The VWBPE 2018 conference will be held in Second Life on 15-17 March – it’s free to attend and you can do it from the comfort of your own home or office desk :-).  This conference is well worth a visit if you have an interest in VR, AR and all things virtual in education, as it is full of great presentations that demonstrate the innovation and out-of-the-box thinking that virtual environments facilitate. Subjects covered this year include self-directed learning, making machinima (videos of virtual experiences), digital literacy, nursing informatics, social literacy, virtual libraries, virtual chemistry experiments and lots more! The full schedule is available on the VWBPE website, and keynotes include Dr Mark Childs, previously at Coventry University and now at the Open University, who is a seasoned researcher and developer in educational virtual worlds.

Although the conference is concentrated around the 15-17 March, some presentations begin a couple of weeks before, and extend to a couple of weeks afterwards. One of the flexibilities of virtual conferences!

All you need to attend is a Second Life (SL) account and the viewer installed on your computer (and to be connected to the wired network if you are at BU as virtual worlds are not accessible through BU wireless just yet – otherwise wireless is generally fine). To create a SL account, go to www.secondlife.com and follow the instructions. It’s free, and you don’t need to give any personal details other than an email address. If you would like any help to get started, contact Liz Falconer in CEL and I’ll be happy to help. Hope to see some of you there – virtually!