RSC NewsFeed

I’ve only recently discovered the Free Technology for Teachers blog and with over 100 posts a month, it’s a rich resource for educators looking for teaching material. Although it is aimed at primary and secondary education there are some very useful resources for colleges.

A recent post which caught my eye was 10 Sources of Educational Science Games. One of the resources which caught my eye was CSI: The Experience web adventure.

Rice University has partnered with CBS, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the National Science Foundation to produce educational web adventures based on the CSI television series. The web adventures are designed to teach students the process of forensic investigation and problem solving.

Click here to access CSI: The Experience web adventure

This report is the fifth in a series of snapshots of virtual world activity in UK higher and further education. It is the first to be conducted under the umbrella of Virtual World Watch (funded by Eduserv).

Questionnaire data for this snapshot began to be collected at the end of December 2008. Several staff within the JISC Regional Support Centres provided additional information; together with monitoring mailing lists, ‘soft’ information from contacts and searches of the web and Second Life, this contributed to a more rounded picture of virtual world activity in UK academia than was achieved in earlier snapshots.

Four main geographical clusters of academic Second Life activity have emerged in the UK:

• Edinburgh: the University of Edinburgh and nearby Heriot-Watt University
• Milton Keynes: the Open University
• The West Midlands: Coventry and the nearby universities of Birmingham City and Warwick
• Leeds: the universities of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan, and Leeds Art and Design College

View the report here (downloading a copy requires registration)

We are pleased to announce that the first meeting of the VIEWS (VIrtual Education Worlds Scotland) forum has been scheduled for the 26th of March at RSC Scotland S&W’s offices in Glasgow. The forum brings together those interested in the educational application of virtual worlds so that we can share our experiences of the technology. If you would like to join the forum, please sign up to our mailing list.

The agenda for the first meeting hasn’t been set yet, but we expect to cover:

• Aims of the forum
• Opportunities for collaboration
• Virtual World developments in Scotland
• A presentation… (SQA? OpenSim? SL Education space?)

RSC Scotland S&W have kindly offered to put on a lunch before the meeting, so the timing will be:

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 15:30 Meeting (programme to follow)

If you’d like to come along, could you please send an email to: support@rsc-sw-scotland.ac.uk with an indication of any dietary requirements?

Date: 29th October
Venue: University of Stirling
Cost: £50 (inlcuding entry to Pre-Conference workshops)

There are a few places left at Virtual Worlds 2008, a conference organised by the two Scottish RSCs, in partnership with the Higher Education Academy and with financial support from Eduserv. Hosted by the University of Stirling, this is your last chance to sign up to one of this year’s most exciting events!

This is the first time that Scotland has hosted an event on such a scale dedicated to exploring the educational value of virtual worlds.  We’ve managed to bring together examples from all across the country of how lecturers are using the technology to stimulate, engage and most importantly, educate their students. You’ll not only have the opportunity to meet with the lecturers, but also to experience virtual worlds for yourself as your led through the learning sequences in one of the many hands-on workshops on offer.

Download the conference programme here (PDF, 69KB)

With so many parallel sessions running, it’s likely that you won’t be able to go along to every workshop/presentation that you want to attend, so we’ve set aside some time in the day so that you can meet with presenters and colleagues to discuss how your students can benefit from the technology on offer.

The conference schedule is as follows:

09:30 Registration (with breakfast served from 9am)
10:00 Introduction – Sarah Price, JISC RSC Scotland North & East
10:10 Keynote 1: Virtual Worlds in Education, Andy Powell, Eduserve
10:45 AM Parallel sessions
12:15 Lunch
13:15 Meet the presenters (with refreshments)
13:45 Keynote 2: Implementing Virtual Worlds, Pauline Randall, Virtual-e
14:20 PM Parallel sessions
15:50 Closing – Fionnuala Carmichael, JISC RSC Scotland South & West
16:00 End

Remember to turn up early if you want to grab a quick breakfast!

Some of the hands-on sessions require a level of competance with Second Life or its open source equivalent, OpenSim. For those new to the platforms, or those who want to brush up on their virtual skills,  we’ve organised a series of Pre-Conference workshops that will be running around the country in the two weeks before the event. There’s no additional charge to attend any of these workshops.

15th – Aberdeen College, 13:00-16:00
20th – North Highland College, 13:00-16:00
21st – RSC Scot S&W (Glasgow), 09:30-12:30 & 13:30-16:30
22nd – Carnegie College, 13:00-16:00
23rd – Angus College, 10:00-13:00
24th – University of Edinburgh, 09:30-12:30

There are only a few places left at the conference, so if you don’t want to miss the chance to see what Virtual Worlds can offer you and your students, book your place now!

Click here to book a place at Virtual Worlds 2008!

If the price of a ticket to Beijing is out of reach in these credit crunch days then there is another way of visiting the forbidden city. IBM, working with China’s Palace Museum, have created an exact replica of the Forbidden City’s 178 acres. Three years of work have gone into a meticulous recreation of every building and thousands of major artefacts and the whole thing can be downloaded at no cost. Once inside the simulation you can choose an avatar which you then dress in the appropriate period clothing to set out to explore. Is this the shape of tourism to come? Click here to download the virtual forbidden city (be wary that the download file is very large).

