EFL Professor in SL

Pio's friend Carmel Quinze t (Carmen Quintana de Solar) de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP) invited her for a little chat with her classmates. She wanted to know about Pio's work in Sl as an educator.  Since URBE EFL Center in SL is moving to a new place, probably to Edunation , soon. They improvised a sitting place at the PUCP sandbox. There, Pio rezzed some of her students poster on their latest project " My Face for Peace and Avatars for Peace ". Carmel wanted to know how we integrated virtual worlds in our EFL class in a traditional face to face setting. Pio told her that there were different things to consider before integrating Sl in her classes. We use Sl as any other tool, it's just a mean to introduce, model or present some skills or contents related to the syllabus in the class. Our classes are traditional face to face classes that integrate technology to enrich the educational experience. The philosophy behind this ...

When visiting a 3D art exhibition in a virtual world you will encounter a whole new way of interacting with what your senses get... One piece I really enjoy when visiting the  UWA Centenary 3D Art Challenge: REFLECTIONS  was Shenn Coleman's Neurons Sphere. Once you get there, you can click on the blue box and get a notecard. These notecards will give you a little information on the piece you are about to see... some of them tell you what you will need to do in order to enjoy the piece at its best. Sometimes you have to set your graphics, or allow media playing or just turn on your speakers..or they require that you are on a viewer that allows you to see mesh... since most pieces will explore the richness of the elements that 3D virtual worlds offer. Another important element is the good use of the camera... when looking at the pieces you can zoom or rotate the piece the way you want it... something else that enriches the experience is the use of different windlights....

Well, yesterday Pio was feeling a little blue and just wanted to rest for a while. So, she went to her new house and wanted to just float on the sea, listen to the waves crashing on the shore, the wind on the palms and some nice background music, when she got an IM from her dear friend Jayjay Zifanwe . Jayjay is the passionate educator behind the UWA Centenary 3D Art Challenge: REFLECTIONS . He invited her to act as a judge to come and see UWA's 3D art Challenge. Of course, she felt really honored to have been invited to judge such great work of arts presented by artists from all over the world. She went like... mmm.. but I am just a professor of languages, what do I know about art? he said, you have brought your students to our exhibitions and have worked in projects with your graphic design students... and then she thought,... well, yep.. I am an educator who tries to show her students how to connect to the world in both real and virtual life.. and art is something I real...