Gaming & Learning

UPDATE: If you log in on the 18th at 11am GMT you should be able to join my (hopefully) live Google presentation by clicking THIS LINK. (Should allow you to ask questions using the chat interface!)

Later today (after I get some sleep!) I’ll be attending the Massively Multi Learner workshop at Anglia-Ruskin University.

I’ll be uploading my presentation in as many formats as possible to this post - and you may also be able to catch the live presentation online if you follow the instructions here.

Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 18th March 2008

Full article available here.

Google Docs - A Focus on Documents - Movies

• Yesterday afternoon, Atomic Learning, award-winning provider of online software training and resources, announced a free series on Google Docs. The series will be offered free of charge and can be accessed through May 1, 2008.

Author: Mark Wagner, Educational Technology and Life Blog, 18th March 2008

Article available here.

(seriously, Sid Meier is a keynoter and it only cost $250 for the whole conference!)The George Mason University Instructional Technology Program and the Defense Acquisition University invite you to attend the 4th Annual Innovations in e-Learning Symposium to be held on June 3, 4 & 5, 2008 in the Johnson Center on the Fairfax Campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
The topics for this year’s symposium are:
* Mobile Learning and Gaming
* Web 2.0 and Cyber-infrastructure
* Innovation Design and Research Partnerships
* Collaboration in a Virtual World

Author: Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings Blog, 18th March 2008

Full article available here.

Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at Massively Multi-Learner 2008. The presentations will be web-cast using Quicktime, details on the MML page here. My talk is titled “Before, Beyond (and Somewhere to the Left of) Second Life”, and will be a very brief run through of the use of virtual worlds in education (extremely simplified!) - looking at platforms past and future.

Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 17th March 2008

Full article available here.

The Virtual Body

Unless one is a medical resident, it can be quite difficult to get a close- up look at a skeleton, a brain, or even the inner workings of the digestive tract. Students of the medical sciences and others need worry no more, as this very fine interactive exhibit offers up dynamic images and cross- sections of these parts of the anatomy and many more to boot. The site contains four sections, including “Brain”, “Skeleton”, “Heart”, and “Digestive Tract”. In the “Heart” area, visitors can learn about the individual parts of the heart, view an animated heart, and also take a narrated tour of the heart that will “keep your heart beating.” Moving on, the “Skeleton” section features the “Bones Narrated” tour, which will take visitors on a guided tour of the skeleton and its functions.

Author: Ray Schroeder, Educational Technology Blog, 8th March 2008

Full article available here.

The latest Eduserv Foundation funded study into UK universities,
colleges and academics developing “stuff” in Second Life, and using
this for teaching and learning, is underway. Fuller details are
blogged here:

http://www.silversprite.com/?p=460

As we visit these developments, we’ll be taking screen dumps and
adding them to this picture set in Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/silversprite/sets/72157603982005324/

If you’re in UK Higher or Further Education and you’ve developed
something in Second Life then get in touch:

john@silversprite.com

It’s an opportunity to promote what you’ve done, and also for like-
minded academics to find you.

If you are aware of other developments in UK universities and colleges
- be they at the institution, department, group or lone academic level
- then we’d appreciate word of them too; thanks.

Author: John Kirriemuir, Silversprite Helsinki, 4th March 2008