“We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming…” If you are looking for my blogposts about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, please click here. I have returned to the original purpose of this blog—covering “news and views on social VR, virtual worlds, and the metaverse”.
The long-running Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) conference will take place in the virtual world of Second Life from March 26th to 28th, 2020. (Last year, over 1,000 people from 30 countries attended the 2019 VWBPE conference.)
Thursday, March 26th – Dr. L. Robert Furman: Dr. Furman is an educator, leader, scholar, speaker and author; he is also a contributing Educational blogger for The Huffington Post as well as Ed Tech Review.
Friday, March 27th – Dr. Michael Thomas: a Professor of Education and a Principal Fellow of the HEA, with a focus on digital learning, social justice, social mobility and the student experience. The title of Dr. Thomas’ keynote is Virtual Worlds and Social Justice: An Impact and Civic Engagement Agenda.
Saturday, March 28th – Lorelle VanFossen and Daniel Dyboski-Bryant : Lorelle and Daniel will share their experience creating and running the first-ever Educators in VR 2020 International Summit, which was a resounding success with 160 speakers over six days on five different social VR platforms, and a model for future virtual conferences. The title of Lorelle and Daniel’s keynote is Lessons Learned from the 2020 Educators in VR Conference.
Lorelle VanFossen and Daniel Dyboski-Bryant, Educators in VR
Just a reminder that the Educators in VR 2020 International Summit opens today, and will be running events pretty much around-the-clock for its global audience until it wraps up at noon Pacific Time on Saturday, February 22nd. The conference opens at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time today. Among the speakers on the first day are virtual reality pioneer Tom Furness, as well as Alvin Wang Graylin of HTC China.
The complete schedule is at the link above. Many of the events will take place in AltspaceVR, but events will also take place on four other social VR platforms: ENGAGE, rumii, Mozilla Hubs, and Somnium Space. The entire conference is free and open to the public. You do not need a virtual reality headset to attend! The conference events will also be livestreamed to YouTube at this URL.
I will be one of the speakers on the final morning of the Summit, giving two talks: one as a librarian (Social VR and Libraries: A Look Back and a Look Forward) and one as a blogger (Four Lessons Learned as a Social VR Blogger). Here’s a link to the event on the ENGAGE website.
I had my first technical and speech run-through in ENGAGE’s beautiful virtual recreation of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford yesterday:
See you there! I plan to attend as many presentations as possible, before I give my own talks on Saturday. This will be a conference you will not want to miss!
(“We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming…” If you are looking for my blogposts about the Wuhan coronavirus/2019-nCoV, please click here. I am taking a one-day mental-health break from covering the situation, but I expect to be back at it tomorrow.)
The 2020 Educators in VR International Summit runs from Feb. 17-22, 2020
As you might already know, the largest immersive, all-virtual conference ever is taking place very soon!
The 2020 Educators in VR International Summit, running February 17th-22nd, 2020, features over 160 speakers from around the world presenting across over 200 hours of virtual events, with many live streamed and recorded for future airing on our Educators in VR YouTube channel. Instead of in a physical, real-world location, the Summit will be held across many different social VR platforms: AltspaceVR, ENGAGE, rumii, Mozilla Hubs, and Somnium Space.
We need volunteers of all skills. Even helping to moderate for an hour or two during the six-day event is helpful. Or an hour or two a day. Or longer. Join this historical event by filling out our Volunteer Form.
The form states:
We are seeking volunteers to assist with the free, open-to-the-public Educators in VR International Summit February 17-22, 2020. This application takes approximately 5 minutes to complete thoroughly.
We are seeking volunteers familiar with moderation, hosting, and filming/live streaming in AltspaceVR, ENGAGE, and other social and educational platforms. Your participation will help ensure this 6-day event will be a success.
Educators in VR is an open, global, cross-platform community of educators, learners, researchers, teachers, and trainers exploring and collaborating with and in virtual and augmented reality.
The Educators in VR International Summit is a free and open to the public virtual conference featuring tracks on basic VR training and experiences, virtual language arts, corporate use, computer science and math, computer programming, medicine and science, coaching and personal development, and research into spatial technologies in education.
You may request to volunteer with a specific track, but such a request may not work out, so we appreciate your flexibility.
Experience in event moderation, hosting, or filming and live streaming in VR is highly recommended. Presentation “hosts” may be asked to introduce the presenters, facilitate Q&A, and run slides. Educators in VR will offer training rehearsals for moderation and hosting in the month prior to the event, and you would be required to attend at least one of these events.
Events will be hosted in AltspaceVR, ENGAGE, and other social and educational virtual reality platforms. Access to these requires registration for each platform, sharing your username for presentation and moderation privileges, and installation of the software and apps if you are selected to volunteer.
All virtual platforms permit desktop/2D Windows access and most HMDs including Oculus Go, Quest, and Rift, Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, Value, and most devices with access to Steam or the Oculus Store. Volunteering maybe in 2D with quality headphone and microphone or 3D HMD. As a volunteer, you will be responsible for ensuring your device is fully charged, you have backup device access, and you will be able to stay for the full length of the assigned event, unless other arrangements are made.
An active Discord account will be required as all event coordination, discussion, and some event moderation will be managed in our Discord channels for text and voice communications.
If you can’t help out in person, but want to help out financially, the organizers have set up a GoFundMe 2020 Educators in VR International Summit Campaign to help offset the costs of this free and open-to-the-public all-virtual conference. Please consider making a donation.
A man lies dead in the street in Wuhan, China (source: The Guardian)
Between Australian bush fires, presidential impeachment hearings in the U.S. Senate, and the Wuhan coronavirus, 2020 is shaping up as a year to remember (not in a good way)—and January isn’t even over yet! This could be a long, long year.
Over the course of one week, I have switched from being a social VR/virtual worlds blogger to a Wuhan coronavirus blogger! Welcome to the new normal, folks. Expect me to flip back and forth between these two completely separate topics for the next little while.
It’s a good thing that I branded this blog with my own name, rather than a preset topic like “Social VR Blog”. It means I can be flexible as needed. So, I have updated the tagline for my blog accordingly:
I will be continuing my daily news update on 2019-nCoV, with links to the best, most credible information resources, so you can stay up-to-date on what’s going on as this virus continues its spread around the world.
And (to get my often-anxious mind off the topic), I will continue my blogposts about Sinespace, Second Life, and other virtual worlds and social VR platforms. It’s still my passion, it still engages me, and I will certainly be continuing that coverage.
I also need to work on my presentation at the upcoming Educators in VR conference which, unlike conferences which take place in real-world locations, is very unlikely to be affected by the flight cancellations and other logistical problems imposed by the Wuhan coronavirus!
So, as you can see, I’ve got lots to keep me busy over the next little while. Stay tuned, and stay healthy!
