VWBPE 2021 Reconnaissance Immersive Experiences
A highlight of the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference are the Immersive Experiences offered in the weeks before and after the conference presentation days.
The VWBPE 2021 Immersive Experiences showcase unique and interesting work conducted across the Metaverse. We invite you to join us as we explore interactive and engaging locations across multiple virtual environments from Virbela to World of Warcraft with many stops in between. Have you been to a haunted castle in Gather Town?
Come play a game, solve a problem, and engage in hands-on learning with virtual world education leaders. No need to sign up, simply come and learn!
The Immersive Experiences are scheduled from March 03 to April 05 (exclusive of the conference dates). Attend some or all, as you are able. Many will be open for self-exploration after the presentation date. A list of the pre-conference and post-conference experiences is below. Details and access instructions for the experiences will be found in the VWBPE conference calendar – available now. Some may require creating accounts. Be sure to check the Program often!
Post-Conference
Reconnaissance in times of darkness
21 March @ 2:00 PM SLT/PDT
90 minutes
OS Grid: We are a group of 10 artists and each of us has developed an individual artistic idea to deal with the main topic. This is an interactive immersive tour to all the art-installations and to explore different artistic strategies and concepts related to the perception of darkness and how to overcome and handle it.
Explore practice with information & meta-literacy
22 March @ 1:00 PM SLT/PDT
75 minutes
Second Life: The pandemic has revealed the dangers and importance of information and disinformation in people’s lives. We will start by exploring existing exhibits which reveal different experiences and aspects of meta literacy and information literacy (IL) (e.g. symbolic models of meta literacy; conspiracy theory experience). Then people will explore how they themselves engage with information as citizens and educators and how IL and meta literacy is, and can be, incorporated into their practice as educators.
“Virtual Worlds” an Elective Course for Higher Education
24 March @ 10:00 AM SLT/PDT
90 minutes
Second Life: The tour will include the Cag University (Turkey) Virtual campus and Feed A Smile sim where we carry out our final student projects. The main objective of this course is to teach the students how virtual worlds can be used for the benefit of humanity.
https://www.vwbpe.org/event/ie-virtual-worlds-an-elective-course-for-higher-education
Escape – Spanish Language Learning
25 March @ 2:00 PM SLT/PDT
90 minutes
Digiworldz: Join us for a tour of Escape, a virtual world dedicated to learning Spanish in an immersive environment. While strolling through the plaza or investigating the old pyramid, students discover dedicated grammar and vocabulary learning objects that take them through the process of attaining knowledge, practicing that knowledge and finally assessing that knowledge in an engaging, innovative format.
Gather Town: Digital University A post-disciplinary gamescape
Part 1: Digital University campus opens for 24 hours asynchronous exploration
26 March @ 8:00 AM SLT/PDT
Part 2: Final synchronous session
27 March @ 8:00 AM SLT/PDT
60 minutes
Gather Town: Digital University is a hybrid of pedagogy and gaming focused on transdisciplinary thinking. Fictional avatars are immersed in a haunted castle campus and participate in a choose-your-own-learning adventure. Hidden pre-recorded videos, lecture excerpts, and provocative questions are discovered, while serendipitous encounters with other players, educators, and ghosts of the castle complete the experience.
Links:
Part 1: https://www.vwbpe.org/event/ie-part-1-digital-university-gathertown-campus-opens
Part 2: https://www.vwbpe.org/event/ie-part-2-digital-university-gathertown-campus-final-class
Developing a Second Life Quick Start Guide for New Second Life Learners
27 March @ 2:00 PM SLT/PDT
60 minutes each
Second Life: Come experience this new user quick start learning area, which contains a learning path for basic Second Life skills, a University-like learning hub with social areas, classrooms, a concert area, a “freebie” store, and an advanced learning path for experienced SL residents wanting to learn more.
Is the Amani Ready to Sail Safely?
28 March @ 10:00 AM SLT/PDT
90 minutes
Kitely: Join a recon mission at Limiland aboard a full scale cruise ship. This immersive extra credit activity was developed for cruise ship operations management students. Explore role play and use the checklist and embedded information in key locations to determine if the Amani is ready to sail in a post pandemic world.
Hitchcock: The evolution of the plot twist
28 March @ 2:00 PM SLT/PDT
60 minutes
Host: Johannes Huntsman (SL)
This exhibition will demonstrate how Alfred Hitchcock perfected the literary element of the plot twist in his films, with immersive scenes from Pyscho, The Birds, Vertigo, and North by Northwest. Available for self-exploration after the event.
Degas Dances: An Evening with Ballet Pixelle
28 March @ 5:00 PM SLT/PDT
90 minutes
Second Life: Ballet Pixelle will present the original ballet “Degas Dances” following a brief discussion of representing art and dance in virtual worlds. Ballet Pixelle’s goal is to explore physical and virtual dance and movement and blended realities. “Degas Dances” uses physical and virtual dance and art, to explore art history and dance and technology in a new, innovative, engaging way.
Shadowlands: Redesign of Play in World of Warcraft
31 March @ 5:00 PM SLT/PDT
90 minutes
World of Warcraft and Discord: This immersive experience covers the covenants (zones) in the newest expansion of World of Warcraft looking through a Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics (MDA). We will look holistically at the mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics that each of these bring to game-play and role-play.
Magnolia Gardens of Knowledge
02 April @ 1:00 PM SLT/PDT
60 minutes
OpenSim and SceneGate (optional): A demonstration of using OpenSimulator affordances (Digital Teaching Assistants) to provide introductory learning about any topic with concrete (visible) parts. This demonstration introduces the parts (here garden plants), showing 3D images of them in a typical location (situated learning).
The Superhero’s Journey New Student Orientation
03 April @ 11:00 AM SLT/PDT
90 minutes
Second Life: The Superhero’s Journey New Student Orientation and Guided Pathways Areas of Study Digital Storytelling Project is an ongoing, persistent virtual learning environment to inform and inspire new students and advance institutional understanding at Peninsula College.
Easter Egg Hunt at Cookie II
03 April @ 2:00 PM SLT/PDT
90 minutes
Kitely: Calling all adventurers for a recon visit to Cookie II! Look for the Easter bunny’s baskets with us and uncover teleports to areas of new development we’d like to share with you. Hidden throughout the region are baskets with Easter eggs of delicious tips and tricks shared by our community members on technologies and strategies to foster resilience and collaboration.
Singapore 1825
05 April @ 5:00 PM SLT/PDT
90 minutes each
Kitely: Singapore, Circa 1825 is an imaginative recreation of the early trading port established by Sir Stamford Raffles of the British East India Company in 1819.
See Conference Program
for Details!