Summary

The last bits to say are that after a trip to a local shopping mall called Cary Towne Center (I thought it was going to be a town centre...) on the Friday morning, we made our way to the airport and home.

It's been quite difficult doing this retrospectively. I could have written so much more, but I don't really want to spend any more time on it. Please leave a comment, or ask me about it if you wish. I'm pretty sure that I'll be re-reading my notes and looking at the online resources for quite a while yet

It was a great trip, I saw, heard and learned a lot, and met a lot of interesting people. And Rob seems to have beaten his fear of flying...

Visit to Duke University's Center for Instructional Technology (CIT)

I managed to set this up through Brian, who made originally made contact with them for me about the Duke Digital Initiative (iPod project) about a year ago.

After being picked up at the hotel by Brian's dad, we arrived at Duke around 11:30 (a little early) and had a look at the iconic chapel (below - the photo is a bit wonky!) in the first rain of the week, well, except the thunderstorm that was on the horizon on Tuesday night. We were due to meet Amy Campbell of CIT at 11:45. I have video from this location that I may put on YouTube and link to from here...


After a brief chat with Amy in her office (I took her some Sheffield Top Trumps cards as a gift, thanks to Helen R for the idea), the next port of call was lunch, with a number of staff from Duke's Center for Instructional Technology. I talked so much I didn't finish my food! not like me at all...

Next was a trip to a room kitted out with the latest gaming technology, and a conversation with Zach (below in photo), who told us how they used the room for teaching - getting the students to talk about media, think about the issues in Computer games etc, and how they also use the room for social events and for getting industry experts in to talk to the students. (The gadgeteer in me was thrilled to see a PlayStation 3 for the first time, no time to play on it though)



Back to CIT (Center for Instructional Technology), to talk about the Duke Digital Initiative (iPod Project), my (soon to be re-ignited) Technology Bundles project, Blackboard, discussion about the LTI and CIT, and then on to Duke's DiVE 6-sided Immersive Visualisation Environment.

OK, now this might take some explaining. Imagine yourself inside an 8-foot cube, where every surface is a screen. Now, put on some imaginary googles and put yourself in a computer-generated 3D landscape, where computer generated fugures can walk towards and past you... it was quite strange, and I don't know if it was the flexibility of the floor or the 3D environment that made my balance go a bit off...


On the way back to meet the taxi, visited a new social/learning space, which I though was cool:

So it was a packed day (I reckon most readers will have seen the conversation in Paul's blog about trips away not being jollies...), rounded off with a visit to Brian's parents for dinner, with Brian's dad providing the transport in a Toyota Prius - another new one for me. I was impressed with how much energy it was creating/storing as we travelled, in massive contrast to some of the gas-guzzling beasts on the American highways. (On the Friday morning, at a shopping mall, we saw a mother and baby park up in what can only be described as a truck! a big, massive truck! no doubt it did about 1 mile to the gallon...)

The street where Brian's house is reminded me of The Wonder Years, which I never used to miss on TV when I was little. It was nice to see a snapshot of family life in America

ELI Spring Focus Session - the main things I'm taking away

OK that's it for writing about the sessions (if in a slightly wrong order - particularly the project parlors...), the photo above shows where the event was held

So, the big ideas I'm taking away from the ELI Spring Focus Session are:

• The taster sessions were great, and are an idea we can adopt fr our own events. It means presenters repeating themselves in the space of a short time, but it does give people a taster, and allows them to make a qualified decision about if a session is for them, and also a bigger picture of what other sessions are happening even if they have chocen to attend others


• We are doing OK with things like games for learning, Second Life, virtual environments etc, but there is still plenty to do


• We should set up some kind of design competition in Second Life (or Sketchup etc, or using good old fashioned pens and paper) for getting our students involved in all the new builds/renovations that are happening


• I'm going to talk to whoever-it-is in LITS about Grid Computing, because it is something we should be doing, there must be hundreds of computers at SHU that sit idle for periods when they can be doing something useful, like rendering 3D videos etc

Virtual Learning Environments in 3D - Phil Long

Phil Long from MIT, talking about Second Life, including a proposed competition to let students use it to design new halls of residence - which is an idea that I think we should steal for getting some student input into all our new buildings/refurbs. (I've since talked to Liz and Paul about this)

Session info/resources: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI07206

Student Cameo 3: Online Time Consuming Real Time

Another student cameo - I didn't make a very good job of taking notes about any of them!

