Virtual University Collaboration: ENCKE

The Australian Digital Futures Institute is powering on with its work in virtual worlds. Coming up in a few weeks is their 2-day ENCKE Virtual University Collaboration (ENCKE isn’t an acronym, but a comet bringing change).

The details:

This unique event will begin with an intensive two day in-world meeting. Over the following 4 weeks some of the main ideas and concepts for virtual teaching, learning and meeting spaces developed by participants will be constructed on the new virtual university island (with assistance from professional SL builders). Then over the next 3 months participants will be able to book and use these spaces for their own teaching and learning sessions, role plays and meetings. During this time there will be informal follow-up and evaluation meetings. Traditional conferences last a few days and allow for ideas to be presented and for some follow-up discussion to occur.

The plan is to have the virtual university island(s) as an ongoing collaborative and space to allow for construction and testing of applications of virtual world technologies to university teaching and learning. We welcome your ideas and suggestions for this and future events.

When: 27 & 28 October 2011, 10am to 5pm Australian EST

Where: On a new Second Life island (slurl to be advised)

Registration: The fee to participate is AUD$325 (inc. GST) and includes the conference and related workshop, tutorial, demonstration and tour session plus 3 months access to the constructed spaces. It is expected that participants will have a SL avatar and have acquired at the least the basic skills of interacting in a virtual environment. The event is limited to 50 participants. We do expect the event to be fully subscribed so please register early to secure your place.

Check out our scoop.it page: http://www.scoop.it/t/virtual-university-education-in-virtual-worlds/

Registration available at: http://adfi.usq.edu.au/encke.html

‘edna’ arrives in Second Life

Terra Incognita is a veteran education presence in Second Life that we’ve covered previously. It’s an area that next week will be hosting the launch of a new service by edna (Education Network Australia).

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The full announcement:

“Education Network Australia – better known as edna – is celebrating ten years of service to the Australian education and training sector on Tuesday, 27 November and is inviting educators from across the country to jump online and in-world to join the celebration.

From 3pm Adelaide time education.au, the company that manages the edna web site and related services, will be doing a live broadcast of presentations and the unveiling of the new myedna service on the island of Terra Icognita.

Pick up a free t-shirt, indulge in some virtual cake and champagne and, following the formalities, your avatar can rock out to popular Second Life band Space Junky.

For educators that don’t have the broadband or hardware to participate in Second Life, there is a parallel being held in edna’s Sandpit Groups using Live Classroom web conferencing software.

For more information, visit the 10th birthday page on the edna web site.

Check it out in-world

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