[Air-l] workshop part 2

[T. Kennedy]

Hi Folks,

I just wanted to thank everyone who came to our two brainstorming workshops
at the Virtual Center for Digital Media last Thursday. We had a great turn
out in both sessions - even though we had a griefer at the second session
(what an interesting little display of what can happen in a virtual
classroom).

While both sessions were very different in their discussion of how to mod
our existing seminar room, there were some really fabulous ideas. We would
like to put these ideas into practice at our next workshop: Wednesday,
January 24th 10am PST/SLT (Please note the time change). We will meet at the
VCDM (139, 34, 25) for a brief chat and recap and then teleport everyone to
our modding location.

As an aside - one thing that we gleaned from the workshops (particularly
from the second group) is that there is a lot to talk about with respect to
virtual learning environments; many questions need to be asked and many
things need to be teased out.

I'm including the original post at the end of this email...
Thanks!

Tracy

Hello fellow SL researchers and educators! 

My name is Tracy Kennedy - I'm a Virtual Research Assistant for the Center
for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver, British
Columbia. Some of you may remember me from last November when I posted an
invitation to our Virtual Open House at the Virtual Center for Digital Media
where we talked about a new Masters of Digital Media (MDM) program at the
Great Northern Way Campus starting in September 2007. The open house was a
great success and we are moving forward to put together some innovative
ideas & educational tools in Second Life for our 'real life' curriculum.

One initiative that we are currently working on is transforming traditional
style educational spaces (for example lecture halls and seminar rooms) into
student designed collaborative learning environments. We would like to move
beyond conventional 'real life' pedagogical delivery modes and  encourage
students to actively engage and participate in their learning milieu by
creating virtual learning spaces & places, and have students learn technical
design skills (and modding) at the same time.

Having said that, I'd like to invite you to a workshop we are having at the
Virtual Center for Digital Media (139, 34, 25) on Thursday January 18th -
1pm PST/SLT (we've added 10am PST/SLT) where we will have a 'brainstorming'
session to take the existing seminar room at the Virtual Center for Digital
Media, and transform it into a dynamic, creative workspace that is
collaboratively designed and built by a group of individuals - the intention
is to show that a group of individuals can come together and create their
own learning space. 

The following week (Wed Jan 24th 10am PST/SLT) we will put theory into
practice and actually do the modifications and changes to the room to see
what the end result might look like. However if you only want to come to the
brainstorming session on the 18th - that's fine too - We're interested in
your thoughts, ideas and expertise.

If you have questions, please feel free to email me off-list at
tracy at gnwc.ca.
More information about the program here:
http://www.gnwc.ca/mdm/
http://www.mastersofdigitalmedia.blogspot.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnwc 


Thanks!

Tracy Kennedy

********************************************
Second Life - TracyTrail Blazer
Virtual Research Assistant 
Center for Digital Media
Great Northern Way Campus
555 Great Northern Way
Vancouver, BC V5T 1E2
tracy at gnwc.ca

First Life - Tracy L. M. Kennedy
PhD Candidate -
Department of Sociology
Graduate Fellow -
Knowledge Media Design Institute 
www.kmdi.utoronto.ca/collaborative
Research Coordinator -
NetLab - Center for Urban & Community Studies
University of Toronto
725 Spadina Ave.
Toronto, ON M5S 2J4
www.netwomen.ca/Blog

Research Director -
Netwomen Consulting
tkennedy at netwomen.ca

********************************************