The two Scottish Regional Support Centres, in collaboration with the Higher Education Academy (Scotland), are delighted to announce Virtual Worlds 2008. The conference offers you the chance to see how the technology is being used to deliver practical teaching and learning experiences. Not blue sky predictions, but how it’s being used today with students.

One step beyond the normal ‘show and tell’ format, the day is built around a series of hands-on workshops, led by the practitioners who actively exploit the technology with their students. You’ll discover for yourself what educational benefits these virtual spaces can offer. This participative aspect of Virtual Worlds 2008 promises to make it a conference quite unlike any you’ve experienced before.

Below is a brief selection of the full programme:

• Digital Mise-en-Scene. Explore the set of a virtual TV studio and see how the space can be used to enhance practical and critical skills in film and video production and direction.

• Take your Virtual Worlds to the Dentist. Fill those gaping cavities with meaningful learning using Thinking Worlds 2.0 – published free to education under a non commercial, creative commons license.

• Where Two Worlds Meet. Art imitates life as you step onto the virtual stage to act out a scene with avatars.
  

• Free me from my Second Life. Step back in time and walk down the streets of ancient Greece via St. Andrews University’s OpenSim – the open source version of Second Life.

• Meet the Virtual Patient. Feel the virtual pulse, this won’t hurt a bit! Daden Ltd, leading virtual world and AI consultancy, introduce their virtual patient technology used by St George’s Hospital, London.

Workshops and presentations are available also from other leading-edge experts in the use of virtual worlds for education, including Altered Learning, Glasgow Caledonian University, Eduserv, Heriot-Watt University, Higher Education Academy, JISC Legal, Newcastle University, University of the West of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh.

Places for this conference are limited, and demand is expected to be high. Please make your booking early and note that our funding requires us to give preference to persons from Scottish institutions of further and higher education.

Date:      Wednesday, 29th October
Venue:    University of Stirling
Cost:      £50

Click here to find out more about the Virtual Worlds 2008 Conference

The two Scottish Regional Support Centres, in collaboration with the Higher Education Academy (Scotland), are delighted to announce Virtual Worlds 2008. The one-day national event that seeks to answer the question,

“Do virtual worlds have a place in education?”

Arguments in favour of using the technology with students are varied – it’s engaging, immersive, and limited only by your imagination. If the hype surrounding virtual worlds like ‘Second Life’ is to be believed, then it’s only a matter of time before the avatars start taking over the classroom. Indeed, several colleges and universities have already set up (virtual) shop in this brave new world. And yet, those against the use of such technology see it as frivolous and time-wasting. It’s just a game. Besides, surely students are there to learn, not to enjoy themselves!

It would be reassuring if you could see and experience for yourself what the technology has to offer, before making up your own mind.

Virtual Worlds 2008 brings together the best of virtual worlds used in education today, with the opportunity for you to learn about and talk to people who are successfully using the technology with real students. There’s nothing like trying it out for yourself though, so throughout the day, you’ll be able to attend hands-on workshops where you’ll experience actual learning sequences ‘in world’. This participative aspect of Virtual Worlds 2008 promises to make it a conference quite unlike any you’ve experienced before.

Below is a brief selection of the workshops on offer:

• Free me from my Second Life. Step back in time and walk down the streets of ancient Greece via St. Andrews University’s OpenSim – the open source version of Second Life.

• Meet the Virtual Patient. Feel the virtual pulse, this won’t hurt a bit! Daden Ltd, leading virtual world and AI consultancy, introduce their virtual patient technology used by St George’s Hospital, London.

• Give me the Tools… Put on your hard hat and toe protectors and join Jackie McMillan from Learn Direct & Build (and North Highland College) on a virtual building site. See how virtual worlds are used to teach real life practical skills.

Workshops and presentations are available also from other leading-edge experts in the use of virtual worlds for education, including Altered Learning, Coventry University, Eduserv, Heriot-Watt University, JISC Services, Leeds College of Art, University of the West of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh.

Places for this conference are limited, and demand is expected to be high. Please make your booking early and note that our funding requires us to give preference to persons from Scottish institutions of further and higher education.

Date:       Wednesday, 29th October
Venue:    University of Stirling
Cost:       £50

Click here to find out more about the Virtual Worlds 2008 Conference

After the summer we’ve just experienced this latest online simulation seems highly appropriate. FloodSim puts you in control of all flood policy decisions and spending in the UK for 3 years. Whether it’s deciding how much money to allocate to flood defences,  where to build houses, or how best to inform people about flood risks, it’s down to you. FloodSim is a serious game aiming to raise awareness of major issues surrounding flood policy and Government expenditure.  Move to higher ground and click here to run Floodsim.

(Glasgow City Centre under simulated water. Spot the armadillo?)

Usually it’s warmer in summer than in winter – so much so obvious – but why? Seasons, an interactive site from publisher McGraw Hill, helps illustrate the concept of the changing seasons by providing users with a series of tools to manipulate and observe their annual cycle. You can play god and change the Earth’s inclination, the speed in which it travels, and how seasons would both feel and appear if our inclination was set to that of other planets.

From the same publisher comes another powerful online interactive resource which graphically illustrates planetary orbits and the concept of Retrograde Motion.

Click here to view the full range of McGraw Hill’s Interactives