The MQUncon 09 is a FREE event for educators to connect and share ideas and solutions around using educational technology in learning and teaching. It is hosted being hosted by Macquarie University and the Islands of jokaydia.

An unconference is a facilitated, participant-driven conference. During the day, people are free to present, share and particpate in a range of activities – sharing tips, stories and examples of using technology to enhance, augment and facilitate more effective learning and teaching.

For more information see the event wiki @ http://mquncon09.pbworks.com/

The 2008 edublogs awards have become somewhat of an annual event for educators working with social networking tools to support their teaching and learning. Hosted by the educational blogging service edublogs it has since 2004 been an opportunity for online communities to recognise the work of innovative educators by voting for a “best of” across a series of categories. While having it’s roots in the educational use of blogging, the award categories have expanded to include a wide array of network learning platforms such as podcasts, vblogs, wikis, social networking platforms etc.

It is also a fabulous way to see  how educators around the world are utilising contemporary networked technologies to support their teaching and learning. For those just starting out it’s a great way to pick up some ideas and approaches used by educators.

The polls close this weekend culminating in a online awards ceremony held in Second Life on the islands of jokaydia

If your not into Second Life, don’t worry the ceremony is being syndicated in a range of ways on the web, see the post on the jokaydia blog for more information.

Will be a great event and a good opportunity to mix and meet fellow educators with a passion for learning though online  communities.

image by sridgway

Synopsis

Podcast of the special edition of Hot Topic Conversations which streamed live the presentations to the Access to New Technologies (ANT) online showcase in  in Adobe Connect from on December 12 2008.
This presentation was made by the TAFE Libraries Second Life Project team (Helene Brown, Aroche, Beatriz &  Barbara Rendall).

Network Resources

myLearning session page

image by sridgway

Synopsis

This session will explored the work of the 2008 Second Life Library project.

Topics included:

• Overview of the project
• The role of libraries in virtual worlds
• Sydney Institute on the Islands of jokaydia
• Project building works

Links

Project Wiki

http://jokaydia.com/

image by jokay

Interested in Second Life and Art, why not check out the special event being held in world on Jokaydia this week (8:30pm AEST on Thurs 17 July 2008) showcasing the work of SL artist Glyph Graves.

For more information see the blogpost on the Jokaydia blog

image by sridgway

Synopsis

Jenny Williams from Ideagarden presentation titled “Technologies: blurring the line between marketing and educational content” to the TAFE NSW – Sydney executive meeting: Using Technologies to do Business, Ultimo college, 1 July 2008

Links

Session PowerPoint Presentation

Ideagarden

image sridgway

Last week I attended the NSW LearnSope 2007 two day showcase, here in Sydney on the 1 & 2 Nov 2007.

eLearning07 drew together representatives from all 2007 Australian Flexible Learning Framework projects to share their outcomes and insights via a range of conversations and demonstrations.

Slightly different format this year, spanned over 2 days and each project team was asked to select a member to participate in one of 9 panel sessions. The panel topics and membership were pre determined so it resulted in a good mix of presenters. I participated in Panel 1 – Bottoms Up! How do contemporary e-learning methodologies challenge the ‘status quo’? Great session, listen the podcast when you have a moment.

Second Life and virtual worlds had a significant presence this year. Barbara Dieu lead the final Connected Keynote Panel, a co facilitated event held in Second Life @ jokaydia, Adobe Connect & Twitter (facilitated by Alex Hayes), and a f2f audience facilitated by Marg O’connell.

A big ask in anyone’s book, I take my hat off to the organisers for daring to interface the f2f and online across a range of platforms. The future of leaning was there for all to see, even if in it’s early stages.

An yes I podcast the entire event so if you weren’t able to attend you can listen to all the sessions on your pc or portable mp3 player.

I have podcast these recordings on my TalkinVTE podcast
The best thing is to use the elearning07 tag below so as to filter only the conference posts

http://talkingvte.blogspot.com/search/label/elearning07

For more information on the conference and images taken by participants see the links below.

NSW LearnScope

NSW LearnScope protopage event content aggregation

flickr images from the day

PS: If you went to the event we would love you to make a post on the myLearning blog or comment on this post.

Stephan Ridgway, Learning & Innovation

Synopsis

Hot Topic Conversations session with Jo Kay and Sean Fitzgerald about the emerging virtual world of Second Life, and how it is being used in online education.

Links

Second Life in Education wiki

Jo Kay and Sean FitzGerald (our team SL guides) Explore the Educational Uses of Second Life in this great wiki. This is a great place to begin your journey into the multitude of ways SL can be utilised for education.

Sydney Institute Second Life 2007 NSW LearnScope Project wiki

The official website of Linden Lab Second Life Network

The official Second Life Blog

The official Second Life wiki