Teacher Education

• Used to build community among science teachers within the MAT program – Meetings – Presentations – Discussions – Poster sessions / conferences – Pod development

Student presentations

Meetings with the Dean

Uses many ways to meet, present, discuss & learn

Online Graduate Classes

Virtual experiences, such as weather

Class meetings on

ISTE

Teachers learn

rudimentary 3-d building

and design pods to share their science projects,

through images & weblinks

Viewing & discussion K12 videos

Bringing group sharing & discussion in separated areas

reported back in Angel

Virtual poster session

Students reviewed the posters

Evaluations were conducted

Significant research / dissemination

LEARN ABOUT ESC RESEARCH & STUDY IN APPENDIX TO REPORT

Specific support recommendations

• Continued use of both ESC Virtual islands for the next two year from Second Life, and services that include:

• An in-world help desk for basic virtual operations – downloading software; setting up headsets and speech; coordinating basic navigation efforts; overseeing island services and

• NO SUPPORT is needed for island development or management; faculty and staff provide this themselves

• As grant funding becomes available, ESC should hire student-work-studies for live help in Second Life.

Begin developing, supporting, and evaluating other virtual alternatives, such as:

• OpenSims (open source) with either server support and maintenance from ESC or server rental

• Monthly services of about 4 hours from a programmer and/or network administrator to ensure island operations are effective

• Towards the end of the two years of Second Life continued service, determine whether to maintain the island presence or move to open source or other virtual options.

Develop a task force or working group within OIT that stays abreast of this emerging area

• In an attempt to support the instruction, research, and meetings that are presently happening within Second Life at ESC, a team of faculty and staff have assembled to provide mutual, peer resources and support; however, we recommend that a permanent function within OIT be assembled to join, integrate-with, learn-from, and possibly partner-with other educational organizations that are seeking to maintain an active virtual presence in their respective organizations; many groups are starting within the leading academic institutions and OIT should be an active participant in these forums. This group should also seek to secure grant funding from the network of potential users (going beyond the individual faculty/staff efforts to date).

Integrate virtual environments into the academic perspective of the college at large

• Given the instruction, courses, programs, research, publication, and dissemination that is prominent and ongoing within the present ESC virtual spaces (as mentioned at the opening of this report and represented in Appendix 3), this task force recommends that the Office of Academic Affairs also seek to understand and support these ongoing, visionary, and “open” efforts. Since a continued and strong ESC’s presence within virtual environments positions the college as a future-thinking educational organization, we request that OAA understand and support the innovative efforts presently underway and considers ways to engage other areas of these college in these environments.

Selection of links to visit• Undergraduate studies where students work on developing virtual technologies and training

programs for corporate environments that include virtual training as shown in these links:

– YouTube of Jason's exhibit on the paranormal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAlvZ5-2nyg

– A YouTube on Dave's Zippo Training area - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CXfWW34JaQ

• Teacher Education Program – classes meet in virtual spaces to extend learning and community (http://www.slideshare.net/eoconnor/educational-uses-of-virtual-realities). Below are several YouTubes illustrating uses in classes were students are working online across the state to meet course objectives:

– Viewing a video of K12 students - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz1ld2AUTUQ

– Having a poster session of their own work - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvgXca-xf00

– Reviewing overall uses in a education course where students develop and display science projects within virtual spaces- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLXqleVwFxM

• Rufer, Rosalyn & Adams, Hope (2012) STUDENT CENTERED MARKETING EDUCATION THROUGH OPEN LEARNING RESOURCES AND WEB 2.0 TOOLS; American Management Association; Winter Educator’s Conference February 2012 - http://www.slideshare.net/MathSciCrystal/student-centered-marketing-education

• Adams, H., Gal, D.; Mahar, D.; O’Connor, E.; Snyder, D.; & Snyder, L. (2011). Building New Programs in Emerging Technologies and Learning: Empowering Next Generation Learning: 4th Annual International Symposium, Sloane-C, San Jose, CA, July 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DVHzjVAkfM

Selection of links to visit• Martinez, Nicola (2008). Invited Speaker. Second Life: The Future of Communications? Society

for Technical Communications 55th Annual Summit, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. June 1-4, 2008 http://www.slideshare.net/Nicola.Martinez/second-life-the-future-of-communications

• Martinez, Nicola (2008). Here Be Dragons: Second Life Community Building and Citizen Engagement on the Isle of Wyrms. Sloan-C International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning. Carefree, Arizona. May 7-9, 2008 http://www.slideshare.net/Nicola.Martinez/sloan-c-iset-here-be-dragons-pub

• O’Connor, E. (2011) SER/VE (the STEM Exploratory Real/Virtual Environment) and the Engagement of Urban Youth; a poster session presented at the 2011 SUNY STEM Conference at the Crowne Plaza in Albany, NY on November 2011 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tQXwZVlPsc

• O’Connor, E. (2010). Using Second Life (a virtual reality) in Language Instruction: Practical Advice on Getting Started; at 4th International Scientific and Methodological Conference on "Information and Communication Technologies in Foreign Language Teaching” (June 2010); presented via virtually via Skype to the Moscow conference attendees on June 10, 2010 http://www.slideshare.net/eoconnor/using-second-life-in-foreignlanguage-instructionpractical-advise

• O’Connor, E. & Meyer, H.. Graduate Students in Second Life: The Roller Coaster Ride of a Shifting Paradigm. Conference in Instructional Technology (CIT 2009), SUNY. (May 2009) http://www.slideshare.net/eoconnor/graduate-students-in-second-life-1454760

More info

• Please see report for listings of the research and presentations

• Many links to slide presentations and YouTube of virtual activities

• Send questions to the Ad Hoc Committee Members: – Hope Adams, Mete Cetiner, Diane Gal, Ken

Ferree, Michael Mancini, Nicola Martinez, Audeliz Matias, Eileen O’Connor, Jase Teoh

Thank you for your support!