This was about how playing games like World of Warcraft can consume a lot of time - too much in some cases...

Info at: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI07211

Cyberinfrastructure-Enabled Learning Environments for Gen Z - Gary Bertoline

Gary Bertoline again, talking about Grid Computing and how important it is. This is about making use of unused proccessing power when computers are unused (e.g. when people leave them switched on overnight...), I learned a lot from this, and it is something we should look at seriously

Info and resources: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI07204

Student Cameo 2: Visions of the Underworld: Transforming Classical Texts into a Virtual Reality Experience

This was presented by a student form Duke, and outlined how groups from across the University had come together to create an interactive 3D environment based on a story from Greek mythology (I think) - which has some elements that fit with what I have been doing recently. It was only 15 minutes, and I didn't take many notes, and I'm afraid there are no online resources...

Cognition, Learning, and Literacy in Virtual Worlds - Constance Steinkueler

The main thing I learned from this is that I/we need to know more about World of Warcraft and the opportunities it (and other games) offer for LTA activity! In one example, Constance talked about students using games like this for writing stories about their characters etc. This session had a lot of useful info, which can be found at: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI07205

Tuesday Evening

Ken (who was staying with friends, and knew a bit about the area) took us to a steak restaurant called The Angus Barn. We ate massive steaks, and it was so cheap! despite Ken apologising about the price! I bet it's even cheaper now with the 2-dollar pound...

We saw a fabulous thunderstorm on the horizon, which had some of the best lightning I've ever seen! I like a good thunderstorm

Back at the hotel, chatted in the bar with Cyprien Lomas (Educause) and Alan Levine (New Media Consortium) about Facebook, Augmented Reality Gaming (like the Perplexcity thing that we had in the LTI a few years ago), differences between mobile (cell!) phones in the UK and the US, and sport, and a bunch of other stuff

The Reception

I missed most of the reception because I spent some time in front of a video camera - I had been asked to provide some video testimonial of what ELI (Educause Learning Initiative) means to our institution. Louise had primed me on what to say. If anyone finds it on the Educause website, please let me know how it turned out...

... in the photo above, Rob and Ken at lunch

Project Parlor: Remote Labs - Philip Long

Now this was the last one, and I haven't got that much to say, but basically it was about conducting experiments online using equipment that is at a remote location - which fits into the idea of 'grid computing' that was also presented at the ELI event in another session by Gary Bertoline. There are no online resources available for this session...

...but from looking at the LTI Seminar programme this morning, it appears that there will be a Remote Labs seminar on June 14th.

Project Parlor: Immersion and Engagement in a Virtual Classroom: Using Second Life for Higher Education - Sarah Smith Robbins

This was Sarah Smith Robbins (CDT have encountered her before in as Intellagirl) talking about Second Life. She managed to cover so much in 15 minutes! I got the impression that the repeated longer sessions were going to be pretty basic, so decided to skip them in favour of others - I already know quite a bit about Second Life, but I would have gone to all of the extended sessions if I could.

Session information at: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI07216

Project Parlor: ECON21: An Online Game for College Credit - Jeffrey Sarbaum

This was about a game (with very high producation values) that had been developed to help teach economics alongside resources etc in Blackboard. In talking to Amy Campbell at Duke University, she mentioned that Jeffrey had presented at a conference last year. She said that he is from a small institution, and we wondered how they had found funding for such a lavish development. It was interesting, and I could have done with seeing more, but chose not to attend the longer session. This session fitted well with the work we have been doing on games for learning, and information can be found at: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI07215

Project Parlor: The Impact of Computer-Simulated Haptic Force Feedback on Learning - Gary Bertoline

This was presented by Gary Bertoline from Purdue University.

I had seen some Haptic devices a few weeks previously and was impressed. These are devices which physically feed back as you use them - they are very expensive at the moment, but cheaper technologies are being developed. In the photos above, look at what the woman is holding with her right hand, and at the close-up, and think of it as a mouse/pointer device that will stop moving when you encounter an obstacle on-screen. This is currently possible to some extent with some computer gaming joysticks

I got into a conversation with Gary about the famous scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise is waving his hands about to interact with a computer (he must have been stood on a box!!), and asked if this was haptics, and the coversation turned to 'gesture recognition', which is another topic altogeher...

