NMC Campus Observer

Mid November Teacher’s Buzz

CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) : Nov 13, 2006 10:05pm

Our small grassy knoll was packed tonight with at least 35 avatars who showed up for the NMC Teacher’s Buzz meeting. The intended discussion topic was sharing or recapping the presentations seen last week at the NMC Regional Conference in San Antonio– as we had at least 4 of the presenters on hand at tonight’s meeting. The transcript now available,

The presentation files themselves from the conference, along with podcasts from the keynote sessions, will be posted as they are received.

Participants at the Nov 13 Buzz session

First, because she had to leave, was Lyr Lobo, who gave an overview of her presentation on What Can We Learn from World of Warcraft and Second Life [3.4 Mb PowerPoint], and the tool she is using to create “temporary learning spaces”, places that can be quickly rezzed as neeed. Look for more at the next Buzz, as Lyr will provide is a live demo.

Also on hand, Abdiel Merit talked about his San Antonio Session on The Allegory Effect: Metaphoric Immersion in Croquet and Second Life (Powerpoint pending…) with thoughtful ideas like:

Primary paradox of SL is that a person operates with a real meaning in an alienated situation

as well as some concepts of alienation in SL. Talk then drifted to topcs of educational grids, welcome islands, the desire for “control”, and more. Check out the transcript for more.

Next we got to see a live demo of the new video and slide show screens provided to NMC Campus by Abbaca Aoi for use in all of our classes and places where media can be shown. But there was even a better surprise- she gave free copies to anyone present! These screens are able to do random slide shows, but also can act as a video juke box, where up to 10 videos (entered in notecards) can be triggered to play by an instructor.

Story filed under: People, Places, Things, Resources & Information, Teacher's Buzz

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