VCARA Participates: Rockliffe University Consortium Conference 2018

VCARA Blog

Published: November 13, 2018 by Alyse Dunavant-Jones

Rockliffe University Consortium (RUC) held their second annual conference (RUCC18) at the Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture in San Francisco, California on November 9-10, 2018.

Fort Mason Center, November 2018

Golden Gate Bridge, November 2018

RUCC’s audience includes teachers, students, information professionals,  and others interested in emerging technologies for education including virtual worlds, virtual and augmented reality, and other tools that encourage immersion and participation. This year’s conference theme was “The Future Present”.

RUCC18 Swag Bag!

VCARA members Alyse Dunavant-Jones (MLIS 2018) and Danica Ronquillo (MLIS 2019) attended the conference. The conference was an opportunity to network and learn from leading virtual and physical world educators. They seized the chance to meet each other and several other colleagues in-person for the first time!
Bethany Winslow, eCampus Instructional Designer, also represented SJSU at the conference.

Dr. Pamela Redmond (@edumuse on Twitter) of Touro University California gave the opening keynote, “Learning for the Future: Tinkering with the Schema of School”. Redmond emphasized the 4 C’s (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity ) in education and the need to “teach beyond content” as the needs of learners evolve. She called for a reimagining of the classroom, prototypes for learning, and models for performance–with “’tinkering’…foundational  to that change”. Redmond also recommended resources including: A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, Teaching & Learning Interchange, CAST: Until Learning has No Limits, and the New Tech Network.

Dr. Chris Haskell (@haskell on Twitter) of Boise State University gave the closing keynote, “To Boldly Go: Education, Technology, and Captain Kirk”. Haskell demonstrated ways that Star Trek predicted many devices used today, such as smart phones (from Star Trek communicators and Captain Picard’s Personal Access Display Device), AI assistants (from LCARS to Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa), and 3D printers (from Star Trek replicators). He also introduced “research into how these tools have changed education and those major changes on the horizon”. For example, Star Trek’s holodecks predict advances in Virtual and Augmented Reality. Haskell closed the keynote with the following message: Make what you love your inspiration. He lives this philosophy in many ways, including teaching his university courses in Minecraft and World of Warcraft!

Check out the Community Virtual Library (CVL)’s blog for an in-depth review of CVL Director Dr. Valerie Hill (@valibrarian on Twitter)’s presentation, “Digital Citizenship through Immersive Learning” and a listing of additional RUCC18 presentations with links to free image editing, chat bot, and interactive learning resources experienced during the conference!

For information about joining VCARA in Second Life, please refer to our VCARA for Newbies blog post. To request an orientation to Second Life and VCARA, please email Dr. Pat Franks (patricia.franks@sjsu.edu). To follow VCARA on social media, check out our VCARA on Social Media page. To visit VCARA in Second Life, use the iSchool Island SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SJSU%20SLIS/45/123/33

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