We’re off to share the TAFE NSW Western Institute Virtual Tourism project today… at the NSW Flexible Learning Framework’s eLearning2010 event. Slides are available below.

Wednesday 22 September 2010, 10am – 3pm Sydney Time / Tuesday 21 September 2010, 5pm – 10pm SL Time (PST)

I’m very pleased to be supporting Dean Groom and his team from the Learning and Teaching Centre at the Macquarie University for the Ignite NSW 2010 event which is happening TOMORROW, both in the metaverse at the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life and in real life at the Macquarie Uni campus!

We have a fantastic array of speakers – check out the details below, or visit the IGNITE NSW 2010 Event Website and particularly the Virtual Worlds Event Schedule.

Join us to learn more about a range of fabulous educational projects and strategies being used in virtual worlds and gain insights from some of Australia’s leading virtual worlds educators.

Learning and Teaching Week – “Ignite NSW” – Virtual Worlds and the Quest for Integrated Learning

• Teaching in a Virtual World: A Snapshot and Evaluation of Different Institutions – Sue Gregory, School of Education, University of New England presents a snapshot of how virtual worlds are being used in Australian Education.
• Beyond Second Life - Kyle Gomboy, CEO of Reaction Grid demonstrates and discusses the use of virtual worlds, beyond Second Life such as Unity 3D and Open Simulator, describing the potential and support available to enducators.
• Rules for Engagement in Virtual Spaces - Steve Collis, Director of Innovation at Northern Beaches Christian School promotes the use of the new online spaces at his school. Steve explains some of the issues and projects he has created to engage students in virtual worlds.
• “Who’s leading our students into 21st century learning” - Dr Bronwyn Stuckey, consultant educational technologist and researcher will explore the findings of research into the identity of teachers adopting virtual worlds and games (Quest Atlantis, Second Life, WOW, Reaction Grid) in their teaching and showcase some of their stories. The session will dispel many of the myths that surround the “digital immigrants and digital natives” debate and show that it is teachers confident in their practice and effective pedagogies who are the real change agents in educational environments and that technological skill, age or stage of career development are neither an excuse or barrier.
• The ‘Technospirit’ Sim - Lucy Barrow, Ballarat Grammer School will share an overview of The “TechnoSpirit Sim” which was created by the Ballarat Grammar’s Virtual Worlds Project Team, made up of students and staff. She will explore how the Project Team created different areas of interest including a gallery, meditation garden, presentation area, avatar store, building plots and chapel. We will look at how the TechnoSpirit Sim was used as a Year 8 Elective offering students the opportunity to explore the themes of “Signs and Symbols” and “Places of Worship” in an engaging and challenging environment.

How to Participate

To participate in the event, simply choose one of the options below:

• Join us at the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life! (SLurl)
• Watch us live on the web via the Onlinevents.co.uk website
• Join us in real life at Macquarie University

If you are new to virtual worlds, check out this handy guide to joining Second Life and visiting the Macquarie University Campus inworld.  Please note that we will be using Second Life voice tools throughout the event, so its a good idea to make sure you’ve tested this prior to big day!

Event Times

Our inworld sessions will commence on Wednesday 22 September 2010 at 10am Sydney time / Tuesday 21 September 2010 at 5pm SLT. Check your local time here.

The amazing Henny Zimer aka @Teacherman79 aka Jeff Agemenoni has done it again! Ground-breaking as usual, he’s setup a fantastic 2 week long Virtual Worlds Camp for kids in his local district in Montana. During the camp, the kids are exploring Quest Atlantis and jokaydiaGRID and learning, fun and a little bit of virtual chaos are definitely in order!

The kids range in age from about 10 to 14years, and had their first explorations of jokaydiaGRID today. It was awesome to see them excited to learn and explore…. seeing kids have fun on jokaydiaGRID NEVER gets old! I cant wait to see what they create on the Montana sim over the coming days!

You can also check out some great images captured by the kids via Jeff’s Flickr stream.

Congratulations to Henny and the Montana kids – it’s truly awesome to have you with us at jokaydiaGRID!

We’re very excited to be welcoming the TAFE NSW – Western Institute Tourism and Hospitality Team from Bathurst to jokaydiaGRID this month. Led by the fabulous Robyn Alderton, they’ll be working with the jokaydia Team to create a fantastic virtual learning environment for their TVET Tourism students in the coming weeks, and it’s set to be lots of fun!  The project has been funded by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework as part of their E-Learning Innovations Project for 2010.

