Recapping ISTE19 through Snapshots and Comments

Hey!

I've said for years that any school or school district who supports Professional Learning with travel funds should REQUIRE a detailed account of how time was spent at conference or workshop. Though my "budget neutral" school district (hate that term) did not support this trip, I am in the habit of providing same. So.

Instead of my traditional rambling post or series of posts, I'm choosing to document this year's International Society for Technology in Education's annual Conference and Expo in Philadelphia with all the photos I took along with notated comments. Comments contain links to places visited, colleagues hugged, and more; including beaucoup resources from events at which I presented or which I attended. My work here is done. All I can say is--Go for it! And enjoy!

Scott's Google Photos from ISTE19

There will be a live recap discussion with Andy Wheelock and yours truly in Second Life on Tuesday, July 16, at http://tinyurl.com/istevenetwork -- join us at 5pm Pacific Time!

Days 1 and 2@ISTE19, pics first

I will come back on over the coming week to add descriptions/comments on these, but for now this is the sum total of my pics. Some are with Colin and his lovely girlfriend Kat, some are dining, etc., and there are a few from the poster session with dear Mary Howard, the Community Networking Fair, and a whole bunch from our Games and Simulations and Virtual Environments Playground, which I pronounce a rousing success. All our planning paid off and we made tons of new friends and gained a ton of new members. I love me an educator hungry to learn more about developments in AR/MR/DR and Virtual Reality for learning and teaching. Here's the first batch of photos, from Friday night with my boy-o and his lovely girlfriend Kat to the moment, approaching PLN Happy Hour back at the Convention Center followed by the Flipgrid Party. I'll pretty this post up later, but for now:

Scott's ISTE19 pics at Google Photos

Upcoming Week in Philly @ISTE19

Here's my week! Come find me for a hug and an LFB album download card!

VSTE VEN Will Relocate at the End of this Summer

Good morning, world(s). 

Because of my real life work and also my dedication to my volunteer work for ISTE via our Virtual Environments Network for that organization, I don't get out much--into other worthy organizations' activities. But since I do know that the Virginia Society for Technology in Education, a remarkably active learning network in Second Life, is at the top of the list for research and community about learning and teaching in virtual worlds, I want to share a recent announcement. The ISTE VEN made a similar change in 2009, downsizing to our cozy HQ in Second Life at http://tinyurl.com/isteven, so it's not surprising, but it is noteworthy! I encourage one and all to quickly visit their Jamestown reenactment build at the link within the post before it goes away: I'm not sure whether it will be rebuilt in their new smaller location! Here's the message, posted on a sign at our HQ by our dear Beth Ghostraven (Beth O'Connell, former recipient of our annual Virtual Pioneer of the Year Award at the ISTE Conference)...

The VSTE VE PLN Is On the Move in Second Life!
June 1, 2019
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/62/130/21
For over 10 years, the VSTE Virtual Environments Professional Learning Network has maintained VSTE Island, a full region in Second Life, as part of our professional development program. With a shift in focus to expanding to other virtual environments, we have decided to downsize and move to a parcel on the Second Life Mainland, with significantly lower costs.
SAVE THE DATE - The new parcel will be revealed on Monday, August 19, 2019 at 8:00 pm EDT (5:00 pm SLT / Pacific time).
The VE PLN will very much still be in Second Life and other virtual worlds, meeting (almost) weekly on Mondays at 8pm Eastern time. Minecraft Monday will continue on the first Monday of the month at VSTE Place, our shared Minecraft server. Our other excursions include Opensim on Avacon, Unity (including SineSpace and ViWoLe), and other virtual environments new and old. As VSTE Island Facilitator Kim Harrison says, “We need to be good stewards of VSTE's funds."

Call to Volunteer

Hey, ISTE members and other curious humans,

Pardon the long and textual post, but I have an important question to ask: Have you been wondering what the meaning of "reality' is?

At the ISTE Virtual Environments Network, we've been exploring that question since before 2000! Surprisingly, we have found some answers. Our professional learning network orbits around the concept of "together at a distance," a term coined by co-founding member Peggy Sheehy. With the advent of new technologies like 3D goggles and rapidly developing innovations in virtual worlds--some of which are actually experientially accessible within 3D goggles--we might expand that concept to "together, anywhere, at a distance."

We meet at least twice a month, together, from wherever we are. It is not unusual for us to gather around a crackling campfire, seated comfortably, dressed stylishly, and everyone lookin' good, to discuss PLN business. I am on a kitchen counter stool in my home in Nashville, Tennessee; Mary is in her living room on an island in the shadow of Niagara Falls; Andy is at his home office table with his son laughing in the next room. Others are in Virginia, or California, or Canada. But--and here's the rub--we are all here. Sure, we could Zoom or Google Hangout, but this is somehow more fun. Everyone needs fun, even teachers!

Kurt Vonnegut's physician son is famously quoted for this comment: "We are all here to help one another through this--whatever 'this' is." That's what we do at VEN: We help one another through this.

Besides our monthly "OOH" (Open Office Hours), VEN produces, at our headquarters in Second Life, a monthly "Focus Session" which features an innovative educator sharing her or his innovative creation that leverages the unique affordances of virtual environments. Often, we teleport from these events as a group to a site within Second Life or Open Simulator, to explore together, communicating in text chat and voice our wonder and our insights, our questions and our answers.

Our huge annual culminating event traditionally takes place at ISTE's annual Conference and Expo. Ya'll, we invented the Playground. Initially that sort of event at ISTE NECC (National Educational Computing Conference) took place for several hours during the conference and was called a "Lounge." The Second Life Lounge at NECC 2007 was where I first met, in person, a core group of ISTE educators who already were meeting regularly in Second Life and whom I already thought of as friends and colleagues. There was even a working docent program within the virtual world, where educators could and did schedule themselves (themavatarselves) to be on duty to meet with other educators, both those familiar with ISTE and those not. The large building at ISTE Island offered a very large stone-paved front porch, where we would "widen the circle" of avatars as new arrivals joined the conversation. At that time there was no voice engine in Second Life and everything was in text chat. I always thought that made me more intentional in my comments than I would have been in voice, and there was a substantial backlash when Linden Lab did enable that feature. 

But I digress, as is my wont. I'm sending out this notice to ask you to join in the fun. Volunteer for ISTE wherever you wish to serve, but especially, serve with us. We will widen the circle with you. It will open up worlds of learning.

Visit https://www.iste.org/membership/volunteer and take a few minutes to work through the brief sign-up form. Choose Virtual Environments Netw1ork. We'll be in touch. And, hopefully, we'll see you at the end of June in Philly for ISTE 2019!