NMC Campus Observer

Come to SL to Watch 2009 NMC Summer Conference Main Sessions

CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) : Jun 3, 2009 10:54pm

Next week is the 2009 NMC Summer Conference, this year taking place at Monterey, California. The agenda features a number of virtual worlds sessions, and there is still time to register if you can find your way there.

Since we recognize that due to budget cuts, many people are not able to attend our conference, so this week we have been pulling out the stops to step up the amount of live video we will be able to stream from the conference. We are excited to announce that we will be piping live video of the plenary and main sessions into the NMC Conference Center in Second Life. Attendance is free and open to the education community, thus to the first 65 or so avatars that find their way there.

You can catch the sessions listed below at the Babbage Amphitheater (SLURL).

Maybe if you peek real hard into the water, you might find some whales flopping around. We are asking some of the in-person conference attendees to log in so they can relay information to and fro.

Live Streamed Sessions from NMC 2009

Thursday, June 11 9:00am – 10:15am PT (check local time SLURL: Babbage Amphitheater) Opening Plenary — Creating Passionate Learners (Kathy Sierra)

Is there one thing that you really wanted to be good at but didn’t get there? Everyone wants to be better at something, but in this fast paced 2.0 world, who has the time? With a little help from science, entertainment and technology, we can help ourselves and our learners survive the “I am no good at this” phase, break out of intermediate ruts, and get to the deeper, richer, high-res experiences that come with being really GOOD at something.

As educators, we want to take better advantage of how the brain works to reach our learners at a deep emotional level that inspires their enthusiasm and participation. We will look at the lessons learned from the organizations and individuals who’ve succeeded at turning on the hearts and brains of their users and pinpoint how these techniques can work in higher education.

Friday, June 12 9:00am – 10:00am PT (check local time SLURL: Babbage Amphitheater) Friday Plenary - It’s not About Clicking and Dragging! It’s not About Blogging, Podcasting, Web 2.0′in! (Marco Torres).

It’s about teaching and learning. Or, learning and teaching. In this “flattening” world, we are required to be more creative, more flexible, more community based. However, teachers — the world still needs GOOD, empathetic, ingenuous educators, a teacher, a Yoda! Yeah, you! The kids, more than ever, need us! Multimedia is a language to our students. If we’re smart and ready, we can use it to be very academic and very rigorous (and have fun along the way, too). If we use multimedia right, we can empower in ways that we never imagined. Turn your classroom into a stage, a studio, and a community and HURRY! The kids are waiting for you to catch up!

Friday, June 12 4:15pm – 5:30pm PT Five Minutes of Fame (check local time SLURL: Babbage Amphitheater)

Five Minutes of Fame, an annual NMC event, allows academic members to show off their latest new media projects. At every Five Minutes of Fame demonstration, selected members are given five minutes each to highlight innovations of all sorts, from multimedia and web-based projects, to course modules and newly invented or adapted tools, to student portfolios and collaborations with off-campus groups. In each fast-paced session, you’ll see numerous examples of the exciting work your NMC colleagues are doing.

• Building Community out of Online Professional Development
• Creative Web Tools For and By Kids
• Documentary is the New Black: Filmic Textbooks in the 21st Century Classroom
• Good! ¡Bien! ¡Ütz! Maya Language Learning from Guatemala to Tulane
• Jones Media Center, How do I….?
• Library On A Stick and On the Air
• The NMC’s Hakone Project: New Life for Second Life
• Taking Digital Stories on the Road
• Talking to Our Computers? Transcribing Interviews at 2:1!
• Teaching the Elephant to Walk Itself: Self-Generating Pachyderm

Saturday, June 13 10:00am – 11:45am PT (check local time) SLURL: Babbage Amphitheater) Closing Plenary — Center of Excellence Awards and Fellows Award with Special Tribute to Douglas Engelbart

Join us for the closing plenary session where NMC will award the Center of Excellence Awards to three of NMC’s most deserving members, followed by the presentation of the 2009 NMC Fellows Award to Douglas Engelbart. A special tribute to Dr. Engelbart will celebrate his many accomplishments and contributions to the fields of information technology and multimedia.

So join us virtually for NMC 2009 (and if you take any inworld photos, please tag them in flickr as nmc2009

Story filed under: Campus Headlines,What's Happening

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