This week’s column will be devoted to an upcoming workshop about virtual learning environments. Each week there is a discussion, based on the weekly aging column, in UTMB’s virtual campus. This workshop will give you an introduction to that virtual world if you have never explored it.

Virtual Learning Committee Meeting in Old Red

Virtual Learning Committee Meeting in Old Red

It is an interactive workshop dealing with virtual learning environments in general and specifically with the advantages of using the UTMB virtual campus in Second Life for small group meetings with distance students or colleagues. The virtual tour of the campus will show the 3D graphical environment and demonstrate current activities. The discussion will focus on possible uses for virtual learning environments.

Objectives:

Participants will have the opportunity to:

  1. tour the virtual UTMB campus in Second Life.
  2. observe the ways in which a virtual world has been used in education.
  3. discuss ways to incorporate virtual world experiences in their educational activities.
  4. contract with the presenter to develop a pilot educational experience of their own.

The workshop will be conducted twice and in virtual space as the facilitator is in Wimberley.

  • Thursday, March 19, 2015, noon to 1 pm CDT
  • Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 4 to 5 pm CDT

The technology requirements have been kept as simple as possible. We will connect by phone via a conference call.

So that the participants can see what UTMB’s virtual campus looks like, the facilitator will share his computer screen via a simple, video streaming method, called LiveStream. Participants will need to register with LiveStream but this is free and only takes a few steps.

If you have a Second Life account, join the workshop in-world as opposed to using LiveStream. The SLURL is under the Discussion tab above.

Teaching Skills Workshops are sponsored by the UTMB Academy of Master Teachers and the Office of Educational Development.