First Ever UT Undergraduate Conference in Second Life!

Heads up! The University of Texas statewide system is holding a first ever "Undergraduate Conference  in Second Life" tomorrow, June 17. Beginning at 9:30 a.m. Central Time (7:30 a.m. SLT) the agenda features academic leaders from this massive school system and luminaries including John Lester, formerly known as Pathfinder Linden in his role as Education pundit for Linden Lab.

I highly encourage you to check out the online agenda and carve some time out of your day to check this out.

Here's the short story, with much more information at the event's website (posted by UT's Jessica Mullen):

Exploring the reciprocal nature of learning in Second Life...The purpose of the conference is to cultivate an international virtual learning community of students and educators. For the morning sessions, the primary audience will be faculty and support staff interested in Second Life as a learning tool. For the afternoon sessions, the primary audience will be undergraduate students interested in Second Life and virtual worlds. We hope that you can join us on June 17th for the first annual Undergraduate Conference hosted by the University of Texas System.

Undergraduate Conference SLURL

9:30am – 10:15am [7:30am - 8:15am SLT]: Opening remarks and Instructor Panel
Instructors from UT System schools discuss past and future projects using Second Life with 10-15 minutes of Q&A. Moderated by Dr. Lynn Jones Eaton, Director of Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment at the University of Texas at Austin.
10:30am – 11:15am [8:30am - 9:15am SLT]: John Lester (who was known as Pathfinder Linden when he worked at Linden Lab).
11:30am – 12:15pm [9:30am - 11:15am SLT]: Student Panel
Undergraduates from UT System schools discuss their experiences learning in a virtual world with 10-15 minutes of Q&A. Moderated by Mario Guerra, Training Specialist in the Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment at the University of Texas at Austin.
12:30pm– 1:15pm [10:30am - 11:15am SLT] Keynote: Tim Kring, Executive Producer and Creator of the television show Heroes
Transmedia storyteller.
2:30pm – 3:15pm [12:30pm - 1:15pm SLT]: Furthering Your Academic Career
Graduate students, medical students, and a law student discussing life and school past the undergraduate level. Moderated by Betsy Price, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas at Brownsville.
2:30pm – 3:30pm [12:30pm - 1:30pm SLT]: Poster Session Presentations
Poster presentations will highlight UT System projects.  Posters will be available all day.  During this hour there will be someone to answer questions at each poster.
3:30pm – 4:15pm [1:30pm - 2:15pm SLT]: Creating and Managing your Virtual Identity for  an Academic and Professional Career
What do major corporations and businesses look for from graduated students entering the workforce?  Learn how to manage a professional identity in a virtual environment from actual recruiters.
And finally, because UT SLers know how to do it right:
After party at UTB/TSC
Party SLURL here!Join the friendly folks at the University of Texas at Brownsville for fun in the sun at the Beach at SL’s South Padre Island.

Linden Lab Layoffs: What?

Big goings-on over at Linden Lab this week. I learned about Claudia Linden's leaving yesterday, but I didn't feel like I could or should share it out. Now that Prad Prathivi has blogged a comprehensive list of Linden Lab layoffs (Linden Lab Layoffs: What Now?), along with insightful musings about the future of Second Life, I'm thinking we need to talk.

It's really all about dollars, and more about $ than about $L, at the end of the day.

This day, I'm sure, will be a memorable one for all the Lindens affected by the company's move to downsize. Think of it: Many, if not most, of these folks have been with Linden Lab for years. Prathivi makes the comment that "Up to 30% of Linden Lab’s employees have been laid off, and additional others moved into new roles." but Phillip Rosedale himself, speaking just early this year at NASA's Singularity University, stated that his company employed only around 60 workers. The 32 people in the list at Metaversally Speaking, well, that sounds like Linden Lab has laid off over half their staff. Is my math correct?

But back to my own musings. So these folks have been employed in "virtual jobs" for a real company for quite some time. I just wonder if an office job for some other internet startup, a marketing job for some other industry, or a return to whatever else they  might have been doing for Linden Lab is going to satisfy. I wish them all the best. Maybe they'll be working up new models for 3D internet that provide more opportunities for learning and teaching. We can always hope!

I also wonder about the future of virtual environments. Our community members at the ISTE Special Interest Group for Virtual Environments (SIGVE) are facilitating three days of exploration into the value of learning and teaching in Virtual Environments at the end of the month at ISTE 2010 Conference and Exposition in Denver, Colorado and in virtual worlds. I'm sure we'll have even more to talk about now, won't we?

I can tell you that Linden Lab is working on a new concept called the EduHub, a resource for educators both formal and informal, and that if what I hear is correct, there's still promise for Linden Lab's ancillary commitment to education. I say "ancillary" because it's clearer than ever that the Lab's attention to education really relies on its ability to generate more of "what it's all about," and we know what that is, don't we?

We'll see. Fun times.

Read more: http://blog.pradprathivi.com/2010/06/10/linden-layoffs-what-now/#ixzz0qShSPpmN

Congrats to SimpleK12--Blog-o'-the-Month on ISTE Island

Congratulations to "IHeartEdTech" (actually spelled with a graphic heart I can't reproduce in blogger :), June 2010 Blog-o'-the-Month at the Bloggers Hut on ISTE Island in Second Life (slurl:http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/9/129/23) . This blog will occupy the honored position in the RSS feeder and the wall display at the Bloggers Hut throughout June, until June 27, the opening day of this year's ISTE Conference and Exposition 2010 (formerly NECC) in Denver, Colorado, when we'll mount a compendium website in that position, one which co-locates dozens of blogs which will follow the goings-on in Denver and globally via virtual worlds.

The voting was light but IHeartEdTech won a clear majority of the votes at the polling object. By the way, there will be no voting during the month of June, a temporary little deviation from the voting that's been taking place since July of 2007 at the Hut! My, how time flies, be it "real" or "virtual."