The WIT build will include several sims, and will house a wide range of resources for students and facilitators to work, share and collaborate in including a virtual resort/hotel, a backpackers inn and a travel agents! You can drop in for a visit by logging into jokaydiaGRID and searching for Western 1 on the main map.

We’ll be incorporating lots of tools and resources in the coming weeks including SLoodle activities, roleplay resources and lots of great freebies for new avatars.

To keep up to date with the project, check out the fabulous blog that Rob and the team have setup at: https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/blog/101322-virtualtourism/

Seeya at jokaydiaGRID soon! ;)

Today I had the pleasure of giving an online presentation in Elluminate for students from the New Learning and New Literacies Online Masters program at the University of Illinois. It was a jam-packed, super speedy session to give them a taste of some of the fabulous things happening in virtual worlds and games, and I hope they enjoyed it. I’ve published the slides from the session above.

To follow-up we’ll be meeting with the group in Second Life this Saturday morning (aus time). Check out the session description below for details, and feel free to join us!

New Learning and New Literacies Session 2: Second Life Field Trip

• Friday 14 May 7pm (US) & Saturday 15 May 10am (Aus). (Check your local time here.)
• Venue: The Islands of jokaydia in Second Life
• Meet at the Islands of jokaydia Landing Point to attend (SLurl)

Join us for a hands on workshop in Second Life with Jo Kay aka jokay Wollongong, an Australian designer and facilitator working across a range of virtual worlds to support education, arts and social change! The main elements of this session will be:

• Second Life Basics: Moving, communicating, searching and teleporting
• Dressing Up Your Avatar: Using the avatar tools to create your virtual you
• Exploring the Islands of jokaydia – the home of the jokaydia Community of Practice
• Virtual Touring – including visits to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Headquarters, Foul Whisperings, Strange Matters: Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Second Life, ISTE’s Headquarters and StoryBook Island.

During the session you will develop skills in using Second Life, meet some educators who are currently working in virtual worlds, and develop a better understanding of how educators and institutions around the world are currently using Second Life and other virtual worlds for teaching and learning.

How to Attend the Second Life Workshop

1. Click on the SLurl link above to open a map of Second Life and a teleport Link.
2. Follow instructions on the page to login to the right location for our workshop – the jokaydia Landing Point. If you get lost you can IM jokay Wollongong inworld for a lift to the venue!

Additional Virtual Worlds Events and Opportunities

There are also a range of other sessions that we can attend. Go to the events calendar.

Further notes, recordings and resources from the session are available in the event discussion forum @ http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/content/exploring-metaverse-virtual-worlds-and-games-learning.

For those interested in Quest Atlantis:

• For information about upcoming teacher training in Quest Atlantis visit: http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/site/pd_list
• For a course code or further information contact Dr Bronwyn Stuckey – email: bestucke@indiana.edu, twitter & skype: Bronst, Facebook:Bronwyn Stuckey

Special thanks to Jane McGonigal for her inspirational session at TEDTalks which inspired some of ideas for this presentation!

Learning at the Speed of Mobile

Presented by education organisations and associated industry representatives, the focus of this years event are on showing examples where mobile related learning concepts interface with popular learning design.

The team from MobilizeThis 09 will be visiting us on the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life to convene a panel session as part of their event, which is happening all over the web and live in Darwin!

Panel session members include: Simon Brown – SkillsTech Australia, Leigh Blackall – Australia National University, John Eyles – Telecom NZ, Nathan Kerr – Howick College NZ, Bill Wade, Fred Richardson, David Lamb and Elizabeth Povinelli.

For further information about the event visit the MobilizeThis 09 Wiki or join us for the event.

Event Details:

• Venue: Meeting Hall on the Islands of jokaydia (SLurl)
• Darwin Time: 1:30pm
• Sydney Time: 3pm
• SL time: 9pm, Thurs 29th Oct 09
• Check your local time here!

So its been a huge week or exploring and learning for us over at jokaydia@ReactionGrid, and I must say Im kinda exhausted, but  nonethless inspired!! ;) So far we’ve seen a huge number of the jokaydians come to visit, and some have even got their own sims already.  The Australian invasion seems to be well and truly on, and I’m really glad to be a part new adventures.

