More than fifty university students from Switzerland and Australia were virtually brought together in groups of four to analyze a marketing case study. Each team member was assigned a role, Marketing Manager, Operations Manager, Finance Manager and Market Expert. Information on the case was distributed throughout a Second Life location and each member of a team had to locate information relevant to their role in the virtual world environment. Analysis and a proposed solution from each group was only made possible by effective information sharing and collaboration within groups. Presentations took place in Second Life and the best solution from each country awarded a prize. In our fifty minute presentation we share the details of implementing this approach to case-study learning and discuss the strengths, weaknesses and improvements uncovered during our first implementation. We also discuss with the audience how this method could be transposed to other areas. The possibility may be offered, to those interested, to visit the platform where the simulation took place to experiment it by themselves.

• Best Practices in Education

Tips for Vitual Teachers such as Tools of the trade, how to handle students, class clowns, griefers, hecklers, and how to market the class.

• Best Practices in Education

The 2010 National Educational Technology Plan identifies immersive media as among the most powerful emerging technologies for learning. This session describes our research in designing and studying immersive virtual worlds, as well as augmented realities enabled by mobile devices, as resources for instruction and for assessment, as well as student motivation. isites.harvard.edu/chris_dede

• Best Practices in Education

The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum (LVM) is a cross-platform immersive education initiative based on bilingual mixed media experiences created to enhance visitor's knowledge, understanding and appreciation of Latino Cultural Heritage through innovative and engaging online experiences. Learn more about LVM as a virtual museum model for digital learning and outreach through a brief behind the scenes discussion with Melissa Carrillo, LVM creative director and founder. Ms. Carrillo will be joined by research scholar from the Smithsonian National Museum of American Indian (NMAI) Cynthia Vidaurri and LVM lead artist Stacy Fox to share behind the scenes best practices curating in virtual spaces and the power of virtual worlds as learning spaces. Other special guests include artist/poet/musician Nancy Lorenza Green and writer poet/founder of Mouthfeel Press Maria Miranda Maloney.

• Best Practices in Education

Educators must keep abreast of new learning technologies. Pedagogical learning technology products include: self-paced elearning courseware; digital media referenceware; collaboration-based or social learning; simulation- or game-based learning; cognitive learning; and mobile learning. These learning technology products may contain one or more of the following content: packaged orcustom content; value added services; hosted or installed tools and platforms; and personal learning devices. Use of these learning technology products in academic settings varies widely from country to country. This information is based on market research by Ambient Insight.

• Best Practices in Education

John Lester (aka Pathfinder Lester), Chief Learning Officer, ReactionGrid Inc. talks about Jibe as a multiuser 3d virtual world platform accessible via a web browser or standalone client.

• Best Practices in Education

David W. Deeds, as IT Manager/Teacher for Changchun American International School in Jilin Province, China, has been using 3D virtual worlds in K-12 (international) school education for three years: Second Life, OpenSimulator, Quest Atlantis and Minecraft. By the time this presentation is given, Alice and Unity3D might be included in the list as well. Although used primarily for the International Baccalaureate Organization’s Technology and Information Technology in a Global Society courses, 3D virtual worlds have been featured as part of English and, perhaps of particular interest, several cross-curricular efforts with Art, Music and Science classes. He used Second Life as an integral part of computer science and English courses for three years in a university and college setting before switching venues to K-12 schools. David was invited to present on his work with 3D virtual worlds at seven international educational technology conferences during 2011, among them the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education’s Global Learn Asia Pacific in Melbourne and ED-MEDIA in Lisbon. He also presented inworld to the Bavarian Center for Gifted Children on the strengths of 3D virtual worlds regarding not just gifted or talented but also special needs education. After describing the classes conducted using the different environments, he’ll use a “What Worked, What Didn’t” format to discuss both lessons learned and plans for future classes. In Second Life he’s Deed Davids. Come visit his Second Life K-12s Inworld cybercampus: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/79/199/21/.

• Best Practices in Education

Peek inside two project-based programs within NIAUniverse: daVinci Worlds and the RealWorld-InWorld NASA Engineering Design Challenge (RWIW).

Within daVinci Worlds, middle and high school students team to synthesize and organize their learning by constructing knowledge spaces in this virtual world setting. In RWIW, college engineering students virtually mentor middle and high school students to refine NASA-inspired engineering design solutions. Steps of the engineering design process are displayed and models built InWorld. For those interested, a tour of NIAUniverse will follow this presentation. To join the tour, you will need to download NIAUniverse. Temporary usernames/passwords will be shared.

• Best Practices in Education

More than fifty university students from Switzerland and Australia were virtually brought together in groups of four to analyze a marketing case study. Each team member was assigned a role, Marketing Manager, Operations Manager, Finance Manager and Market Expert. Information on the case was distributed throughout a Second Life location and each member of a team had to locate information relevant to their role in the virtual world environment. Analysis and a proposed solution from each group was only made possible by effective information sharing and collaboration within groups. Presentations took place in Second Life and the best solution from each country awarded a prize. In our fifty minute presentation we share the details of implementing this approach to case-study learning and discuss the strengths, weaknesses and improvements uncovered during our first implementation. We also discuss with the audience how this method could be transposed to other areas. The possibility may be offered, to those interested, to visit the platform where the simulation took place to experiment it by themselves.

• Best Practices in Education

A Funeral For Teen Second Life: A Presentation From Beyond the Grave on the Future of Mixed-Age Education in Second Life.

Eulogizing Teen Second Life over the open casket of his Teen Grid Avatar, GlobalKids Bixby will share his deep grief over the loss of Teen Second Life. Meanwhile, a surprise guest will celebrate the end of Linden Lab grid for teens and herald the new age of mixed-grid education in Second Life.