2021 VWBPE Thinkerer Award Goes to Wisdomseeker (Lissena Resident)

 

A number of things happened at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference, including a few discussions by the Lindens (more about them later). And near the end they gave out their Thinkerer Award. This was at the closing ceremony in which a number of people were thanked (including the Newser). The winner of the award was Wisdomseeker (Lissena Resident). 

Read the story in People.

VWBPE Conference Continues

 

The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference continues today. Yesterday was the first day of the three-day event with a number of talks and discussions. It continues today, including a "Roundtable Discussion" with Patch Linden, Brett Linden, Grumpity Linden, and Madori Linden at 3PM SL time. Check the program for the time of each event.

The WVBPE Conference

 

Today is the official start of the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference in Second Life, the events starting at 8AM SL time. It's objective is "provide an opportunity to showcase the learning that takes place using virtual worlds." For three days, there will be various talks and discussions, including by three people of Linden Lab. Gemma Cleanslate signed up as one of the volunteers, and had this to say about the event.

Read the story in Events.

Press Release: VWBPE 2021 Conference RECONNAISSANCE Opens March 18, 2021

 

March 18th starts the three-day Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference, with an amazing lineup of speakers, workshops, sim demonstrations, poster presentations, open discussions, and more.  The conference will cover a wide range of subjects concerning virtual worlds and their use for education, virtual reality, smart games, arts and science, and the future of technology. 

Launched in 2007, the VWBPE Conference provides educational and networking opportunities that are relevant to educational curriculum development utilizing virtual environments and “best practices”.

These include

• helping to build community through extension of learning best practices to practical application of those ideas and techniques;

• providing networking opportunities for educators and the communities that help support education; and

• providing access to current innovations, trends, ideas, case studies, and other best practices for educators and the communities that help support education.

Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education is a global grass-roots, peer reviewed, community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments. This open conference is organized by educators, for educators, and is open to everyone to provide an opportunity to showcase the learning that takes place in this community of practice. All educators, librarians, non-profits, designers, and developers are encouraged to present, attend and take part in this discussion of collaborative deeper learning and co-presence in virtual worlds and games.

Although the main part of the conference will be held in Second Life® this year, there are sessions about different virtual worlds, and events on other virtual world grids. All Conference venues are listed in the program (https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/program) and will be open to the public on Monday 15 March. 

This year's keynote speakers are Dr. Undine Frömming, Heike Philp, and Dr. Bryan Alexander. We also have several invited speakers from Linden Lab, the developers of Second Life®.

The VWBPE conference keynote speakers and their respective presentations are featured on the conference website (http://vwbpe.org), along with a program of exciting presentations, social activities, and networking events that will set extraordinary discussions in motion.  

The VWBPE Immersive Experiences showcase unique and interesting work being conducted across the metaverse. We invite you to join us as we explore sixteen interactive and engaging locations across Three virtual environments. The Immersive Experiences are scheduled from 3 March to 5 April (exclusive of the conference dates). Details and access instructions for the experiences are found at https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/program.  

Additionally, this open and free conference would not be possible without the generous contributions of our VWBPE sponsors. https://www.vwbpe.org/our-sponsors/vwbpe-2021-sponsors 

The Rockcliffe Registration Portal is open for people to register new Second Life® avatars and find out more about the VWBPE conference in-world. Go to http://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/ . The instructions are there to get you and your friends started at this educator-friendly newcomers’ region in Second Life®.

The full conference program is online here: https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/program. You can also view presentations live on YouTube (http://vwbpe.org/watch). All of the conference events will be in Second Life® this year, and the locations are included in the listings. When you click on a conference event and click Add to Calendar, you can add the event to your own calendar (Google and more).

Note: Daylight Savings Time

In most of the United States and Canada, Daylight Savings Time is in effect as of 14 March 2021. In Europe, Great Britain, and many other locations, DST is in effect as of 28 March, 2021 (after the conference is over). Check this page to find out when (and if) Daylight Savings Time begins for you: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2021.html.

**VWBPE 2021 GATEWAY**

SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Gateway%20Pyxis/100/128/24

**KEYNOTES**

Keynote: About the History of Virtual Reality and the Meaning of VR for Education 

Dr. Undine Frömming

Thursday, March 18, 2021

9:00 am – 9:50 am SLT/US Pacific Daylight Time

Keynote: Despacito!

Heike Philp

Friday, March 19, 2021

8:00 am – 8:50 pm  SLT/US Pacific Daylight Time

Keynote: 

Dr. Bryan Alexander

Saturday, March 20, 2021

9:00 am – 9:50 am SLT/US Pacific Daylight Time

**INVITED SPEAKERS**

Invited Speaker: Patch Linden, VP of Product Operations

What’s new at the Lab?