As you can see from the image above, I’ve started the process of building out the new space, and will mimic some of the resources we have on jokaydia in Second Life, as well as a whole new collection of stuff to check as we start to get established. To get the ball rolling, I’ve imported some of the jokaydia Landing Point tools and furniture, and am modding it to suit the new space. Next up… newbie garden stuff!

Weekly EduMeets Officially Start This Week!

We’ve decided to start having a regular weekly EduMeet@jokaydia. These will alternate between our space on the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life and our space on the ReactionGrid, and are designed to provide a regular time for informal chats, adventures, sharing and playing. Come along – we’d love to see you in either grid! ;)

The first official EduMeet@jokaydia will happen this coming Sunday 11 October on ReactionGrid and will focus on playing and planning. We’ll take a little trip to explore the ReactionGrid neighbourhood, and also discuss some of the projects we’ve been brainstorming. Kyle G also tells me there’s a way cool Skype tool in ReactionGrid which we need to check out!

We also want to hear from you!? Have you got a burning idea, a resource suggestion, other feedback? Come along and share your thoughts!

Event Details: First Official EduMeet@jokaydia – 11 October 2009

• Location: jokaydia@ReactionGrid
• How To: Simply signup and join us on the jokaydia Sim on the ReactionGrid. You can find the signup page here, and information on how to login here. To locate the jokaydia sim use the map to search, or contact jokay Wollongong if you need a TP!
• Time: 9pm AEST / 10am GMT /3am  SLT
• Check your local time here!

Please feel free to email jokay Wollongong for further details and any of our events and proejcts, and keep your eye out for the 2nd EduMeet@jokaydia on the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life on 18 October.

Seeya in one of our worlds soon!

Pandora Kurrajong aka Kerryj – one of the lovely jokaydia residents and a fabbo machinimist, has made a brilliant video for education.au which is titled ‘Immersive learning: it’s game on!‘. It is a brilliant overview for education in virtual worlds, and provides case studies from Second Life, Quest Atlantis and World of Warcraft, interviews with educators and even a student. Very cool to see jokaydia make a little cameo appearance too! ;) Check it out!

Congratulations to the education.au’s Immersive Learning Unit and most especially Miss P!! ;)

Coming up this weekend is the huge and amazing Virtual Worlds – Best Practice in Education Conference – happening in Second Life from the 27 – 29 March 2009.

If you havent been to a big event in SL before, you really should check this out, as all the innovative educators and their projects will b e displayed at poster sessions, shared at presentations, discussed at panel sessions or demoed at workshops.

From the conference website:

The VWBPE Conference provides opportunities for virtual world communities to showcase projects, courses, events and research that lead to best practices in education. The end result of collaborating, sharing, and co-construction of knowledge during the conference is the creation of innovative and immersive environments in which virtual world residents can learn, work, and play.

In past years the event has been an absolute blast, so I urge you to check out the conference program and attend some of the sessions! Dont forget you can figure out your local times using the fixed world clock on Timeanddate.com.

And finally, I’m happy to announce that there will be a jokaydian Panel session at the event:

Creating Communities of Practice in Second Life: A Panel Session with residents from the Islands of jokaydia

Description: The Islands of jokaydia opened in Second Life in September 2007 and provides a range of services and opportunities to educators who are exploring the use of virtual worlds in education. We are a self-funded community of practice which spans a broad spectrum of the education sector including k-12 education, tertiary education, professional development, vocational education and workplace based training. Our community is international, drawing members from Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, France and Columbia and we host both individual educators and organizations on our Islands. This panel session will provide a case study of the journey from empty sim to a maturing community of practice and will include panel members and presenters from the jokaydia community to share their experiences and inspirations.

Featuring: Jo Kay (RL) Jokay Wollongong (SL), Konrad Glogowski (RL) Konrad March (SL), Bronwyn Stuckey (RL) Bron Bloxome (SL), Dean Groom (RL) slammed Aabye (SL), Liz Dorland (RL) Chimera Cosmos (SL), Robyn Heyden (RL) Spiral Theas (SL), Second Life and Jeff Agamenoni (RL)  Henny Zimer (SL).

• Event Date and Time: 7am AEST, Saturday 28 March/ 1pm SLT, Friday 27 March (Check your local time here.)
• Location: ISTE (SLurl)

I hope you can join us!