2010 Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference
(March 12-13): Keynote Address by Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden Lab®
________________________

48-Hour Event Expected to Attract 5,000+ Attendees and over
150 Presentations from Around the World

March 3, 2010 — Pioneers in the creation of innovative uses of virtual worlds in education, training, business, military and cultural spheres will come together in Second Life® to celebrate “Imagination Around The World” (March 12-13).  The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference (VWBPE) will feature more than 150 presentations and a keynote address by Mark Kingdon, the CEO of Linden Lab® creators of Second Life® (SL).
 
“From a small grass roots community, we have grown dramatically as a global organization and are becoming a force in transforming education in a very short time,” said Marlene Brooks, Program Chair (SL: Zana Kohime). “We expect more than 5,000 attendees at VWBPE10 (www.vwbpe.org) with participants from every continent,” she continued.
 
Presenters at VWBPE10 are at the forefront of capitalizing on advances in new technologies and a broad range of disciplines related to virtual worlds. In addition to Linden Lab® CEO Mark Kingdon, notable keynote presentations and presenters at VWBPE10 will include:
 
“Learning in 3D: A New Educational Dimension”
Karl Kapp (SL: Abbott Bundy) and Tony O’Driscoll (SL: Wada Tripp) authors of the hot-selling book Learning in 3D: Adding a New dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration
 

 “Virtual Worlds, Culture and Change – A Conversation”
Tom Boellstorff (SL: Tom Bukowski) academic, author and editor-in-chief of American Anthropologist and Doug Thompson the (SL: Dusan Writer) CEO of Remedy Communications and owner of Metanomics.
 
“The Rise of Avatars in Social Networks for Military Learning Innovations”
Andy Sticker (Bio-TK) and Marlene Brooks (moderator).
 
Presentations will showcase what is being done in virtual worlds at universities, colleges, businesses, government agencies, not-for-profit entities and K-12 classrooms. More than one hundred volunteers will assist presenters and attendees at the 48-Hour conference taking place in over twenty SL Sims. The Presentations will be available in five languages: English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
 
“What makes this year exciting is that we are becoming more interactive and mainstream, and we are having a growing impact on all forms of education and training based on the values of connection, collaboration and co-creation integral to virtual world learning environments,” said, Kevin Feenan (SL: Phelan Corrimal).
 
The Virtual World Best Practices in Education Conference originated from the 2007 Second Life® Best Practices in Education Conference. Educators are one of the largest and most vibrant groups in SL with an outreach to more than 6,000 residents.
 
Registration for the conference is Free. To register please visit: www.vwbpe.org
 
About Second Life
Developed and launched by Linden Lab in 2003, Second Life is the world’s leading 3D virtual world environment. It enables its Residents to create content, interact with others, launch businesses, collaborate, educate, and more. Since its inception, Second Life Residents have logged more than one billion user hours and generated more than $1 billion in user-to-user transactions. With a broad user base that includes everyone from consumers and educators to medical researchers and large enterprises, Second Life has become one of the largest repositories of user-generated content and the largest user-generated virtual goods economy in the world.

For additional information, please contact:
E-mail: Marty Keltz: marty.keltz@gmail.com
For information on Second Life, visit: www.secondlife.com

Volunteer Opportunities for New Resident Orientation and Socials

New Resident Orientation – this is helping out at the Rockcliffe Gateway with first time users of SL.

Social Sim Greeter – this is a VWBPE Central greeting, giving info on sessions and resources on conference and basic SL questions.

SWAG Docent – helping newer residents use resources, tools and objects in their swag bags.We have a sim set aside on Social to do this.

Social Event Greeters – A number of our social events have requested greeters. These are at designated social times.

We’ll be doing an overview of how these volunteer positions will work and do sign-ups. We’ll also sending out an email to anyone who signed up on the volunteer survey to make sure that they can still do the hours they signed up for earlier.

Virtual World tours guides and Docents will meet at a later date. If you are interested in helping with developing the material, assisting people to get inworld or doing the tours please email que.jinn@gmail.com

Reaction Grid
Forbidden City
Quest Atlantis
World of Warcraft
Club Penguin
Habbo Hotel
Runescape
City of Heroes

Thanks,

Kavon Zenovka

Sponsorship Package 2010

SPONSORSHIP PACKAGE (PDF)

VWBPE Background

Use of 3D virtual technology has been making its way into mainstream education, non-profit and business settings. This 3rd Annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference (VWBPE10) is the definitive event bringing together educators/trainers, practitioners, administrators and policy makers from around the world to present, discuss and review ongoing developments in the field of 3D virtualization, its applications, and opportunities.

The conference will provide a virtual venue where high quality academic papers, in addition to grassroots practical application modeling, roundtables, and discussions, will be presented to leading businesses and academics in the field of virtual collaboration. All papers and proposals are selected through a peer-review process to ensure that all presentations represent leading edge work which is current and relevant.

