ISTE 2014 at ISTESIGVE in Second Life!

We're getting set up to share our portions of the ISTE 2014 experience in Atlanta, Georgia with educators around the globe at our ISTESIGVE headquarters in Second Life. Beginning Saturday, June 28, I'll be streaming SIGVE events into Second Life on the rooftop of our beautiful HQ building.

 

 

 

 

 

Come join us, whether you're in Atlanta or in your jammies at home.

There's a notecard in the sign that details events, dates, and times proposed for streaming and this information will continue to grow as I plan the conference. I'm very excited this year because my only real presentation (that I'm time-committed to) is the SIGOL Ignite session, which should be cooler than grits and lasts only an hour. The rest of the time I'll be your cameraman on the scene, and I'll be in SL and in Atlanta and in the action's thick. Plan to plop down on a rooftop "comfy cushion" and join us! The Playground this year is organized and run by our own Bluebarker Lowtide and should be worth the cost of admission alone (if there were a cost of admission). See you there: Life(s) is good.

THE BEST ISTE EVER: Day 4 Reflections

I'll get a start on it. Day 4 was the bomb. Here's the "moneyshot" again  to prove it:

Tuesday morning I actually slept in until 7:30, had a good workout, and dressed smartly for my photo shoot at 11:20. I'd been asked by ISTE to be a poser and you know me, I couldn't resist. But that did mean I was in slacks and had to haul my blue blazer around all day. That's okay though, I look forward to recognizing myself in some upcoming issue of Learning and Leading with Technology. If you check out last month's issue you'll see Andy Wheelock's personable self gracing the inside front cover--like that. You should also catch Andy's article from the May L&LT: http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201205?pg=5#pg28

I actually had a sit  down breakfast at the Hilton's Riverwalk restaurant, and the breakfast wrap was good but I never had a coffee refill and no one actually checked in with me at any time. I had to flag down a waiter for a check after waiting patiently for 10 minutes. Food=4stars, Service=1.

Off I went, hiking to the Expo floor for my one and only pass through it. I was looking for ProctorU, a remote proctoriing service, but I never found their booth. I did find Atomic Learning and had a nice chat with a young rep who shared just what I was looking for--hundreds of tutorials on Microsoft Access. I have a new mission. I'll spend an hour or so every work day working through Access lessons until I can use that powerful database program to automate as much of my work @ MNPS Virtual School as possible. Right now we're spreadsheet-driven, and I want those spreadsheets to talk to one another. As we scale up to tens of thousands of students, that will be absolutely necessary. I will become an Access Power User, compliments of Atomic Learning.

robin henson..."i shoot people"

The photo shoot went great, with Robin Henson putting me at ease and taking dozens of shots to which I will have access once they are put up on a private flickr account for me. I sat for a video
interview with the gracious and professional Aaron Ragen-Fore, who asked me questions about my volunteering for ISTE and my involvements with the communities therein. I hope any of my responses will be helpful to the organization.

Then it was off to the Playground!

My plan, developed over the course of the past several months, was to host a central presentation area, run by incoming Lowly High Grand Poobah Kae Novak, featuring a rotating focus on the six learning stations, per this description from the program:

Outline
Current plans are to run a learning station for each of six platforms with two experts in person and at least one "inworld." Each station will have a poster highlighting its contents and a display-connected computer and all stations will be connected to the main presentation display via an ongoing Google Hangout. We'll rotate featured presentations at the main display in 25 minute sessions throughout the playground's time. All this will, of course, be piped into Second Life for an audience of avatars representing participants who are educators from around the globe. The Google Hangout Live feature will make our featured sessions available globally via YouTube and also archive the entire thing. We are still accepting recommendations and applications to share, but as this event has in the past run as long as 3 full days we are certain that there will be no shortage of content. This work is so dynamic that we will be working right up to the start of the event to optimize it! Current planned stations (subject to change): Second Life, Minecraft, OpenSimulator/Kitely, QuestAtlantis/Active Worlds, World of Warcraft/Games, and Madly Miscellaneous (wildcard!).

ISTE SIGVE Virtual Environments Playground 2013, a set on Flickr.

