CONFERENCE SCHEDULE & SESSION ABSTRACTS (International Time Zone converter)

"Education, Innovation and Community Development in 3D Worlds"

9am to 10am PST, Noon to 1pm EST, 5 to 6 pm GMT
Virtual Location: VLEARN PAVILION 1

This session will introduce participants to the many innovations and community members in the education universe of AWedu. It will offer a preview of the day's presenters and activities as well as provide a way to learn more about those who are in attendence. An opening interactive session is planned that will give educators new to the medium a unique experience of what is possible in avatar inhabited cyberspace.

Building Blocks for Virtual Worlds Study - Preliminary Results (Panel/Presentation) -

10am - 11am PST, 1pm to 2pm EST, 6 to 7 pm GMT
Virtual Location: VLEARN PAVILION 2
Katy Borner, Bonnie DeVarco, Margaret Corbit, Elijah Wright, Yael Kali

Members of the Building Blocks Team will discuss the "Building Blocks" study and present general preliminary results. Members of the CILT Design Principles Team will join this panel to discuss and present the Design Principles Database, a larger project of which the "Building Blocks" is a part.

The framework of the "Design Principles Database" project consists of three grain-size levels of design principles: Meta-principles (abstract ideas about instruction and curriculum design), Pragmatic principles (the synthesis of design research and experiments) and Specific principles (results from one study or the character of one technology feature). The Design Principles Database pertains to, among other things, functions software should take on, integration of software into classroom activities, design of project challenges, managing learning, creating classroom culture, assessment, and systems of scaffolding.

As part of the "Design Principles Database" project, the "Building Blocks" project aims to develop design principles for a starter kit for educational virtual worlds. It will synthesize lessons learned by the VLearn3D.org educational 3D multi-user virtual worlds community into a set of design principles, which can be shared within our community and with the broader community of educational technology developers via CILT. The results of this study will incorporate a means for managing and evaluating user activities inworld in addition to a simple and flexible virtual architecture for user spaces.

CHEMEET WORLD AND LINKWRLD - Interactivity and New Avatars for Science and Guidance

11am - noon PST, 2 to 3pm EST, 7 to 8pm GMT
Virtual Location: CHEMEET World and LINKWRLD
Carol Kerney, Cinzia Gandini (wth help from Jake Bowman, Chad Rooney and David Peth)

Two projects in AWedu are taking the medium to new areas of interactivity. In this session, Cinzia Gandini and Carol Kerney will demonstrate unique approaches to the Educational Experience the sciences and guidance activities.

Interactive Avatars for Science Learning - The purpose of this project is to explore the application of 3D scientific animations suitable for a 3D virtual environment. Since objects linked in a hierarchy and animation sequences have been only used to build characters, a new application of the technology has been speculated. The use of avatars has always been considered as the point of view of the user in the 3D space and the personification of a real person inside the virtual environment. This visual personage, that embodies the soul of a real user, would make it reasonably fast and easy to accept a different reality, recognize other persons, move and interrelate. Thus new interactive avatars have been studied to achieve simple and effective animations that can be easily used both by students for a better understanding as a self learning tool or by professors during lessons Cinzia Gandini DVM, Specialist in Small Animal Medicine

Counseling and Gaming in LinkWorld - Carol Kerney, the Co-Director of the Borderlink Project, will introduce VLearn participants to a unique virtual counseling environment for high school students in the Imperial and San Diego Counties called "LinkWorld." LinkWorld assists students in preparing for college by providing extensive resources concentrating on the the A-G requirements for California University entry. Carol will also present "CollegeQuest," a unique gaming environment that takes students through the journey of college prep from 6th grade to the senior year. The BorderLink Project is a federally-funded Technology Innovation Challenge Grant designed to impact the lives of high school students of Imperial and rural San Diego Counties through the use of technology in education.

Brainstorming a Toolkit for Educational Virtual Worlds - (Roundtable Discussion)

12pm to 1pm PST - 3pm to 4pm EST, 8 to 9pm GMT
Virtual Location: VLEARN Pavillion2
Dr. Katy Borner, panel leader

Virtual worlds require a number of key components to make them successful learning envronments. These include tools for communication, evaluation, collaboration, visualization, interactivity and curriculum development. Dr. Katy Borner will lead a one-hour roundtable session to discuss the wide range of approaches that educators have found successful and the challenges in bringing together a suite of tools that will help educators and students use virtual worlds to aid the learning experience effectively.

ActiveWorlds Hands-On Building Session for Students

1pm to 2pm PST - 4pm to 5pm EST, 9 to 10pm GMT
Virtual Location: BUILDING WORLD, SHOWCASE WORLD, CLASS3D WORLD, MEGAPATH WORLD
Chad Rooney, Richard Giles, Mark Arnold and TacoGuy

LinkWorld Special Student Building Session - Led by Rich, ChadR, Jake Bowman, Trident, Markus and TacoGuy

Learn how to build together in realtime! Rich and ChadR will lead students in two hands-on building sessions in "building world." Rich will offer a workshop for basic building fo architecture and working with objects in area 1. Chad will show more complex tips and tricks in building landscapes, content and interactivity in area 5. TacoGuy will lead participants in a hands-on demo of bots and automation in Showcase world. For participants who would like to test out AW's new "Classroom Generator," VLearn docent Jake Bowman will assist you in experiencing a fully interactive experience in Class3D world. And for those who would like to experience the breadth of building options and objects in AWedu, Markus will be touring participants through Megapath world. Greeters in Centre and Vlearn world will assist you in going to the proper locations.

Open World Tours in the AWedu Universe

1pm to 2pm PST - 4pm to 5pm EST, 10 to 11pm GMT
Virtual Location: VTOUR WORLD
Members of the AWedu Universe

Open World Tours in the AWedu Universe - Participants are welcome to tour a wide range of science, art, counseling, technology and humanities worlds in the AWedu Unvierse. These worlds were created for both informal and informal education and focus on education for K12 through university levels. Open Tour Launch Page A greeter in VTour world will be on hand to assist you!

CLOSING CEREMONY AND SUNSET RECEPTION

2pm to 2:30pm PST -5pm to 5:30pm EST,11 to 11:30pm GMT
Virtual Location: VLEARN WORLD
Bonnie DeVarco, Katy Borner, Elijah Wright, Margaret Corbit, Penny and Craig Twining

Participants will reconvene in the Vlearn Library in VLearn world for a special sunset reception. This will be followed by a fully interactive closing ceremony outside in the standing stones (at virtual sunset). Fly from the past to the future, from micro to macro, as your molecular avatars dance among the megaliths of the past and fly into the surprisingly musical order of the planetary orbits of our solar system. Watch the virtual cosmos unfold as the day comes to a close.