Tour Guide: Jena Bell and Marty Keltz
SL Name: Jenaia Morane and Marty Snowpaw

Jenaia Morane is a freelance writer, educator, and syndicated columnist in her first life where she specializes in penning personal essays designed to tell thought provoking and engaging stories. Her publishing credits include features for national publications such as Mother Earth News, Backpacker, and House Beautiful. She has also written and teaches online classes on Nature, Food, Adventure, and Memoir writing.

In Second Life Morane has focused her energies on creating immersive and engaging Story Quests designed to bring participants into and help co-create personal stories. Her work as the Coordinator of the HIV/AIDS sim, Karuna, was the basis of TVWSP's groundbreaking new film and Story Quest, "The Life and Times of Uncle D," which takes audiences into the life of an HIV-positive person known simply as Uncle D.

Emmy award winning producer, Martin J. Keltz has been involved in education and children's media throughout his career. As the co-founder and president of Scholastic Productions, Inc. His vision for Scholastic Productions was to create quality programming for children and families for all forms of broadcast television, cable, home video and theatrical motion pictures.

He pioneered production of original films and programs for ABC, CBS, HBO, PBS, and syndication based on Scholastic book properties. From The Baby-Sitters Club and Goosebumps to The Indian in the Cupboard and The Magic School Bus, the top-rated Emmy and Annenberg award-winning animated series, Scholastic was at the forefront of developing innovative media content for children and families in traditional and new media during his tenure.

Currently Keltz is the co-founder of The Virtual Worlds Story Project which focuses on using 3D virtual environments to develop and produce immersive and interactive Story Quests designed to entertain and encourage audiences to step through the looking glass and co-create living stories.

Session Description: The concept of embarking on a quest-a journey of self-discovery - is a vital part of education. In this innovative approach to experiential learning, participants will delve into, interact with, and co-create stories using the immersive tools inherent in Second Life and the groundbreaking Story Quest model developed by TVWSP.

The Uncle D Story Quest grew out of the work being done on Karuna - the NLM-funded sim devoted to HIV/AIDS. The goals of the project were threefold: personalize and destigmatize the subject of HIV/AIDS; educate about prevention and treatment; and collect and share the stories of those dealing with HIV/AIDS. These goals were met by creating an immersive, interactive, and collaborative "Story Quest" that takes participants into the life of someone dealing with AIDS and allows them to co-create his story as well.

Participants will be taken on a tour of the Quest by its creators (Jenaia Morane and Marty Snowpaw), and have the opportunity to experience immersive, interactive, project-based learning using the Story Quest model in Second Life. This model invites participants to not only see, hear, touch, feel the learning environment, but contribute to it as well using a wide range of Web 2.0 tools. This groundbreaking approach accommodates all kinds of learners and subjects, encouraging creative and collaborative learning in an environment that honors and nurtures the gifts of each individual.


Tour Guide: Sunay Palsole and Saul Gutierrez
SL Name: Seismos Zapedzki

Sunay Palsole (SL:Seismos Zapedzki) is the Director of Instructional Support Services at UTEP, and has been involved in academic technology for 14 years. A geophysicist by academic training, he began to design multimedia applications for teaching and learning which sparked his early interests. He developed his first online course for the School of Nursing in 1996. Sunay is also co-developer of a Digital Academy which was a finalist for the Innovation Award by the Professional and Organizational Development Network.

Saul Gutierrez is a Multimedia Specialist at UTEP. His work is focused on the research and implementation of upcoming technologies such as Second Life and computer gaming engines to create immersive experiences in the field of education. Saul is currently the lead developer for several projects in Second Life.

Session Description: A "Second Life" Galapagos Island was constructed for student study of microevolution in the context of a biology course for non majors. The lab is designed to help the students explore the virtual Galapagos Island with their extended avatar presence as field scientists to observe and count the number of Darwin's finches based on their beak shape and size during 10 seasons of drought followed by 10 seasons of normal rain. Although a virtual experience, the student gather data in much the same way that field scientists do in real life but do so in a much more compressed period of time in that 20 years of observational data can now be obtained in the several hour length of a normal lab period.


Tour Guide: Cynthia Calogne
SL Name: Lyr Lobo

Dr. Cynthia Calongne, known as Lyr Lobo in Second Life, is a professor with the Institute for Advanced Studies at Colorado Technical University. Her research blends computer science, virtual worlds, emerging media, game design, usability, and robotics as well as futuring and innovation methods. Her research collaborations include: 1) an artificial intelligence project for San Juan College and the National Science Foundation; 2) mentor for 400+ Suffern Middle School students who study in a virtual world; and 3) support for the Global Learning Forum's game and space simulations. Visit http://www.slideshare.net/lyrlobo for slides and her blog at http://ctusoftware.blogspot.com for more information on teaching and learning using virtual worlds and emerging media.

Session Description: Come join us as we explore education in a virtual world. Highlights from 17 university classes combined with game and space simulations are featured in this session. Attendees will receive free tools and tips for hosting their own sessions.