Maya Island Presentation in VSMM 2012 conference

UW Maya Island, designed and developed in Second Life by the UWVW class of 2011 was presented at the VSMM 2012 conference in Milan through a paper by Valerie Hill and Stylianos Mystakidis. Check out the presentation slides here.

Maya Island at VSMM 2012 Conference

UW Maya Island will be presented on September 4th 2012 at the International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia (VSMM) in Milan, Italy.

More specific a paper with the title “Maya Island Virtual Museum” authored by Valerie Hill, Phd and Stylianos Mystakidis has been accepted and will be presented in the conference.

For more information about the conference’s program, visit VSMM 12 website.

I Saw the Sun at Midnight Rising Red

Larkworthy Antfarm, Humanities instructor at Community Colleges, filmed this wonderful machinima on Maya Island.

Maya Island Triumph in #VWBPE

Maya Island won both best Educational Poster & best Educational Machinima Awards at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education! Congratulations to all poster & machinima participants and winners. Special thanks to the conference’s scientific committee and all who voted for us!

Don’t forget to explore the Maya Island in 2012 while you still can!

The next tour of the island will take place on March 31st 9am PDT/SLT in cooperation with Info Island which hosts a massive Maya Island 3D exhibit.

Maya Island Machinima Introduction

What can you find and do on Maya Island? Check out the cool machinima video by Bev Landar.

Maya Island Poster & Machinima Finalists in VWBPE!

Maya Island Poster and Machinima were selected by Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE)  Judge Committee among the Finalists in the 2012 competition!

More specifically, our Poster -an interactive 3D exhibit- is nominated for the “Best Example of Educational Practice in a Virtual World” award and Valibrarian’s video is nominated for “Best Educational Machinima“.

In each category there are three nominations, so please check out the exciting posters and machinima on display and cast your vote on Friday March 16th!

Maya Island on Epic #VWBPE conference

Hot news: The Maya Island participates in the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE12) conference in the following ways:

1. Panel discussion on the instructional design of the island
   When: Friday, March 16th, 1-2 pm SLT
   Where: Edtech Island, Edtech Auditorium
2. Guided Tour to Maya Island
   When: Friday, March 16th, 2-3 pm SLT
   Where: Tour Departure Area
   
3. Maya Island Poster (3D Exhibit)
   We’re participating in the poster competition, so please come over and vote for us!
   When: Visit & Vote on March 15-16th!
   Where: VWBPE12 poster area (no. 34)
4. Maya Island Machinima
   We’re participating in the machinima competition!
   When: Thursday, March 15th, 8-10pm SLT
   Where: Machinima Auditorium

Next to these, the UW Alumni is also organizing more fascinating events:

• Panel discussion on the past, present and future of virtual worlds education
  When: Friday, March 16th, 10-11am SLT
  Where: Edtech Island, Edtech Auditorium
• Experience in Applying Virtual Worlds to Training in a Business Environment
  When: Friday, March 16th, 3-4 pm SLT
  Where: Rockcliffe Rotunda

The VWBPE conference is a unique event on education in virtual worlds, so please come over and support our events!

Maya Island Tour Machinima

Check out the wonderful machinima from the tour organized for the Community Virtual Library on Info Island.

The machinima was filmed and produced by fellow UW Alumni, the talented Valibrarian Gregg.

The machinima is submitted to the VWBPE machinima competition and will be aired on March 15th.

The Maya Island will participate in VWBPE with a panel discussion on instructional design, the machinima and a poster.

Maya Island at VWBPE12 Conference

The UW Maya Island will be present at this year’s Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference (VWBPE).

First, we will be organizing a panel discussion on March 16th 6-7pm SLT with the title:

The Saga of UW Maya Island: Digital storytelling, context- and game-based learning in Virtual Worlds

Graduates of University of Washington’s Virtual Worlds Certificate Program analyze diverse instructional design techniques that were utilized in the development of UW Maya Island.
UW Maya Island (http://tinyurl.com/uwvw11) is the graduates’ final project of 2011 University of Washington’s Virtual Worlds Certificate Class. It has been designed and developed in 9 weeks by an international team of 13 members. It became an Editor’s Pick in the Second Life Destination Guide in July 2011 and attracted more than 5,000 visitors within 2 months. Today it hosts the activities of the Maya Island Society (https://uwmaya.wordpress.com/) which have been featured in a CNN’s ireport.
UW Maya Island features learning archetypes designed and developed according to the 3D instructional models proposed by Kapp & O’Driscoll (2010). These comprise learning experiences that immerse visitors and elicit active learning around ancient Maya Civilization.
More specifically, visitors of the Maya Island are encouraged to

• complete a quest to become Maya physicians in order to save a village from an epidemic (digital storytelling),
• discover facts and practices of Maya Science (Astronomy, Agriculture and Fishing) in immersive builds (context-based learning) and
• win a Triathlon to learn about Maya Mythology & Culture (game-based learning)

Panelists will provide insights based on qualitative and quantitative data about

• collaborative virtual immersive learning environments’ instructional design, development & programming,
• user experience & feedback,
• integration of web 2.0 tools and social media for virtual community building and event promotion.

In addition to this, we intend to participate in the poster & machinima competitions.

Stay tuned for more details!

Maya Island Exhibit on Info Island and Tours

Maya Island has an Exhibit on Info Island in Second Life from January till March 2012. Visit the exhibit at the Community Virtual Library Exhibition Area and let us know what you think.

Also, there will be several Maya Island open guided tours for librarians and all interested people.

The first tour takes place on Saturday January 21st, 9am SLT/PST – 5pm GMT – 7pm EET.

Come learn about the Mayan culture, explore a beautiful simulation of ancient times, and dispel the hype about the Mayan calendar prediction of doom!