—even singing and dancing dolphins that could only exist in Second Life. It must also be added that not all went perfectly; various issues, particularly, quality of audio, need further attention.
10:50am - 11:10am Small Group Discussion/Sharing
11:10am - 12:00pm Research and Teaching Urban Planning Using Second Life
Speaker: Justin Hollander, Assistant Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University
For two years, Assistant Professor Justin Hollander has been using Second Life as part of his teaching and research in urban planning. In this presentation, he will describe how he has embraced the serious gaming movement in his work and what the results have been. In particular, Dr. Hollander will describe how his students developed physical plans and designs in SL for new development around a train station in Boston and how he is using SL to invent new forms of public participation in a master planning process in the Town of Acton, Massachusetts.
12:00pm - 1:00pm Lunch
1:00pm - 1:50pm A University's Journey in the Virtual World
Speaker: AJ Kelton, CHSS Director of Emerging Instructional Technology, Montclair State University
In April of 2007 the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Montclair State University in New Jersey was the first higher education institution in NJ to have a publicly available space in Second Life. Since that time, the land mass has grown to three islands, several classes have made use of the space, an international educational community has been formed, and more classes are planned for the Spring. During this presentation, AJ will review how the pilot project was first initiated, how it was determined what the purpose would be for each of the three islands, and what classes have been offered, with highlights on a few specific projects. The presentation will take place in Second Life and will be broadcast into the meeting location in Southbridge, MA.
2:00pm - 3:00pm Q & A with Panelists
3:00pm End
Speaker:
AJ Kelton
AJ Kelton is the Director of Emerging Instructional Technology for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Montclair State University in New Jersey and was recently tapped to be the Second Life Project Coordinator for the College of Education and Human Services, also at Montclair State. He has presented on the topic of Second Life in education both in the U.S. and Internationally and is the author of the August '07 EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) Research Bulletin "Second Life: Reaching into the Virtual World for Real World Learning" and the recently publish EDUCAUSE Review Article "Virtual Worlds? 'Outlook Good'" He is the founder and current leader of the EDUCAUSE Virtual Worlds Constituent Group and each Tuesday can be found moderating the SL Education Roundtable, a forum within Second Life bringing together educators from all over the globe interested in discussing a wide variety of topics. He is the owner of AFK Consulting, a company dedicated to providing services in support of virtual worlds, social media and networking, and Web 2.0 initiatives. AJ holds a Masters Degree in English, Writing Studies from Montclair State.
Speaker:
Anna Seyedhassani
Anna Seyedhassani works for the University of Massachusetts/Boston in the Information Technology Department. Although my work career has nothing to do with Second Life my interest in the technology came about during one of my classes in the Master Degree Program of Instructional Design.
I worked in three different projects on SL. The first one, was learning about the technology itself how it works, navigation system, and learned about the scripting tools; also, as part of the project I had to research places in Italy were students could teleport themselves and practice the Italian language with other Italian avatars. My second project, was to actually design a foreign language lounge on the island that CCED at UMass/Boston purchased. The language lounge is designed not only to welcome the Italian language, but can be used as a point for all the foreign languages. As a matter of fact there is present a Chinese language as well. My third project was to design and deliver an Orientation to faculties and students on "Second Life and Education". This was to showcase other universities that are present in Second Life and than give a demonstration of how the software works. In addition I wrote instruction for beginners for training on SL.
Speaker:
David Patterson
David Patterson (www.notescape.net) studied with Leon Kirchner at Harvard and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen. He is Professor of Music at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His enthusiasm for teaching manifests itself in curriculum development during his 15-year chairmanship, an innovative teaching style, and in his annotated collection, 20 Little Piano Pieces From Around the World. (G. Schirmer). He has received the Chancellors Distinguished Teaching Award and an E-Fellowship for his teaching for umassonline.
Isle of Hope, his setting of the well-known text by Emma Lazarus, commissioned for the Ellis Island Medal of Honor Awards Interfaith Prayer Service, opened the 2001 celebration at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City. Toshiuki Shimada and the Portland Symphony Orchestra gave the U.S. premiere of Strayhorn in Harlem (VMM label) in its centennial tribute to Duke Ellington. Spin (Falls House Press, an affiliate of Theodore Presser) commissioned for the Pappousakis Flute Competition. His other works are often described as “effective and affecting” (The Boston Globe) “lovely, lyrical and poignant” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) and “altogether fetching” for Pied Beauty (San Francisco Chronicle) conducted by John Adams.
Speaker:
Justin Hollander
Justin Hollander is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. His research and teaching is in the area of land use and urban redevelopment, with a focus on the changing physical form of cities in post-industrial North America. He has used Second Life in both his teaching and research and is currently studying the potential for conducting social science research experiments using Second Life. Last year, he wrote an op-ed "Virtually improving real living" in the/ Seattle Post-Intelligencer/ about the ways that Second Life can enhance civic engagement.
Speaker:
Katharine Galaitsis
Katharine Galaitsis has been Director of Online Education for Corporate, Continuing and Distance Education at UMass Boston for about six years. Previously in her career with the continuing education division at UMass Lowell she had become involved with distance education by offering telecourses in partnership with WGBH and engaged in offering engineering courses through ITV. At UMass Boston, Katharine has worked with faculty and departments to offer individual courses, certificate programs and degree programs online and has watched the demand grow from semester to semester. Lately, she has become very interested in emerging technologies and promoted the purchase of a SL island by CCDE.
Related Media Files:
SLUG-Patterson.pdf
Foreign Language - UMB.pdf
Contact Information:
Lisa DiMauro
860-345-2081
ldimauro@nercomp.org
Hotel Information:
Please call the Southbridge Hotel directly at 508.765.8000, the NERCOMP rate is $105.
The room block will be held until January 3, 2009.
Technical Requirements:
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NERCOMP reserves the right to use any photographs or other mechanical recordings taken at NERCOMP events in promotional materials.
No mechanical recordings of any kind may be used at NERCOMP events without the prior written consent of NERCOMP organizers and presenters.
The views and opinions expressed at NERCOMP events do not necessarily reflect those of NERCOMP, nor does NERCOMP make any representation regarding the information presented at NERCOMP events.
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