Federal Virtual World Challenge

The Army is in the midst of a virtual world competition.

Story here.

Winners announced at the end of the month at Defense GameTech Users' Conference.

SL-based conferences

Here's an article on virtual conferences in SL.

I found this part particularly funny:

At a virtual panel discussion moderated by Uribe and Cabra, an avatar stretched and yawned. “The speaker said, “Am I boring you?’‚” Uribe said.

“And apologies were exchanged all around,” Cabra added.

IRL, a yawn might be a largely instinctual act -- not heavily controlled, you might try to hide it. That someone deliberately had their avatar yawn, well ...

just for fun ...

Mashable posted the Top 10 Geekiest Decorations for Your Home or Office.

I'm kind of partial to the Enter Key Doormat. How about you?

Virtual Worlds - Best Practices

This Second Life Conference taking place next week might be of interest to you -- and it's free.

From their web site:

‘IMAGINATION AROUND THE WORLD’

The Virtual World Best Practices 2010 focus is “Imagination Around the World”. From the North, East, West and South corners of the physical world what is evident is the collaborate nature of virtual world participants to share knowledge and experience. This 48 hour conference will indeed provide opportunities for sharing and further understanding virtual world technology.

The Virtual World Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) conference originated from the 2007 Second Life Best Practices in Education Conference. This grassroots, community-based conference attracts faculty, instructors, trainers, administrators, instructional designers, technical specialists, and members of organizations from around the world. Those who create teaching/learning environments, resources, tools, support services and professional development opportunities internal and external to virtual world environments participate. During the conference, participants have opportunities to ask: What is education?, What is teaching?, What is learning? and How can we provide virtual world educational environments in which today’s learners can become all they can be.

The VWBPE Conference provides opportunities for virtual world communities to showcase projects, courses, events and research that lead to best practices in education. The end result of collaborating, sharing, and co-construction of knowledge during the conference is the creation of innovative and immersive environments in which virtual world residents can learn, work, and play.

Where does this fit in your definition of multimedia?

Here's a cool iPhone app that I just learned about: Poem Flow.

It's quite simple. Mobile poetry. A poem a day (from the public domain), fed to your iPhone, animated (flowing) on your screen (using a technology from TextFlows).

I'm intrigued. I do find that it adds an element to experiencing the poetry, much as hearing poetry read aloud adds to the experience.

What do you think?

Is it multimedia? (I have my own opinions on the matter which I'll share later.) And do you see potential educational uses?

Interactive Podcasting?

Podcasting may not seem like a very interactive medium. The podcaster plans, creates, and publishes. Listeners ... well, they listen. A podcast could be embedded in a setting that allows for human interaction (e.g. discussion forum, blog), but on its own it's just an audio file.

A company called Waxxi* was promoting interactive podcasting. Essentially, the interaction takes place at the point of recording. Think of a call-in radio show, recorded and put on the web as an mp3 with a feed.

If you want to check it out, they have a few examples on their site.

I'm posting this mostly for the idea -- that podcast creation might be done in this way. It's sort of like podcasting a lecture/discussion from a live class. What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses when considering it for instructional purposes?

*Note: The Waxxi stuff all goes back to 2006-07. I can't find more recent info. Not sure what happened to them, didn't really take the time to further investigate.

Voxopop

Voxopop is a web-based audio tool that allows speakers to record their thoughts AND respond to other speakers. I can see some great educational uses for this tool. If you join you can listen to discussions and record on the discussions. You do not have to join in order to listen.

Here is an example: http://www.voxopop.com/topic/822f37a4-0a87-403d-aace-e63dad23ac2a

What are your thoughts about this tool? If anyone wants to start an audio discussion to try out the tool, please feel free and let the rest of us know so we can join.

http://www.voxopop.com/