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Immersive Education Initiative NEWS - PLAIN TEXT RENDITION
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EVENT: U. Oregon Immersive Education Days registration is OPEN
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Visit http://ImmersiveEducation.org/events/ on the day of this event for
meeting materials (such as images and videos) and additional details
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EUGENE, Oregon - October 9, 2009 -  The Immersive Education Initiative today 
announced that it will sponsor the 1st University of Oregon Immersive Education 
Days (UOiED) on October 19 and 20, 2009. The event will be co-hosted by the 
University of Oregon's Information Services and the College of Education's new 
Center for Learning in Virtual Environments (CLIVE) for two full-days of 
presentations open to the public and free to attend for those registered (space 
is limited to 60 attendees). Educators, researchers and administrators from 
University of Oregon, Boston College, Lane Community College, Bowling Green 
State University, Indiana University, University of Essex, St. Paul College, San 
Jose State University, and Loyalist College will give a series of live and 
virtual presentations, providing attendees with an overview of Immersive 
Education and how virtual worlds and game-based learning technologies are used 
in and out of the classroom today [see schedule below]. In addition - on Sunday, 
October 18th, The UO Immersive Education Days staff will host an Alternate 
Reality Game, "Eugene vs. The EcoZombies" from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the 
University of Oregon campus. This game will be offered first to registered 
participants attending and presenting at UO's Immersive Education Days event. 
Register for the events and follow for updates at http://is.uoregon.edu/uoied/


About Immersive Education

Immersive Education combines interactive 3D graphics, commercial game and 
simulation technology, virtual reality, voice chat (Voice over IP/VoIP), Web 
cameras (webcams) and rich digital media with collaborative online course 
environments and classrooms. Immersive Education gives participants a sense of 
"being there" even when attending a class or training session in person isn't 
possible, practical, or desirable, which in turn provides educators and students 
with the ability to connect and communicate in a way that greatly enhances the 
learning experience.  Immersive Education is developed by the Immersive 
Education Initiative (http://ImmersiveEducation.org), an international 
collaboration of universities, colleges, research institutes, consortia and 
companies that are working together to define and develop open standards, best 
practices, platforms, and communities of support for virtual reality and 
game-based learning and training systems. Thousands of faculty, researchers, 
staff, administrators and students are members of the Immersive Education 
Initiative, a non-profit consortium that is free to join.

"We welcome the Immersive Education Initiative to Eugene and the University of 
Oregon. In our explorations of distance education and research on collaborative 
learning, geo-distributed business and research into the affects of technology 
on engagement, motivation, and persistence in learning - these technologies 
appear to have powerful potential. The implications for virtual worlds and 
immersive games on the future of scholarship, learning, and community are 
intriguing. We anticipate learning about current best-practices in Immersive 
Education in addition to building capacity for developing new instructional and 
research projects here in Oregon," said Dr. Jonathon Richter, Research Associate 
at the Center for Advanced Technology in Education and Director of the Center 
for Learning in Virtual Environments, University of Oregon.

Outcomes from UOiED will be presented in a Conference Proceedings in a 
downloadable .pdf format following the event. The proceedings will feature 
original white papers written by some conference presenters, highlights of 
presented sessions, as well as feedback, ideas and comments gathered from 
brainstorming sessions and surveys.


Monday, October 19th, 2009


9:00 AM: Welcome and introductions: An overview of Immersive Education (Aaron 
Walsh / Jonathon Richter)

10:00 AM: The 3DVE Project: Collaboration in geo-distributed business using 3D 
virtual worlds (Alan Meyer / Kathryn Aten / Taryn Stanko / Jonathon Richter: 
University of Oregon)

11:00 AM: Visual and Performing Arts in 3D Virtual Worlds (Anthony Fontana: 
Bowling Green University)

12:00 PM: Lunch (on your own)

1:00 PM: MyChina Village: A Third Paradigm of Language Learning (Sachiko 
Kamioka: University of Oregon)

2:00 PM: Learning and Assessment in Virtual Worlds (Daniel Livingstone: 
University of the West of Scotland & Jeremy Kemp: San Jose State University)

3:00 PM: Designing and building immersive education spaces using Project 
Wonderland: from pedagogy through to practice (Warren Sheaffer: St Paul 
Community College & Michael Gardner: University of Essex)


Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

9:00 AM     MMORPG, MUVE? What's the Difference?: Using a Taxonomy to Define 
Virtual Worlds (Sarah Robbins: Indiana University)

10:00 AM     Explorations of Second Life by Psychology Students (Marjorie 
Taylor: University of Oregon)

10:30 AM     Open Source Virtual Worlds (Jer Swartz: University of Oregon)

11:00 AM     Teaching computer programming and gaming development to high school 
students in Second Life (Jim Bailey: Lane Community College / Jonathon Richter: 
University of Oregon)

12:00 PM     Lunch (on your own)

1:00 PM     MERLOT 3D: The Center for Learning in Virtual Environments in Second 
Life (Indresh Chauhan: Sify Technologies / Jonathon Richter: University of Oregon)

2:00 PM     They became what they beheld: Immersion and identity in virtual 
environments (Ken Hudson: Virtual World Design Centre, Loyalist College )

3:00 PM     NEXT STEPS Open Forum and Brainstorming Session: All participants


............................................................................
Visit http://ImmersiveEducation.org/events/ on the day of this event for
meeting materials (such as images and videos) and additional details
............................................................................
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Immersive Education Initiative NEWS - PLAIN TEXT RENDITION
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High quality Web versions online at: http://MediaGrid.org/#NEWS
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