One of the things the council learned as we traversed the state last fall was that faculty and humanities professionals across Wyoming wanted Humanities Matter! to give them the chance to talk tech. So for three of the four times when concurrent sessions are going on, one session will focus on technology and learning. Which means that, if learning technologies are your primary interest, you can basically make half of Humanities Matter! into a tech conference.
I’ll talk more about the “Humanities 2.0″ panel soon; today I’d like to give you some details about the other two tech sessions, both led by Dr. Brock Dubbels of the University of Minnesota.
The Man
Brock Dubbels designs face-to-face, virtual, and hybrid learning environments, exploring new technologies for creating engagement with learners. Brock has worked as a Fulbright Scholar at the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology, and also at Xerox PARC and Oracle. He is currently a research associate at the Center for Cognitive Science at the University of Minnesota, where he works with educators in reading; teaches online course work on gaming; and conducts research on learning through game design. He is the founder and principal learning architect at VGALT: Video Games as Learning Tools.
The Presentation
The first session Brock is leading at Humanities Matter! — Possible Worlds: Learning, Beliefs, and Instruction in Real and Virtual Worlds — looks at research on comprehension, creating sustained engagement through play, and the difficulty of cultural beliefs about learning and the fear of connecting with games. The session then turns to ways that Second Life and other instructional environments have been used effectively — including some of Brock’s own work– and how it can be replicated across content and context.
The Workshop
The second session, Getting Started in Second Life, will be a hands-on workshop, during which participants will familiarize themselves with Second Life, with Brock’s guidance. The workshop will finish with a Second Life scavenger hunt. Due to computer lab space constraints, enrollment for Getting Started in Second Life is limited, so online preregistration is required.
Visit our Humanities Matter! page to learn about the conference and to register!
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