Tim Wang's eLearning Blog

Next Tuesday, May 5th, I am invited to do a talk at the UBC Library’s TOTS - Tools for Outreach & Teaching Series, here is the outline of the meeting:

* Introduction and demonstration of some of current library applications in Second Life.
* Applications of virtual worlds at UBC: Buchanan Island, Ancient Spaces and the Arts Metaverse.
* Sandbox/ hands-on part where the group will be divided into small groups to try out Second Life with a Second Life guide – this is someone who currently has an avatar in Second Life. There will be set questions that the small groups can consider while they have a chance to navigate in Second Life, using an already created avatar. There will be recorders in each of the small groups and the thoughts collected in the small groups will be collected and posted to the blog or wiki.
* The group will reassemble for a group discussion and reflection on the small group experience. The emphasis will be on discussing concrete ways these new technologies may be useful to incorporate into the work and services we are providing in the library.

Then I am off to the NMC Summer Conference where Uli and I are co-presenting on "Arts Metaverse in Open Croquet: Exploring an Open Source 3D Online Digital World" at 8:30-9:45 am on Friday June 8th. Here is the summary of the presentation from the NMC 2007 Summer conference program book:

Many virtual worlds offer compelling UI and interactive functions that engage and even absorb the frequent or casual visitor and are, in a best case scenario, supported by a grid-based network. The freely-available Arts Metaverse open source technologies, in combination with the open Croquet platform, provide an immersive, real-time learning environment. Large numbers of students may navigate through virtual constructions, annotating, critiquing, and amending them in collaboration with one another.

Upon return, Liang and I are presenting Arts Metaverse and Immersive 3D Applications in Arts at UBC Townhall 2007. This explains a little on why I have not been blogging lately. But I promise, there are more exciting developments on Arts Metaverse and Learning Tools coming soon... So, stay tuned!