Call for Papers (Post-Conference Follow-up)

All submissions are due no later than
23:59PST Sunday, April 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.

Page Format

Papers and final summaries should be submitted as either a MS Word (*.doc) or Rich-Text Format (*.rtf) document using the following criteria:

• Page Set-up
  • Portrait Orientation
  • 1″ margins (top, bottom, left, and right)
• Styles – Restrict style usage to
  • Heading levels 1, 2, and 3
  • Normal (Times New Roman 12 pt font)
  • Caption (Centered, Label below)
• Paper Sections
  • Paper Title
  • Submitter’s actual credentials and affiliation (Name, SL Avatar Name, Title, Institution, other contact detail as you want it published)
  • Abstract or synopsis (must be clearly marked)
  • Main paper body
  • Other tables and supporting appendixes as needed
  • References (APA format is preferred but not required)
• Tables, diagrams, and images
  • All tables, diagrams, and images must be cited if they are not original work
  • Colour diagrams and images are permitted (does not need to be B&W)

Papers may be reformatted for publications as needed after submission
or if they do not conform the the requirements above.

Publication of the conference abstracts and papers are expected to occur the week of May 3rd, 2010.

GLOBAL CONFERENCE IN SECOND LIFE® TO SHOWCASE THE
POWER OF VIRTUAL WORLDS TO TRANSFORM EDUCATION

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

We need your help! Information on how to volunteer for Moderators and Overseers is here.

If you are not yet a Volunteer, see the Call for Volunteers for more info. Join the SL Group VWBPE, fill out the volunteer survey at http://bit.ly/8TRO3U, and send a request to join the VWBPE Google Group http://groups.google.com/group/virtual-world-best-practices-in-education-vwbpe-2010.
____
Greeters, Docent and Tour Guide overview session Saturday February 27 at 4 pm SLT. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/15/175/23

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