More info about this session at: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI07217

Project Parlor: Immersive Learning Environments in the Geowall - Mike Kelly

Now this was one of the main reasons why me and Rob were at the event. Presenter, Mike Kelly, had a forward-projected stereoscopic display set up - it is on the left int he photo above. This is using two projectors to display slightly different images on a special silvered screen that you view through special glasses to see a 3D image. We also spent some time looking at 3D images (with old-style red/green glasses) of Colorado and the Earth (Mike is a Geologist). I have one of these pictures (last seen in Rob's suitcase) and will bring it in when I have it. I've seen/heard/read a lot about Virtual Reality/3D/visualization recently - but this session brilliantly showed how these technologies can be used in LTA activity. Information at http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI07219

Me and Rob were to spend much of Wednesday evening talking to Mike about such stuff, as this fits with Rob's PhD work and also with a lot of work I've been doing recently about the technology used for Immersive Visualisation Environments. Mike has been in touch since the event

A note about... Project Parlors (which will be described above)

These were five taster sessions of 15ish minutes each which happened on the Tuesday afternoon (more on this later), which were repeated at full length on the Wednesday. The ones I chose to attend are described first, and in more detail than the others...

Student Cameo 1: Using Adaptive Interactive Narrative to Guide Discovery Learning - Jim Thomas

Er... I'm afraid I haven't got much to say about this because I didn't take many notes... it was a 15 minute presentation by Jim Thomas, a mature student, who clearly had a lot of experience in working in computing. One thing I did write down was "Using the Unreal Tournament game engine to simulate Monterey Aquarium". The session resources are at: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI07209

I liked the idea of student cameo sessions. Jim was writing a blog during the event, which can be found at: http://connect.educause.edu/taxonomy/term/4289/0

I might come back to this post...

Generation G and the 21st Century

After an introduction to the event from Diana Oblinger (who'd I'd heard lots about before from Paul and Louise), the first session was presented by Richard Van Eck, who I'd also heard of before due our work on games for learning. This was a great session, and I could have a listened to him for much longer. I knew or was aware of much of what he said, but it was one of those occasions where lots of linkages were made between existing knowledge -good stuff. Session information and resources at: http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=ELI07202

Photo (dominated by Rob in the foreground) below:

ELI Spring Focus session: Immersive Learning Environments: New Paths to Interaction and Engagement

OK, title above, and information about the event at: http://www.educause.edu/eli072)

First things first: I'd never been to an Educause event before, but I'd heard plenty about others from LTI colleagues, and had been looking forward to it. After a quick tourist-trip into Raleigh in the morning, the event started after lunch. I'll cover the main sessions in turn above.

The event was held at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation (photo below - it was built in 2005, and a very impressive building), which is part of North Carolina State University.

Whilst waiting to register (Louise had promised me that there would be no queuing!!), the first person I spoke to was Ken Panko, who I'd meet at an event in Wolverhampton in November 2005, and other LTI people have met him. He's back home in America now, working at Yale University, after a period in the UK where he worked at Bradford University, and living in my beloved home town of Huddersfield

ELI Spring Focus Session and visit to Duke University - Retro Blog

It's over three weeks since I got back, but the Easter break and busyness with other stuff have got in the way of doing this. You will have to read it bottom to top - as if I really was blogging whilst I was away... I was going to try to do a live-ish blog, but laptop problems stopped me, and I'm not really sure there would have been time

I went on a trip to Raleigh, North Carolina (Brian's home) with Rob Appleyard from Health and Wellbeing. We went to an Educause event - title to follow above - and I'd also arranged to visit Duke University to meet the people who work in their Center for Instructional Technology (CIT).

I've been working with Rob for a few years, and I'm part of his PhD supervisory group - and his work includes looking at how students learn from using 'Immersive Environments' compared to more traditional techniques, so the ELI event was of interest to him. Despite a hatred of flying, he seemed to cope pretty well on the journey over

The journey was pretty smooth really, Manchester to Philadelphia, then a connection to Raleigh/Durham International, where we were greeted with clear skies and sunshine. View from hotel room below: