AWEDU Newsletter |
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July 2000The Active Worlds Educational Universe has been growing over the last year, with new schools and educational organizations signing up regularly. This newsletter is our way of keeping you up to date on the latest events and most recent additions to our community. We're really quite proud of all of the projects in the AWEDU, and the dedication and creativity we are seeing in each of the virtual worlds! We think that as education and virtual reality enthusiasts you'll be impressed too! Recent Events in the AWEDUAWEDU Roundtables Each month projects in the AWEDU program host in-world roundtable discussions on projects, plans, and lessons learned. The goal of the Roundtable series is allow the AWEDU community of educators the opportunity to learn from each other's experiences, and to brainstorm as a collective. June's Roundtables included: Roundtable Discussion Euroland's Cross-Cultural/International program, hosted by Bea
Roundtable Discussion On Lessons Learned Using AW In Class, hosted by alterWalter
Transcripts of other AWEDU Roundtables and events can be found at http://www.activeworlds.com/edu/events/ CyberForums@ArtCenter Michael Heim, Virtual Worlds Coach at the Art Center College of Design, regularly hosts his Cyberforum@ArtCenter series in the AWEDU world accd. Email: cyberforum@artcenter.edu
CyberForum presents real-time online author chats. The Summer CyberForum examines interpretations of the Internet. How do we best understand cyberspace? As a cognitive information system or as a communicative event? Or perhaps as a spirit fantasy? Is cyberspace a cognitive engine evolving a planetary brain? If so, where do avatars fit? Or do they fit at all? The Summer Forum brings together Systems Theorists from Brussels (Principia Cybernetica), a Malaysian aesthetician, authors of the "Cluetrain Manifesto," and a host of gregarious avatars from India, Sweden, the United States, and all parts of the planet. Recent Cyberforums have included: Niranjan Rajah (Malaysia) addresses the 3-D avatar Forum
Art theorist and curator Niranjan Rajah at the University of Malaysia addressed the Forum to explain how the Global Brain (Internet) looks from his point of view. Niranjan Rajah is an art theorist, curator and artist. He is Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and a Doctoral Fellow at CAiiA. He co-curated Malaysia's First Electronic Art Show' (1997) and co-founded E-Art Asian Online www.freespeech.org/eartasean/ Francis Heylighen addresses the Forum in 3-D avatar world
CyberForum continued its series "The Avatar and the Global Brain." Francis Heylighen addresses the Forum from his research center in Brussels to explain the Principia Cybernetica Project which develops evolutionary philosophy for the Global Brain. The public wasinvited to grab an avatar and participate in the ongoing discussion. Dr. Francis Heylighen is editor of the world-wide Principia Cybernetica Project for the development of evolutionary-systemic philosophy. He is a researcher at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and co-director of the transdisciplinary research Center "Leo Apostel" (CLEA). His research focuses on the evolution of complexity as seen through the theory of metasystem transitions. Since 1994 he has worked on the evolution of knowledge in the emerging intelligent network (the "global brain"). http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html Bruce Damer addresses Summer Forum in 3-D avatar world
CyberForum began its Summer 2000 series "The Avatar and the Global Brain." Bruce Damer addressed the Forum about the role of avatars and discusses with Michael Heim the basic topics of the Summer series. The public was invited to grab an avatar and participate in the ongoing discussion. Bruce Damer is President and CEO of DigitalSpace Corporation, Director of the Contact Consortium, and author of "Avatars" (Peachpit Press, 1998) and "Virtual Worlds" (Perseus Press, 1998). Bruce co-directs a 35-institution research and development consortium that brings virtual worlds to the Net. He is a visiting scholar at the University of Washington HIT Lab and a Silicon Graphics Vanguard of Visual Computing. New Projects in the AWEDUAPPEDTEC, Dick Riedl
spans, Ashley Holmes
osb, Robert Barkey
tcwf, Tobey Crockett
timedoc, Charlotta Isaksson
mustang, Lisa Remick
nauedtek, J. Michael Blocher
cybercam, Joaquin Vila
TIGERS, Eric J. Pyle
ESSISOFT, Jean-Claude Lafon
Cyberlaw, Jack Baldwin LeClair
iUni, Katy Böner
VirtUTA, Martin A. Danahay
AWSINOS, Eliane Schlemmer Grings
GHS, Russ Ullrich
Recent Research on AW and EducationBeatrice Ligorno and the team from Euroland have been kind enough to share their preliminary findings with us, both through their recent rountable and their current papers. (note documents are preliminary drafts, and as English translations of original works they may require additional fine-tuning.) Identity in CyberSpace (PDF) Euroland: Active Knowledge Building Through Different Formats of Mediated Communication(PDF)
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