Thursday, March 18, 2021

3:00 pm – 3:50 pm SLT/US Pacific Daylight Time

Invited Speakers: Patch Linden, VP of Product Operations; Brett Linden, VP of Marketing; Grumpity Linden, VP of Product; Madori Linden, Product Specialist (Land Operations)

Reconnaissance with the Lab Roundtable Discussion

Friday, March 19, 2021

1:00 pm – 1:50 pm SLT/US Pacific Daylight Time

Invited Speakers:  Brett Linden, VP of Marketing; Grumpity Linden, VP of Product

Quadrivium 3 :: Reconnaissance with Linden Lab

Saturday, March 20, 2021

3:00 pm – 3:50 pm SLT/US Pacific Daylight Time

**WEB PAGES**

Conference Information: http://vwbpe.org  

Program: https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/program 

Registration: http://vwb.pe/register   

Sponsors. https://www.vwbpe.org/our-sponsors/vwbpe-2021-sponsors 

Rockcliffe Gateway to Second Life® http://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/  

**SOCIAL MEDIA**

Second Life® Group

secondlife:///app/group/8b03480a-793d-ba5b-5b6b-dd10afb5d38e/about

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/vwbpe 

Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vwbpe_org/ 

Google Photos

http://vwb.pe/share-a-phot o

LinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/3754644/ 

Twitter

http://twitter.com/vwbpe 

YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/VWBPE 

**MAJOR SPONSORS**

Linden Lab

https://www.lindenlab.com/ 

Virtual Outworlding

http://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/ 

Rockcliffe University Consortium

http://urockcliffe.com/ 

Journal of Virtual Studies

https://jovs.urockcliffe.press/ 

Agile Dimensions

http://www.agiledimensions.com/blog/

Virtual Ability

http://virtualability.org/ 

**CONTACT**

Beth S. O’Connell

VWBPE Communications Chair

marketing@vwbpe.com 

Avatar: Beth Ghostraven

Patch Linden Says Sim Owners in Financial Trouble Can Ask For Help, Ebbe Linden Says Linden Lab "Very Healthy"

Yesterday was the start of the Virtual  Worlds Best Practices in Education conference. And at 2 PM, Mal Burns interviewed Ebbe Linden and Patch Linden. Among the topics discussed was the sale of Sansar and the cutting back of the tier in educational and nonprofit sims. In the latter part, some questions were asked by the audience.

Near the end of the discussion (at 1:11 in the video), my question was brought up. With the Second Norway estate announcing it may be closing, due to the economic effects of the Coronavirus, might the Lab help out some sim owners whose real-life income was coming to a halt due to the crisis? Patch Linden answered, "Region owners are encouraged to approach my support team if you find yourself in a situation of difficulty because of what's going on. And specifically for Second Norway, we are working with Ey (Ren) on that situation and actually I think we're going to see a really good outcome there."

Patch didn't say whether email or contact inworld would be fastest, or whether to contact him or someone else on his team.

A little earlier in the discussion (1:04 in the video), Ebbe Linden talked about Linden Lab's economic health, "We're devoted to the long-term health and success of Second Life. You can expect us to be around for a long time ... company is in a very healthy position. We're profitable, we're very very lucky in this very very crazy time because we have an organization that is extremely nimble to work with remote people working. So the transition for us to work from our homes. ... we can continue ticking away as usual except some people have to take care of kids at the same time ...  we're working on products that are intended for remote use and people to come together socially and do things without having to get together in physical space so we're seeing very great traction right now with a big uptick in users and concurrency and registrations. All numbers are up ...  we're in a very healthy place, we're very excited about the future."



So it seems the eastern part of the Blake Sea may be saved, and sim owners in trouble due to the economic shutdown might get a break from the Lab. And Linden Lab is healthy enough to weather the storm ahead, at least that's what the CEO is telling us.

More on the VWBPE later.

Bixyl Shuftan

VWBPE Starts Today, Ebbe and Patch Linden Speak

Today, March 26, is the start of the Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education event. From this day to Saturday  March 28, there will be various discussions and talks. Things start off with the Kickoff at 8AM at VWBPE Gateway Pyxis (97/128/24). Among the discussions this day are when Mal Burns (Aeonix Aeon) interviews Ebbe Altberg/Ebbe Linden and Patch Linden at 2PM at the auditorium.

For more information, check out the VWBPE website at https://www.vwbpe.org/  If you haven't checked out Gemma Cleanslate's article, check it here.

A Look At The VWBPE Grounds

The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) event starts in a few days. From Thursday March 26 to Saturday March 28, numerous discussions will take place, in the past few years Ebbe Linden saying a few words. Some days ago, Newser reporter Gemma Cleanslate was invited to a Press Day event, and got to take a look at the various exhibits.

Read Gemma's article in Design.

SL Newser 9th Anniversary SL Photography Contest Results

After a week for the readers to vote on their favorites, as well as the judges, we finally have the results of the Second Life Newser 9th Anniversary SL Photogrphy Contest. The contest was in two parts, popular vote and judges vote.

The results of the judges' choices were:

3rd Place (100L and a trophy) : Tie vote - Dean (serenedean) and Witcher (witchercraftsmn)

2nd Place (250L and a trophy) : Lady Onia (Ladyonia)

1st Place (500L and a trophy) : Pink Clarity

Almost 100 readers came to the SL Newser office to vote on their favorite pictures. The results of the readers' choices were:

3rd Place (100L and a trophy) : Anjel.Mills

2nd Place (250L and a trophy) : Lady Onia (Ladyonia)

1st Place (500L and a trophy) : Dean (serenedean)

Congratulations to the winners. You should be receiving your prizes soon.

