Nearly 40 faculty and instructional support staff gathered in February at a monthly meeting of Community of Educational Technology Support (ComETS) members to explore what emerging technologies might be deployed on the UW-Madison campus to improve instruction to students. Six campus presenters showcased their research, highlighting how some of today's information technologies have the potential to both positively and negatively impact teaching and learning.

Catherine Stephens, Instructional Technology Services Coordinator with the School of Education, provided an overview of the UW-Madison island project in Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual world where online users can create content and communicate with other avatars (virtual personas) using voice and text chat. "This is a collaborative venture. Our support group includes faculty and staff from several schools, colleges, and IT departments. The project came about as a response to the growing interest in teaching with virtual worlds at UW-Madison." she said.

Four School of Education classes use Second Life as part of their coursework. Second Life is also used in DoIT's Engage Simulations and Games grants and is emerging as a platform for several campus groups. Stephens spoke about plans to gather anecdotal data from faculty teaching in Second Life to help justify the project going forward.

Timmo Dugdale, DoIT Academic Technologies, Douglas Worsham, College of Letters and Science; Ron Kraemer, CIO and Vice Provost for Information Technology; Alan Wolf, DoIT and Center for Biology Education; and Jeffrey Bohrer, DoIT, also presented information about other emerging trends in instructional technologies.

Check the ComETS Emerging Trends wiki at cometset.pbwiki.com for more information about the program and links to handouts.

Source: DoIT News
Used with permission

MERIT would like to salute several amazing student staff members who were recently honored with a WOW! (What Outstanding Work!) Awards. This award recognizes staff members who have gone above and beyond our already high expectations for service. Award winners include: Emily Bouwkamp (library), Nicole Mennen (library), Michelle Russo (library and media design), Peggy Cruse (library), Ben Saffran (IT), Megan Marvel (library), and Zena Hirsch (media design). A huge thank you to all of them for helping MERIT provide excellent service to our users!!

Catherine Stephens recently was a panelist at the ComETS Emerging Trends discussion in February. Catherine addressed teaching and learning on the UW-Madison Island in Second Life. For more information and copies of materials, visit http://cometset.pbwiki.com/

Brenda Spychalla and Anna Lewis presented with representatives from Carroll University at the Midwest Regional EDUCAUSE Conference in Chicago in March. The presentation entitled, "The Urge to Merge: Rethinking Library and IT Services" focuses on the recent merger of the CIMC, IMDC and SoE IT and the creation of MERIT. To view the presentation, visit https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/aklewis/web/UrgeToMerge.

We are pleased to announce a pilot initiative designed to support current and new UW-Madison instructors using Second Life. With support from the CIO office, UW-Madison has purchased a NMC (New Media Consortium) island in Second Life - a place we can call home. Visitors to the virtual island will find the Memorial Union, Union Terrace, Library Mall, and Bascom Hall.

Second Life allows educators a 3-D web environment for teaching in a virtual world space. Class scenarios include role-playing, art reviews and exhibitions, and learning community spaces. For more information, see the current Educause Review "Back to Virtual School".

The Pilot Support group has scheduled Orientation sessions to help bring participants in world, tour the UW-Wisconsin island space, and other Second Life spaces for teaching and learning. Session participants will be invited to share course objectives for using Second Life and share examples of in world class activities.

Please feel to contact the pilot support group at virtualworlds@lists.wisc.edu with questions. Members of the support group are also available for faculty consulting around using Second Life for teaching and learning.


UW-Madison island in Second Life.