Thanks to all who participated in our April Unconference, it was lots of fun! ;) We had a great session with marlonj Myers, who is doing some truly fantastic work, as well as an update from Emerly Alter on her work and a little builder’s buddy class from me. I hope you all enjoyed it!
Below are resources and links from the Unconference sessions:
Session 1: The Pulsar Project and MMetaverse Surface with marlonj Myers
Marlonj facilitated a session which covered the Pulsar Project which he has been working on since April 2008, and also his latest work with MMetaverse Surface. Check out the resources from his presentation below:
My favourite part of marlonj’s session was this great video he presented on his work with MMetaverse Surface, which seeks to create a tangible interface to control avatars from a real life surface, and uses free and open tools including those created by the LibOpenMetaverse group and reacTIVision – a toolkit for the rapid development of table-based tangible user interfaces (TUI) and multi-touch interactive surfaces.
This work is really exciting and points to lots of exciting applications of these types of user interfaces for virtual worlds in the future.
Marlonj has even made a great machinima which shows a prototype model he’s built in SL to demonstrate how this type of tangible interface for virtual worlds could be used. As marlonj notes, it could be used to interact with objects in the virtual space via a series of objects placed on a table in the real world, and would allow for a sense of greater immersion via a 360 degree view of of the environment via projections on the walls of the space.
For more information on marlonj’s work check out:
Session 2: Using the Builder’s Buddy Tools
For session 2, we visited the jokaydia Sandbox to experiment with the Builder’s Buddy tools, which allow users to create ‘rez-boxes’ pretty easily using open source scripts. A special thanks to Gnu Curry, who has made a great package of the scripts and some resources which we used during the session. (Yay, Gnu!).
If you’re interested in getting a copy of the Builder’s Buddy tools, visit the jokaydia Sandbox (SLurl) where they will be available for another week or so. We’ll try to re-run this session at an upcoming jokaydia event for those who missed it! ;)
Other News and Updates: Emerly’s Project
Emerly Alter aka Vimani Perera is one of our newer jokaydia residents, but she has wasted no time getting started and has created a brilliant example of how virtual worlds can be used for teaching and learning as part of a tertiary Management Consulting course. You can visit her space on jokaydia II (SLurl) and I really recommend it as a great example of use of video, information tools and Sloodle. Congratulations, Emerly!
During the unconference Emerly provided a little information about her projects, and also invited people to help contribute to her research. Check out the info she’s provided below and give her your support!
A note from Emerly:
I am a Master Student in Business Studies at Department Management of Massey University (New Zealand – Wellington) . I am conducting a research on virtual worlds. I am studying the perception of educators regarding their acceptance to conduct classes in virtual worlds. My research questions are as follows.
- How do the known determinants of Technology Acceptance (according to existing TAM related research) influence the intention of educators to use MUVE to conduct virtual classes?
- How do the educators perceived the potential benefits of educational use of MUVE claimed in the literature?
I have selected Second Life as the virtual world and I have created a this class to include education tools in Second Life including sloodle.
I am at the data collection stage of my research and I am searching for volunteers. In particular, I am searching for educators who have a background in traditional teaching or educators who are already conducting classes in Second Life. If you know of anyone who could potentially help me this it would be greatly appreciated.
Give Emerly your support by answering her questionaire or passing it on to you colleagues!
- Click here to download Emerly’s Research Questionaire (Word Doc) and provide her with your responses
- For more info or to submit your responses email Emerly directly.
Other Updates:
Dont forget the other updates and projects we discussed during the event!
- Dont forget to add your feedback to our first annual jokaydia Community Survey, and help us plan an even better jokaydia!
- Provide feedback to the Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education Conference 2009 team on the conference last weekend. They need your comments and suggestions to help shape next years event!
- Newbie Event happening this Wednesday… check out the jokaydia Wiki for more info!
- jokaydia Community Meeting happening this Thursday … stay tuned to the blog for more details!
Thanks to one and all for contributing to yet another fabulous event! Special thanks also to Stephan Bethune who battled technology to record the event for us.. I really appreciate it Steph!
Our next Monthly Mini Unconference is happening on Sunday 10 May 2009 . Make a note in your diary now! ;) Details are on the jokaydia Wikispace.
If you’re interested in presenting a session on your projects inworld, or would like to facilitate a discussion as part of our Unconference series, please contact me!
Jo Kay aka jokay Wollongong is a freelance digital designer and facilitator working in virtual worlds and educational technology. She helps educators and organisations to use new and innovative technologies for learning. Jo is the owner and facilitator of the Islands of jokaydia Project – a space for a vibrant community of educators to explore the use of virtual worlds in education. 
Excellent report about the Conference
Thanks Jokay