Bixyl Shuftan

VWBPE Is Tomorrow

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education, or VWBPE. The event is "a global grass-roots community event focusing on education in immersive virtual environments." They show how virtual worlds can be used to further adult education.

Saturday March 30 was the Press Day of the event, in which some of Second Life's media got an early look. Phelan Corrimal and Beth Ghostraven addressed the small crowd.

The Kickoff event is tomorrow April 4 at 8 AM SL time. Check the calendar for a list of events.

https://vwbpe.org/

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Gateway/178/128/38

VWBPE List of Events

The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education starts today. For three days, starting with the opening ceremony at 8AM, there will be a number of discussions and other events, including one with Ebbe Linden at 1PM SL time. A list of them has been provided, too big for the main page, so they're placed in the "Events" section.

To read the schedule, head to Events.

Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education

  

The 11th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education event, sometimes called the VWBPE for short, will be in a few days. It describes itself as a "global grass-roots community" with the purpose of demonstrating how virtual worlds, notably Second Life, can and are being used for the purpose of education. Gemma Cleanslate was recently at the VWBPE grounds, and took a look around.

Read Gemma's article in Events.

Press Release: VWBPE 2018 Kick-Off: “VRevolutions”

March 15 starts the three-day Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference, with an amazing line-up of speakers, workshops, sim demonstrations, poster presentations, open discussions, and more.  The conference will cover a wide range of subjects concerning virtual worlds and their use for education, virtual reality, smart games, arts and science, and the future of technology.

This year's keynote speakers are Dr. Mark Childs and Dr. Bryan Alexander (https://vwbpe.org/conference/keynotes2018). They will help us consider the future of virtual worlds and virtual reality in education.

Each VWBPE conference keynote speaker and their respective presentations is featured on the conference website (https://vwbpe.org), along with a calendar of exciting presentations, social activities, and networking events that will set extraordinary discussions in motion. 

We have Immersive Experiences happening before and after  the conference. Our Passport to the Metaverse Quest (https://vwbpe.org/conference/passport-to-the-metaverse-2018) is the ticket to all of our extra-conference activities including wonderful applications of Second Life, Kitely, and World of Warcraft in education.

Additionally, this open and free conference would not be possible without the generous contributions of our VWBPE sponsors (https://vwbpe.org/sponsors-2018).

The Rockcliffe Registration Portal is open for people to register new avatars and find out more about the VWBPE conference in-world. Go to https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/ and all the instructions are there to get your friends started.

The full conference schedule is online here: https://vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe-calendar. You can also view presentations live on YouTube (https://vwbpe.org/watch). All of the conference events will be in Second Life this year, and the locations are included in the listings. When you click on a conference event and click Add to Calendar, you can add the event to your own calendar (Google+ and more).

**Keynotes**

VWBPE Main Auditorium
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Central%204/34/31/22

Keynote: Identity, literacy, immersion and presence; joining together the building blocks of virtual world learning
Dr. Mark Childs
TEL Designer, Open University
Thursday, March 15, 2018
9:30 – 10:30am SLT/US Pacific Daylight Time
VWBPE Main Auditorium

Keynote: The VRevolution calls for a new digital literacy
Bryan Alexander
Education Futurist
Friday, March 16, 2018
11:00am – 12:00pm  SLT/US Pacific Daylight Time
VWBPE Main Auditorium

**Above the Book**

Above the Book at the VWBPE 2018 Conference will feature Ebbe Altberg (SL: Ebbe Altberg). This session will be Livestreamed.

Calendar: https://vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe-calendar
Registration: http://vwb.pe/register 
Rockcliffe Registration Portal: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/
Sponsors: https://vwbpe.org/sponsors-2018

Contact:
Beth S. O’Connell
VWBPE Communications Chair
marketing@vwbpe.com
Avatar: Beth Ghostraven

Reader Submitted: "The Very Best of Broadway"

Ciska Riverstone recently sent the Newser a reader submission about a performance in Second Life this month, "The Very Best of Broadway." Taking place at the Oval Theatre Company in the Devils Cave sim, the show offers select dance numbers from various shows such as "Footloose" and "A Chorus Line." Ciska was impressed, describing the production as "a labour of love" not soon forgotten. "Broadway" will be done again today and later this month.

Read Ciska's reader submission in Events.

Eye on the Blog: Linden Lab Looks Back at 2012

In their most recent blog post, Linden Lab "wanted to take a moment to highlight just a few of the ways in which Second Life has grown and improved over the past year." Among the things they talked about were "New Perks for Premium Subscribers," Direct Delivery for Marketplace, and the beginnings of Project Shinning, which the Lab states will lead to "a Faster, More Reliable Second Life."

What do you the readers think have been the ways Second Life has improved, or has it gotten worse? What has been the best, and worst this year has had to offer the residents?

To view the blog post: Click Here.