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The LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin will welcome former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright to help launch the School’s new Master of Global Policy Studies (MGPS) degree on Wednesday evening, September 10 at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas.

The in-person event is already sold out, but no matter where you live, you can participate in this event at the GSD&M Idea City Island Amphitheatre in Second Life located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Idea%20City/104/204/39 at 4:00 PM PDT (check your local time.)

Idea City in Second Life

In “An Evening with The Honorable Madeleine K. Albright,” Dr. Albright will join LBJ School Dean and former Deputy National Security Advisor James B. Steinberg in a “public conversation” on the emerging global and transnational challenges of the 21st century and how the next generation of young leaders can contribute to developing innovative strategies to meet these challenges.

“Madeleine Albright is one of our most influential scholars and practitioners whose career has helped chart new approaches to the emerging transnational challenges of our time. I can think of no one better suited to help us launch this exciting new degree program at the LBJ School,” said Dean Steinberg.

The event will be both webcast live and presented in the virtual world of Second Life at 4:00 p.m. PDT. The Second Life presentation is made possible by Austin-based advertising agency GSD&M Idea City’s Idea City Island Amphitheatre. “Second Life offers us a unique forum for the introduction of our Global Policy Studies degree program and the discussion with our inaugural guest, Madeleine Albright,” said Steinberg.

For the complete agenda and details on joining “An Evening with The Honorable Madeleine Albright”, please visit http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/news/story/583/

The LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin will welcome former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright to help launch the School’s new Master of Global Policy Studies (MGPS) degree on Wednesday evening, September 10 at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas.

The in-person event is already sold out, but no matter where you live, you can participate in this event at the GSD&M Idea City Island Amphitheatre in Second Life located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Idea%20City/104/204/39 at 4:00 PM PDT (check your local time.)

Idea City in Second Life

In “An Evening with The Honorable Madeleine K. Albright,” Dr. Albright will join LBJ School Dean and former Deputy National Security Advisor James B. Steinberg in a “public conversation” on the emerging global and transnational challenges of the 21st century and how the next generation of young leaders can contribute to developing innovative strategies to meet these challenges.

“Madeleine Albright is one of our most influential scholars and practitioners whose career has helped chart new approaches to the emerging transnational challenges of our time. I can think of no one better suited to help us launch this exciting new degree program at the LBJ School,” said Dean Steinberg.

The event will be both webcast live and presented in the virtual world of Second Life at 4:00 p.m. PDT. The Second Life presentation is made possible by Austin-based advertising agency GSD&M Idea City’s Idea City Island Amphitheatre. “Second Life offers us a unique forum for the introduction of our Global Policy Studies degree program and the discussion with our inaugural guest, Madeleine Albright,” said Steinberg.

For the complete agenda and details on joining “An Evening with The Honorable Madeleine Albright”, please visit http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/news/story/583/

One of the NMC Virtual Worlds projects this year was construction of the virtual campus for the University of the Pacific which included a mixture of replication of campus structures, such as Burns Tower, and creation of new spaces which only exist on the virtual campus.

Since the ribbons were cut May 7, 2008, faculty and staff at the University have been busy using the space and developing new applications for therr virtual learning space.

They are inviting you to learn more about their Second Life campus and how it has already been put to use in this new machinima video:

Some things of interest include their learning spaces high above Burns Tower, the "Sky Labs" where faculty and classes meet in flexible designed spaces, a space for sharing "freebies" a gallery of student created content, and a lab where faculty are developing custom learning applications.

In the video, we learn from Volleychick Boa about how Second Life is being used for Speech Critique where students stream their webcam into Second Life for review by their faculty, how the debate teams are conducting activities in world, a nifty survival experience (a crashed plane! snow!) for a management class, and the development of a student club area, just to name a few examples.

To visit this exemplary campus in Second Life, check out the University of the Pacific at http://slurl.com/secondlife/U%20Pacific/166/141/22

Imagine flying over a pyramid shaped boat as a variety of tones from the engine combine to create a melody. That is just what visitors will get when they interact with the new virtual art collection created by Ball State University faculty in Second Life.

John Fillwalk, Ball State associate professor of art, and director of the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts and Animation (IDIAA), is the lead artist on a project that will be showcased in Second Life beginning Sunday, Aug. 24 2008, and run through September.

The NMC offered Fillwalk and the IDIAA the chance to transform an entire Second Life island with interactive virtual art. The collection, which will be up for a month, is part of a series of installations hosted by NMC throughout the year.

