Slcc06-johnson
From SimTeach
Down the Rabbit Hole …
…or how the NMC took the red pill and got a Second Life
In the past six months, the New Media Consortium (NMC) has conceptualized and built a virtual campus in SL to explore the potential of this environment for serious work and knowledge sharing. NMC’s commitment to the project is long-term, and the effort includes not only a fully-realized campus in SL, but also an active blog, wiki, community directory, as well as streaming servers and other technical infrastructure. The campus includes a growing community, and certification for faculty will come online in the fall. An active research agenda is exploring social interaction in 3-D space along dimensions such as formal and informal; traditional and nontraditional; real and surreal; serious and playlike; and other continua.
Join Dr. Larry Johnson, CEO of the NMC, to learn why this international consortium of more than 200 universities and museums has embarked on this project, why they chose Second Life as the platform for this work, what they have learned already about the potential of virtual worlds for learning, and where the project is heading next.
Laurence F. Johnson, Ph.D.
Dr. Larry Johnson is Chief Executive Officer of the New Media Consortium (NMC), an international consortium of colleges, universities, museums, research centers, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to using new technologies to inspire, energize, stimulate, and support learning and creative expression. He is an acknowledged expert on the effective application of information technology in higher education, and has authored a number of books, monographs, and articles on that topic. Dr. Johnson has over 25 years of experience in the higher education arena, having served in roles from faculty to dean, CIO, provost, and president.