Pathfinder Linden stated: “I strongly believe this fantastic conference is a watershed moment for education”. The recorded sessions were archived on Treet TV’s Website and have drawn thousands of viewers during the past year. Similarly, blog posts, articles, wiki’s, twitters, and plurks have reached thousands of more educators and related professionals around the world fostering an ongoing interest in the importance of the conference, its reach, and affects.

The past two conferences have attracted a growing following. In 2007, the SLBPE (Second Life Best Practices in Education) attracted over 1700 leading educators and researchers from over 15 countries. In 2009, the VWBPE conference saw over 3,600 participants from over 25 countries. A doubling of attendees is anticipated for the 2010 conference.

The impact of the conference will be dramatic and provide an ideal platform for advertising and sponsorship.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship provides a number of benefits to your organization during and after the conference. As a sponsor of this event, your organization can associate its name with a high profile and growing annual event. One that reaches a broad international audience, is growing in global recognition, and has become a sustainable event on an annual basis.

As a sponsor, your organization gains the following competitive advantages:

• High visibility with leaders in the field of 3D virtualization and collaboration
• Opportunities to raise brand awareness globally both during the conference and after
• Opportunities to promote your products/services through presentations and/or exhibits
• Outreach to a broad spectrum of teachers, administrators, business and government leaders

Sponsorship Packages

Our goal is to raise $15,000 USD between December 12, 2009 and March 12, 2009. The funds raised will provide for venue design and set-up, high-definition and low-definition video streaming of the conference in real-time to the internet, transcription for those people who are hearing impaired, community development social activities and other incidental expenses. How much or how little of these activities depends on our sponsors.

The VWBPE Committee is asking for your support at one of three sponsorship levels Gold ($1500), Silver ($1000), Bronze ($500) or Blue Ribbon (any amount under $500).

Gold Sponsor ($1500 x 1)

Company name and logo displayed on

• Premier placement on Conference Homepage on VWBPE website with hyperlink
• Premier placement on Sponsor Page on VWBPE website with hyperlink
• Premier placement on Sponsor Board in Second Life
• HD Video Recording (Pre-Roll) on Keynote and Special Guest Speakers
• LD Video Gold Sponsor mention multiple times throughout the 2 days

Silver Sponsor ($1000 x 3)

Company name and logo displayed on

• Preferred placement on Conference Homepage on VWBPE website with hyperlink
• Preferred placement on Sponsor Page on VWBPE website with hyperlink
• Preferred placement on Sponsor Board in Second Life
• HD Video Recording (Pre-Roll) on Special Guest Speakers
• LD Video Silver Sponsor mention multiple times throughout the 2 days

Bronze Sponsor ($500 x 20)

Company name and logo displayed on

• General placement on Conference Homepage on VWBPE website with hyperlink
• General placement on Sponsor Page on VWBPE website with hyperlink
• General placement on Sponsor Board in Second Life
• LD Video mention at least once throughout each of the 2 days

Blue Ribbon Community (varying amounts over $50 and under $500)

Company name and logo displayed on

• Honourable mention placement on Sponsor Page on VWBPE website with hyperlink
• General placement on Blue Ribbon Community Board in Second Life
• LD Video Sponsor mention at least once throughout both of the 2 days

Virtual Gift Bags and Sponsor Board Locations

Each year VWBPE encourages all for-profit and non-profit organizations to contribute something to the Virtual Gift Bag. In the past these items have included virtual clothing (branded and unbranded), toys, tools, samples, scripts, coupons, etc.. In the past we have had upwards of 100 different items offered to the conference participants. If you have something to add please just pass it along in world to either SL Avatars responsible for social and gateway. MLani Montgomery or Kavon Zenovka.

Sponsor boards will be placed at each of the main speaking venues, the social area, and gateway. Visitors pick up their virtual gift bags at the gateway area. The Blue Ribbon Community board will be located at the main gateway to the conference only.

Contact Information:

Kevin Feenan,
VWBPE Executive Committee
Sponsorship, Finance, and Logistics
Tel: +1.613.276.1911
eMail: sponsorship@vwbpe.org

The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VW-BPE) is a community-based conference that provides opportunities for participants of virtual worlds to share current teaching, learning and research practices in 3D virtual environments. Conference presentations focus on teaching/learning, scholarly work, projects, events, activities and new and innovative tools for virtual education. Conference presenters’ focus on the identification of ‘best practices in education’ designed for 3D virtual world technology.

All submissions are due no later than
23:59PST Monday, February 15th 2010

All submissions are reviewed. Proposals submitted after the above time and date will not be reviewed for contribution.

Call for Proposals

Proposal Streams

Virtual world technology provides unique contribution opportunities. The following are the proposal stream. 

