Posts from — December 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS

special issue of Learning, Media and Technology

issue theme: Learning in Virtual Worlds

Edited by Jeremy Hunsinger and Aleks Krotoski

Virtual worlds are learning worlds.

There is substantial evidence that people learn in virtual worlds. While most learning in these spaces is informal, existing outside the school curriculum, formalised learning environments have also been developed in textual worlds, MOOs, MUSHes, MUDs and multi-media spaces like ActiveWorlds(R), Second Life(R), World of Warcraft (R) to support educational goals in primary, secondary, higher and lifelong learning contexts.

The extensive writings on virtual reality and virtual worlds over the past four decades have covered the breadth of the phenomena and experiences of learning via CMC in these situated spaces; this call for papers seeks scholarship that builds upon and extends those accounts. We seek research that deals with learning and research in social networks or among friends, learning through play, learning through artistic creation and learning in unconventional virtual realities. We seek papers that examine learning or modes of learning that occurs in unexpected ways.

For example, workshops have been transformed with the inclusion of new materials, like clay or other art equipment, encouraging participants to express themselves through different modes of communication. Such physical practices mirror the opportunities afforded in virtual environments, increasing potential outcomes by breaking down borders of expression, creating a place for play, and expanding discourse. We seek research that aims to capture similar alternative practices in learning within virtual worlds.

While all forms of scholarship and research are welcome, we prefer theoretically and empirically grounded study in the social or behavioral sciences. We seek a special issue that exemplifies methodological pluralism. The use of visual evidence and representations is also encouraged.

Submission guidelines:

This special issue is edited by Jeremy Hunsinger and Aleks Krotoski. Please contact them at jhuns@vt.edu and akrotoski@yahoo.com to discuss your submissions. The editors welcome contributions from new researchers and those who are more well-established. Submitted manuscripts will be subject to peer review.

Length of papers will vary as per disciplinary expectations, but we encourage papers of around 6000 words. Short discussion papers of 2000 words on relevant subjects are also welcomed for the ‘Viewpoints’ section. Learning, Media and Technology submission guidelines and referencing styles will be followed [see: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17439884.asp]

The guest editors will consider papers received by March 15, 2009. Fewer than 10 papers will be accepted. The special issue will be published in early 2010. Please send papers to jhuns@vt.edu, clearly indicating that your submission is for the Special Issue on learning in virtual worlds.

went something like this:

Do you believe in Santa’s flaws

in Santa’s flaws

in Santa’s flaws

Do you believe in Santa’s flaws….

Because Santa’s flaws are you…..

[From Coca-Cola United States]

—

this is just surreal…

Since this is the last Happy Hour of the year, all of today’s questions relate to your 2008 experiences. I’ve added more questions that usual, but don’t feel compelled to answer everything. Let’s get right to it.

1. What’s the most interesting book or article you read in 2008?

Probably

The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life

2. What’s the best food you tried for the first time in 2008?

Jersey Beef at Cafe Europa in Copenhagen

3. What prominent figure’s death upset you the most in 2008?

Studs Turkle and George Carlin

4. What’s the most unexpected way the economic crisis affected you in 2008?

umm, lost 1/4 of my current retirement savings?

5. What’s a new hobby you picked up in 2008?

none

6. When you look back at 2008 five years from now, what will be the first thing that comes to mind? (For me, it’s a three-way tie: the birth of my daughter, the Giants’ Super Bowl win and those four straight days last week when Yahoo! linked to mental_floss stories on their homepage.)

Got married:)

7. And I’ll end this batch of questions the same way I did last year: “Let’s make Week-After-Christmas Resolutions. Something you vow to start doing next Friday, but can give up on January 1st.” What’s yours? [From Friday Happy Hour: What Did We Learn This Year?]

hmmm, not eating… pork?

[From The Colossal Squid Exhibition - Build A Squid - Interactive]

I built one and sent it to my wife:)

Do not get a Ph.D.!

—

this is someone else’s crusade, not mine. my position is pretty much the same, there is only one reason to get a ph.d. and it has nothing to do with future employment. a ph.d. is closer to a possession, and not even a qualification, unless you want to be a certain type of professor (and you’ll want to find out what that job really is because it is not happy-go-lucky reading and teaching as many students tend to think). The sole reason to get a ph.d. is to have one because you can’t imagine your life otherwise. it is something you accomplish, it won’t get you a job in any necessary way, all you get necessarily from a ph.d. is the experience and the ph.d., both of which are interesting commodities, but not universally valued..

stolen from new kid on the hallway

Things I’ve done are in bold.

Things I am indifferent towards or actively would like to avoid are crossed out.

Things in normal type face are things I’d like to do (or at least, that I’d rather do than not).

Comments in parentheses are my additions.

Start my own blog

Sleep under the stars

Play in a band

Own a cell phone

Visit Hawaii

Watch a meteor shower

Give more than I can afford to charity

Visit Disneyland / Disneyworld

Climb a mountain

Sing a solo

Bungee jump

Participate in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony

Teach myself an art from scratch

Adopt a child

Purchase real estate

Had food poisoning

Visit Parliament / Capital Hill

Grow my own vegetables

See the Mona Lisa in France

Sleep on an overnight train

Have a pillow fight

Hitchhike (car blew a tire and the jack was missing in a rural area, many miles from home)

Take a sick day when you’re not ill

Build a snow fort

Hold a lamb

Go skinny dipping

Run a Marathon

Been on television

Ride in a gondola in Venice

See a total eclipse

Watch a sunrise or sunset

Hit a home run

Go on a cruise

See Niagara Falls in person

Visit the birthplace of my ancestors (grew up there)

See an Amish community

Teach myself a new language

Have enough money to be truly satisfied

See the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

Go rock climbing

See Michelangelo’s David

Sing karaoke

See Old Faithful erupt

Buy a stranger a meal at a restaurant

Visit Africa

Walk on a beach by moonlight

Be transported in an ambulance

Have my portrait painted

Be arrested

Go deep sea fishing

See the Sistine Chapel in person

Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

Kiss in the rain

Play in the mud

Go to a drive-in theatre

Be in a movie

Visit the Great Wall of China

Start a business

Take a martial arts class

Visit Russia

Serve at a soup kitchen

Go whale watching

Get flowers for no reason

Donate blood, platelets or plasma

Visit a Nazi Concentration Camp

Bounce a check

Fly in a helicopter

Save a favorite childhood toy

Visit Quebec City

Eat Caviar

Piece a quilt

Stand in Times Square

Tour the Everglades

Been fired from a job

See the Changing of the Guards in London

Been on a speeding motorcycle

See the Grand Canyon in person

Published a book

Visit the Vatican

Buy a brand new car

Walk in Jerusalem

Have my picture in the newspaper

Read the entire Bible

Visit the White House

Kill and prepared an animal for eating

Had chickenpox

Save someone’s life

Sit on a jury

Meet someone famous

Join a book club

Lose a loved one

Have a baby can’t do that

See the Alamo in person

Swim in the Great Salt Lake

Been involved in a law suit

Been stung by a bee

Ride an elephant

34…

[From The Clapper | Mark Fiore's Animated Cartoon Site]

—–

clap on capitalism! hilarious if a bit too close to home.

Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

[From Scientists extract images directly from brain ::: Pink Tentacle]

——

can’t be long now…