« Back to NewsCISE EDUCATOR PRESENTS AT VIRTUAL WORLD LEARNING BEST PRACTICES CONFERENCE
April 02, 2012
Virtual Worlds – Best Practices in Education Invited Presentation
On March 17, National Institute of Aerospace Educator-in-Residence Sharon Bowers presented “Using Virtual Worlds as a Tool for Project-Based Learning” for the 5thAnnual Virtual Worlds – Best Practices in Education Conference held in Second Life.
At least 30 participants joined this session, though many more may have been present in the sea of avatars. This session showcased best practice educational strategies utilized within NIA Universe, a 3D multi-user virtual world environment within the ActiveWorlds platform.
NIA currently manages two projects within NIA Universe: daVinci Worlds and the RealWorld-InWorld NASA Engineering Design Challenge (RWIW). daVinci Worldsis a project exclusive to our partner, Virginia Beach City Public Schools, and a model that could be replicated for other school systems. The RealWorld-InWorld NASA Engineering Design Challenge is a unique education initiative for students in grades 7-12 developed and run for NASA.
This was an invited presentation and Ms. Bowers has been asked to repeat this presentation for the Virginia Society of Technology Educators, VSTE in an upcomingApril meeting at VSTE Island in Second Life. Ms. Bowers presentation was also chosen to be videotaped and archived. The video will soon be available at the VWBPE website, http://www.vwbpe.org/.
NIA POC: Sharon Bowers, 757.325.6870
For information about the Virtual Worlds – Best Practices in Education Conference visit:
For more information about the RealWorld-InWorld NASA Engineering Design Challenge visit: http://nasarealworldinworld.org/
For more information about the VBCPS daVinci Worlds Project visit: http://www.nia-cise.org/cise-programs.aspx