Fillwalk (SL Name: Mencius Watts) and Jesse Allison, Ball State faculty fellow and research specialist (SL Name: Taggert Alsop ), worked for three months with help from SL resident Media Hax to create a series of interactive exhibits that will be featured on the NMC's special Second Life arts showcase island, Ars Simulacra
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ars%20Simulacra/46/88/37/

"The experience is compelling. And while the background technology is complex, visitors to the exhibit can easily engage with the art," Fillwalk said.

Visitors to the island can interact with exhibits, which incorporate video, sound and still photos, via their avatars. One exhibit features a live connection to Flickr, a photo sharing Web site. Individual visitors can choose the subject matter and customize their viewing experience.

Fillwalk says this collection of interactive virtual art showcases and expands upon IDIAA's expertise in building virtual reality applications for simulation, and visualization environments.

"We're positioning the business profile of IDIAA to work with external clients to build significant research, well as showcase Ball State's emerging media prowess," he said.

Ball State has received recognition for its work developing hands-on, experiential, project-based learning environments. Its virtualized film studio won the first Greenhouse Grant for Virtual Worlds and an award in the 2008 Campus Technology magazine Innovator competition. Another Innovator award went to Ball State's Digital Corps.

Learn more about the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts at http://www.digitalintermedia.org

The 2008 Pachyderm Conference will take place September 22-24, 2008, in San Antonio, Texas. This is the third annual Pachyderm Conference.

The focus of the conference is to bring together Pachyderm authors, developers, and others in an ongoing conversation about how to communicate effectively with digital media. The conference provides a forum for beginners to learn from established experts, and for those with more advanced skills to exchange ideas and gather inspiration from their peers.

The theme of this year’s conference is the power of story. Highlights will include final details about the next release of Pachyderm, as well as a special showcase of presentations that demonstrate the deep connection between story and audience.

This year, the conference will take a form that involves the audience in ways much like the "unconference" model. The unconference model allows room for spontaneous presentations to come from the audience.

“We are hoping to hear from attendees before the conference about the kinds of things they would like to see and do,” explains Rachel Smith, Vice President of NMC Services. “Of course, we are very much looking forward to the topics that will arise at the conference itself. We are also asking for people to send us links to current projects they are working on, especially those that tell a story effectively, for an online showcase.” Links and suggestions may be forwarded directly to Ms. Smith at rachel@nmc.org.

In addition to informal or on-the-fly “unconference” sessions, a variety of more traditional session types will take place, such as keynotes, panels, and showcases.

Further information about the conference is available on the conference website.

The Horizon.au project opened tonight as we brought together nearly 40 education Australian leaders with a welcome dinner in Melbourne. NMC staff introduced the project and provided an overview of the activities for the meeting on July 10.

All participants got an opportunity to share a special interest of theirs in the area of emerging technologies, which were visually recorded by NMC's Rachel Smith.

The New Media Consortium (NMC) has announced the 2008 cohort of Virtual Learning Prize (VLP) awardees. The NMC Virtual Learning Prize, part of a $100,000 competitive program of awards, is intended to create a collection of innovative open-source learning experiences that make use of the unique attributes of a virtual learning environment.

The NMC Virtual Learning Prize is envisioned as a way to surface and realize creative ideas for how to make optimal use of a virtual setting, using a process that provides recognition, financial incentives, professional development services, and a return for education as a whole.

The first-round awardees are:

Tim Bell
University of Canterbury
"Computer Science Unplugged in a virtual world"

Natasha Boskic
University of British Columbia
"Collaborative creative writing in predesigned space"

Eric Hackathorn
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
"Exploring Weather and Climate Change Through a Climate Time Line"

Lisa Ortiz
Metropolitan State College of Denver
"Experience Virtual Disabilities"

Heidi Trotta
Seton Hall University
"Endangered Ecosystems - The Virtual Salt Water Marsh (Part 2 - A Case-Based Learning Scenario)"

Ruth Tringham
University of California, Berkeley
"Student-Designed Virtual Archaeology Class"

Thomas Waters
University of Pittsburgh
"Measuring Heart Rate and How Medications Affect Heart Rate"

Michael Zerbe
Stark State College of Technology
"First World Economics in Second Life"

Nearly 75 applications were received in the initial round of this highly competitive program. Each awardee will receive US$5,000 -- a cash incentive paid to the awardee of $500 as well as $4,500 in expert development assistance from the NMC Virtual Worlds team to create their proposed learning experience.

As many as 20 awards will be distributed during the 2008-9 award year – since all 20 were not awarded in the first round, the process remains open, and proposals will continue to be accepted until all funds have been expended.

For further information, or to download a proposal submission form, please see the Virtual Learning Prize website. Questions related to the criteria or the submission of an application should be directed to virtual-learning@nmc.org.