This Saturday Harvard Immersive Education event (and January 2-Day Boston Summit)

Hello everyone, this Saturday is the Immersive Education Day at Harvard University (Presenting the Past, Present and Future of Immersive Education on December 8th). During my opening presentation I'll talk about Croquet, and also show a video that shows Croquet being used with a Smartboard. If you're in the Boston area please feel free to join us on Saturday.

Below is a link to the in TEXT format. In the HTML version (link below) is a link to the 2008 Boston Digital Media Summit, which is a 2-day event (the focus this year is Immersive Education) in January that is also open to the public. Some of the speakers and panelists are already listed on the Summit page (first link in the news announcement below). These events and related news and announcements are always available online at:

  http://ImmersiveEducation.org/#NEWS 
 
Best regards,
Aaron

----- PLAIN TEXT FOLLOWS (SEE http://ImmersiveEducation.org/#NEWS  FOR HTML AND PDF -----

Immersive Education Day at Harvard University
Presenting the Past, Present and Future of Immersive Education


CAMBRIDGE, MA - November 27, 2007 - On December 8th 2007 from 2-5pm EST Harvard
University's Interactive Media Group will host a half-day Immersive Education
event that is open to the public and free to attend. Educators, researchers and
administrators from Harvard University, Boston College, MIT Media Lab, Amherst
College and the United States Department of Education will give a series of
presentations and demonstrations to provide attendees with an overview of
Immersive Education and how virtual world and game-based learning technologies
are used in and out of the classroom today. Immersive Education Day at Harvard
is a precursor to the Immersive Education event at Boston's Digital Media Summit
in January, 2008 (see http://MediaGrid.org/summit).

Immersive Education (http://ImmersiveEducation.org) combines interactive 3D
graphics, commercial game and simulation technology, virtual reality, voice chat
(Voice over IP/VoIP), Web cameras (webcams) and rich digital media with
collaborative online course environments and classrooms. Immersive Education
gives participants a sense of "being there" even when attending a class or
training session in person isn't possible, practical, or desirable, which in
turn provides educators and students with the ability to connect and communicate
in a way that greatly enhances the learning experience. Unlike traditional
computer-based learning systems, Immersive Education is designed to immerse and
engage students in the same way that today's best video games grab and keep the
attention of players. Immersive Education supports self-directed learning as
well as collaborative group-based learning environments that can be delivered
over the Internet or using fixed-media such as CD-ROM and DVD. Shorter
mini-games and interactive lessons can be injected into larger bodies of course
material to further heighten and enrich the Immersive Education experience.

Teachers, trainers, administrators and students are encouraged to attend
Immersive Education Day at Harvard and participate in the open discussion
periods that follow each of the scheduled presentations and demonstrations:

Enabling the Age of Immersive Education [2-2:30pm EST]
Aaron E. Walsh
Director, Immersive Education Initiative | Faculty, Boston College
Speaker bio: http://gridinstitute.com/people/aew/

Placeworlds: Fostering Civic Engagement through Immersive Education [2:30-3pm]
Gene Koo, Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School
Speaker bio: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/bio_genekoo

School 2.0 and Immersive Education [3-3:30pm]
Timothy J. Magner
Director, U.S. Department of Education | Advisor, Immersive Education Initiative
Speaker bio: http://www.ed.gov/news/staff/bios/magner.html

The Restaurant Game: New forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Immersive
Education [3:30-4pm]
Jeff Orkin
Research Assistant, MIT Media Lab | co-Chair, Immersive Education Initiative
Speaker bio: http://web.media.mit.edu/%7Ejorkin/cv.html

Pedagogy, Assessment, and Learning Outcomes for Immersive Education [4-4:30pm]
John Carfora
Director of Sponsored Research, Amherst University | co-Chair, Immersive
Education Initiative
Speaker bio: http://mediagrid.org/news/2007-11_Carfora_award.html


------------- Venue and Directions -------------

Event name : Immersive Education Day at Harvard
Date/Time : December 8, 2007 from 2-5pm EST
Location : Harvard University
    Askwith Lecture Hall in Longfellow Hall
    13 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138
Directions : http://www.harvard.com/events/directions.html#askwith


------------- About the Media Grid -------------

The Media Grid is a public utility for digital media. Based on new and emerging
distributed computational grid technologies, the Media Grid builds upon existing
Internet and Web standards to create a unique network optimized for digital
media delivery, storage, and processing. As an on-demand public computing
utility, a range of software programs and Web sites can use the Media Grid for
delivery and storage of rich media content, media processing, and computing
power. The Media Grid is an open and extensible platform that enables a wide
range of applications not possible with the traditional Internet alone,
including: Massive Media on Demand (MMoD); Interactive digital cinema on demand;
Immersive Education and distance learning; Truly immersive multiplayer games and
Virtual Reality (VR); Hollywood movie and film rendering, special effects, and
composition; Real-time rendering of high resolution graphics; Real-time
visualization of complex weather patterns; Real-time protein modeling and drug
design; Telepresence, telemedicine, and telesurgery; Vehicle and aircraft design
and simulation; Visualization of scientific and medical data.

The Grid Institute leads the design and development of the global Media Grid
through the MediaGrid.org open standards organization in collaboration with
industry, academia, and governments from around the world.


To learn more about the Media Grid and Immersive Education visit
http://MediaGrid.org and http://ImmersiveEducation.org

--
Boston College: http://bc.edu
Media Grid: http://MediaGrid.org
Immersive Education: http://ImmersiveEducation.org
Personal page: http://gridinstitute.com/people/aew/