As you can see from the photos, we had a good deal of traffic as our volunteers shared non-stop. The makeup of the Playground did not hold its shape though. Kae delegated her presentation work station to the capable Chris Luchs, and the audio of the Google Hangout just could not handle the room configuration. Jimi Hendrix was in the room from the start, and feedback ended up being our biggest enemy. Chris at various times fell back to Livestream, and I took over the second presentation station with my Second Life piece (hosting a 30 minute video of students sharing their perspectives about working in Second Life with David Deeds of Mexico City and a long interview with  Gord Holden, who is up to amazing things in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Cynthia Colongne personed the Madly Miscellaneous station, and she held forth on everything from Scratch to Moses to Cloud Party. Andy Wheelock shared his OpenSimulater build of the Anne Frank home, and immersive experential field trip for students and teachers, as well as Kitely. Peggy Sheehy was a gem on World of Warcraft in Schools, taking over the main presentation stage for a substantial piece on that, Marianne Malmstrom, of course, had ringers in the form of actual live students sharing their spaces in Minecraft, including Zoe, the lovely daughter of the lovely Malinda McCormick, whose avatar was among the first I met when I dedicated my Second Life explorations to ISTE. Bronwyn Stuckey presented Quest Atlantis Remixed and then hosted an hour long Minecraft Meetup over at the Second Life stage. And over in a corner Rosie and Bob Vojtek were mad at it with interviews and features on the release of the new 194 page Virtual Education Journal.

Once our time was up, we held a brief annual meeting, raising Kae to her primary leadership position and sharing new initiatives, such as a MOOC focus, Minecraft research and development, and more.

 After the Playground, several of us headed over to a SIG Reception, where we enjoyed a nice spread of food and chatted with volunteer folks at ISTE, meeting up with Lauren and Heidi, the two dynamic ladies who had done so much over the past months to shepherd us through to this day. I was back at the hotel early that night, in an attempt to catch up on some rest before tomorrow's all-day ETLO Online Learning Institute, at which we were to host a round-table discussion on MNPS Virtual School. So you see, we are not yet done. But we shall be soon!

Thank you for staying with me as I work out some reflections and share my great excitement about ISTE 2013 in San Antonio, Texas. I'm going to hit "Publish" here but may well come back with some more detail as it sparks in my old brain. Day 5, the final day of ISTE2013, coming up next.

My ISTE11 Conference Planner

All times are local.

and here's a conference planning map, including some secondary locations that I'd like to visit if I can pry myself away from the conference center:

View ISTE 2011 Philadelphia in a larger map

Populating Your Personal Planner for ISTE2011 in Philadelphia? ISTE SIGVE Pics Will Help!

ISTE 2011 is sneaking up on us and will be here before you know it. If you're attending ISTE in Philadelphia, this quoted search will help make sure you attend the REALLY important sessions, workshops, and events. Those, of course, are those chosen by the Special Interest Group for Virtual Environments as relevant in the SIG Picks' process. SIGVE members weighed in on the content of over 800 such items, limited to only 20 Picks. Two of those didn't "make," apparently, or were cancelled for other reasons, but the remaining ones are in this list. Go to it! I for one am clicking "Add to Planner" for every single one! Quoted from the official ISTE website's search feature: A Deeper Understanding of the Holocaust through Virtual Environments  Add to Planner [Learning Station Session: Poster]  Wednesday, 6/29/2011, 11:00am–1:00pm PACC Broad St Atrium , Table: 7 Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Social Studies Andrew Wheelock, Erie 1 Boces/ WNYRIC with Susannah Renzi Think history is dull? This presentation will highlight a powerful new way of bringing history to life.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE (Contains Commercial Content)

SAP141B Design Spaces for Learning: Exploring Physical and Virtual Learning Areas  Add to Planner [Workshop: Hands-on] Seats still available. Saturday, 6/25/2011, 12:30pm–3:30pm PACC 118A School Improvement : Digital-Age School Design Chris Johnson, University of Arizona with David Jakes and Christian Long The design of school spaces affect how students learn. Discover how you can employ "design thinking" to create and redesign schools and classrooms that support digital age learning.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

Dive into Virtual Worlds: Learning about Ecosystems through Immersion  Add to Planner [Concurrent Session: Model Lesson]  Tuesday, 6/28/2011, 2:00pm–3:00pm PACC 119A Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Shari Metcalf, Harvard University with Chris Dede Learn real science, virtually! With EcoMUVE’s immersive, inquiry-based curriculum, discover plants and animals, dive underwater, shrink to microscopic size, travel through time and collect and analyze data.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