• A) Theoretical and Formal Research Presentation
• B) Informal Practice-Based Presentation (Course Specific Area)
• C) Practice-Based Project and Event Presentation
• D) Exploration of Virtual Worlds
• E) Project-Based Exploration
• F) Panel Presentation and Discussion
• G) Roundtable Topic
• H) Tutorial
• I) Tools and Products

Each of the proposal streams are described in

• Part II: Proposal Stream Descriptions PDF (English)
• Part II: Proposal Stream Descriptions PDF (Chinese).

João Mattar has provided information on Proposals in Portuguese at his personal blog.
Dora Quar has provided information on Proposals in German at the German language network for the conference.

Submitting a Proposal

Please email proposals@vwbpe.org with a synopsis of your proposal

Make sure as part of your synopsis you:

• Clearly state the Stream you would like to present.
• Indicate how your work illustrates ‘best practices’.
• Indicate the outcomes participants should expect from your session.
• Describe the strategies you will use to engage participants in discussing, analyzing synthesizing, and/or applying the information you share.
• Describe how your work might be applied to a particular or multiple sectors of education, i.e. K-12, large universities, community colleges, adult education, Second Life-specific, etc.
• Include links to relevant Web sites or electronic copies of the materials you will share (electronic copies of materials can be provided later).

Receiving Notification

You will receive a message indicating receipt of your proposal when it is submitted.

Receiving Acceptance

You will receive notification of the status of your proposal by Monday, March 1st, 2010. In the acceptance will be the time, date and location of your presentation.

Submitting for Paper Publication

If you would like a separate paper submission to the Journal of Virtual Studies, in addition to your virtual proposal, considered for publication please indicate your intention as part of your submission.

Final full and brief papers for publication must be received at papers@vwbpe.org in full on or before 23:59PST Wednesday, March 11th, 2010.

Final summaries for discussions and roundtables must be received at papers@vwbpe.org in full on or before 23:59 PST Sunday April 11th, 2010.

Paper submissions for publication only and not presented during the conference will not be accepted. Additional information regarding full paper and summary can be found in

• Part II: Proposal Stream Descriptions PDF (English)
• Part II: Proposal Stream Descriptions PDF (Chinese)

João Mattar has provided information on Proposals in Portuguese at his personal blog.
Dora Quar has provided information on Proposals in German at the German language network for the conference.

Call for Poster Sessions

You are invited to submit a proposal to participate in the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education ’10 (VWBPE ‘10) Poster Sessions.   Exemplary education programs in virtual worlds, including Second Life will be showcased throughout the 48-hour, international event. More than 5,000 people from around the globe visited VWBPE’09 and we expect this year’s conference to be equally popular.

Poster sessions will provide educators, researchers, and developers’ with a forum where they can present and discuss their work and network with others working on similar projects.

Space will be allocated to educational exhibitors to demonstrate their services or key projects.  These spaces will be limited to 256m2 and 100 prims. Audio/visual will be available but it is requested that use of sound be kept to a minimum.

Deadline for submission of a Poster or Exhibit proposal is 15 February 2010.  Session times will be advised closer to the event and it is recommended that you man your booth during these times. 

Important Dates

• Deadline for submission of proposal – 15 Feb. 2010
• Notification of Acceptance – 22 Feb. 2010
• Sim open for setup – 5 Mar. 2010
• Conference – 12-13 Mar. 2010

To submit your application please copy and paste the following into an email and send to posters@vwbpe.org 

• Real life name
• Real life organization
• Email address
• Avatar name
• SL Educational Institution, Organization, or Library
• SLURL of SL building
• Description of booth contents (1- 3 sentences)

MARKETING/ PROMOTION

• Review Branding
• Consistent Use of Logo
• Signage: Develop a package with signage for distribution by SL residents.
• Identify Key Demographic Groups for Marketing
• Identify Key Marketing Platforms
• Machinima Trailer

COMMUNICATION/ PROMOTION

• Volunteers in this group include those who are proficient at using Twitter, Facebook, Evenbrite, Google and other social software tools to spread the word.

PROGRAM

• Conference Call for Proposals
• Development of an International Committee for International Stream
• Revise Criteria for Proposal Selection
• Selection of Concurrent Sessions and Acceptance Letter
• Acquiring Keynotes, Keynote Selection and Acceptance Letter
• Overseer, Moderator during the conference and provide information
• Practice times and guidance for presenters and information prior to conference.
• Island(s) layout and design for program sessions.

SOCIAL and WELCOME AREA

• Social Events Identification and Development
• Social and Welcome Area Layout and Design

VENDOR AND POSTER AREA

• Call for Vendor and Posters
• Layout and Design of Vendor and Poster area.

HOW TO VOLUNTEER?

Join the VWBPE Google Group at http://groups.google.ca/group/virtual-world-best-practices-in-education-vwbpe-2010

and complete the Volunteer Survey. The Chair of the Social, Poster/Vendor and Program Committee will provide you initial information. In addition, meeting times and events leading up to, during and post-conference are posted in the Google Group Area. So, request membership and join in!