SUF222W Digiteacher Workshop: Digital Citizenship within a Project-Based Learning Environment  Add to Planner [Workshop: Hands-on] Seats still available. Sunday, 6/26/2011, 8:30am–3:30pm PACC 121C Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Digital Citizenship Vicki Davis, Flat Classroom Projects with Julie Lindsay Discover the project-based method of teaching digital citizenship in this workshop from Digiteen Project co-founders Vicki “Cool Cat Teacher” Davis and Julie Lindsay.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE, SIGDE, SIGLIT

Games, Simulations, and Virtual Environments for Learning and Teaching  Add to Planner [Concurrent Session: Panel]  Wednesday, 6/29/2011, 1:15pm–2:15pm PACC 103A Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Games & Simulations Greg Jones, University of North Texas with Lisa Dawley and Chris Dede Discover games, simulations, virtual environments, and visual experiences in education and see projects that benefit learning and teaching.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE, SIGGS

Immersive Worlds, Immersive Learning: How 3D Virtual Worlds Change Everything  Add to Planner [Concurrent Session: Lecture]  Wednesday, 6/29/2011, 10:15am–11:15am PACC 111B Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Diane Lewis, Seminole County Public Schools with Janine McGrath Learn how you can provide truly immersive learning experiences in 3D worlds from Second Life and Quest Atlantis to WOW and many worlds in between.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

Learning Between Worlds: Integrating Virtual and Real World Classrooms  Add to Planner [Learning Station Session: Poster]  Tuesday, 6/28/2011, 4:00pm–6:00pm PACC Broad St Atrium , Table: 35 Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Technology Integration Rory Nackerud, Center4EduPunx  Experience the integration techniques of a social media instructor morphed into a student teacher of middle and high school language arts and science.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE  (Contains Commercial Content)

Machinima Fest 2011  Add to Planner [Other Program Events: Meeting/Gathering]  Tuesday, 6/28/2011, 5:30pm–7:00pm PACC 126A Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Kae Novak, Front Range Community College with Marianne Mahlstrom, Rory Nackerud and Andrew Wheelock Machinima Fest 2011 will showcase videos created using 3D virtual worlds or games, and it's potential for learning and communicating. Discover the possibilities of using machinima in your classroom.  Everyone invited! Sponsored by SIGVE. For more information, including how to submit a video of your own, please visit http://sigve.iste.wikispaces.net/Machinima+Fest+2011  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

Project-Based Learning for Interactive Education in Virtual Worlds  Add to Planner [Learning Station Session: Poster]  Monday, 6/27/2011, 8:00am–10:00am PACC Broad St Atrium , Table: 25 Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Susan Toth-Cohen, Thomas Jefferson University  This poster details the specific steps and outcomes of project-based learning for graduate students who collaboratively developed virtual world exhibits on health and wellness.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

Real World-InWorld Design Challenge: Inspire Students to Solve Space Challenges  Add to Planner [Learning Station Session: Poster]  Monday, 6/27/2011, 8:00am–10:00am PACC Broad St Atrium , Table: 24 Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Sharon Bowers, National Institute of Aerospace with Mark Clemente Through both face-to-face (real world) and virtual world (InWorld) collaborations, students solve NASA-inspired design challenges. New challenges available each school year.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

TSIGOL SIGOL/SIGVE Forum: Teaching in the Cloud!  Add to Planner [Other Program Events: Forum/Summit/Symposium] Seats still available. Tuesday, 6/28/2011, 2:00pm–4:00pm PACC 105B Virtual Schooling/E-learning : Virtual Learning Technologies Kecia Ray, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools with Kevin Honeycutt, Scott Merrick and John Ross Virtual, online, and immersive learning environments are becoming much more accessible and acceptable. Visit this forum to find out just how accessible learning can be for students and teachers!  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

SIGVE (Virtual Environments) Gathering: Virtual Learning with Real People  Add to Planner [Concurrent Session: Birds-of-a-Feather]  Monday, 6/27/2011, 5:30pm–6:45pm PACC Grand Ballroom Lobby Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Scott Merrick, Metro Nashville Public Schools  Members and others will gather to celebrate our year, share a vision for SIG Virtual Environments, and pass the leadership torch.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

The 3 Cs: Connecting, Communicating, and Collaborating for Student Scientific Research  Add to Planner [Learning Station Session: Global Collaboration Project]  Sunday, 6/26/2011, 7:00pm–8:30pm PACC Broad St Atrium , Table: 13 Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Randall Thomas, GLOBE Program/UCAR with Donna Charlivoix and Martos Hoffman The Student Climate Research Campaign uses open source virtual platforms to engage an international community of students, teachers, and scientists in scientific inquiry and research.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE  (Exhibitor-Sponsored)