EduMachinima Fest for Teachers and Students

Educators attend Machinima previews in an immersive environment.

The annual SIGVE EduMachinima Fest is unique in that it is for both students and teachers.  Those who enter their work will have the opportunity to create and share their manipulation of images, sounds, music and words effectively to convey a message as it relates to the theme this year, Fiero, or to any of the categories listed on the SIGVE EduMachinima application.

Developing a machinima product is one way to demonstrate skills in media design, self-expression, critical thinking, collaboration, and knowledge of multiple academic subjects.  The skills are clearly aligned to Common Core standards and our digitally connected culture.  Machinima entries should be submitted  to bit.ly/machinima13 by June 7, 2013 at midnight PT.  The Fest will take place at the 2013 ISTE Conference in San Antonio and winners will be announced at that time.

The Categories for Machinima entries in both student and Teacher categories are:

Timed

  • 60 Seconds and Gone (Educational Ice Breaker)
  • 60 Second Work of Art
  • 3 minute How-To? Instructional
  • 60 Second – 3 minute Fiero (Show Us Your Fiero!)

No Time Limit

  • Digital Storytelling
  • Digital Sandbox/Building
  • Narrated Gameplay
  • Language Learning
  • Science Show
  • Mixed Media (at least 50% of submission is Machinima)

In addition to awards for those categories, there will be a People’s Choice Awards.

A panel of community judges will give awards for:

  • Best Sound
  • Best Special Effects
  • Best Editing
  • Best Machinimatography
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2013: Engage For Change

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“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin Change is inevitable and the new year brings the mindset and … Continue reading

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The Online Educator

Teaching in virtual spaces has become more than publishing information for learners to read and respond to.  Thankfully, technology advances have made virtual spaces more creative, engaging, and interactive for teachers and learners.  Today, there are no tested standards for … Continue reading

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Machinima as a Teaching and Learning Tool

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Teachers are generally a creative and resourceful bunch, and though we do make use of commercially produced materials, we often customize them for our students.   Unusual, humorous, poignant and the relevant materials (pictures, artifacts, movies, stories) help us to … Continue reading

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Online Teaching and Learning: From Independent Study to Immersive Collaboration

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I come across an article several times a week that describes a K-12 district or a state’s efforts for offering the opportunity  for students to “learn online”.  Higher education has been involved with online/distance learning for a longer period of … Continue reading

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WoW in Education: A MOOC Adventure

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The VWBPE MOOC took me into WoW last week.  It was a bit of a learning curve, but  my Virtual World (SL, RG, Opensim) experience did give me some frame of reference, particularly with basic movement and communication skills.   … Continue reading

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VWBPE 2012 – The Sequel….MOOC

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Conferences are a great immersive experience effective in igniting action and implementation of new ideas.  The VWBPE 2012 Conference has provided an abundance of ideas, from using virtual games (yes games) for learning to using virtual environments for business and … Continue reading

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Genetic Study via Virtual Pets and Plants

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Can the virtual world SL breedable pets such as  Meeroos and breedable plants such as Sibotanicals provide some opportunities to learn about biological and botanical genetics?  The breedables are an amusing addition to the virtual setting, as the scripting progresses, the concepts of DNA and … Continue reading

Geography Standards via Terraforming and Virtual Mapping

Forming continents, islands, mountains, valleys and rivers works with mashed potatoes, beach sand, mud in the back yard and pixels in the virtual world.  Terraforming physical landform characteristics including  mountains, valleys, rivers, oceans, lakes and beaches is as easy as a click with a mouse on the correct tool and then sliding or moving the mouse in a circular motion to raise, lower, flatten, roughen and smooth the land.

The terraforming tool options are basic and easy to understand

The size of the area as well as the strength of the tool is adjusted as desired.  A little practice in an empty “sandbox” is typically enough to get the “feel” for pressure and size attributes.  Adding Flora and fauna to the newly formed topography is an opportunity to learn about climate, elevations and ecosystems.

A map view of a sim on Reaction Grid

Geography standards include various elements of map reading.   Reading the maps in a virtual world and being able to zoom in provides not only the opportunity for recognizing the use of a legend, direction, location and distance, but also the ability to see  influences of hydrology and physical characteristics of a place.

Middle School Students Build A Virtual World

The students in “Norma Underwood’s” class in an Arizona public school are building and scripting in a 3D environment, sculpting in Rokuro, collaborating on projects, and communicating with their peers and interested visitors.  I had the opportunity to visit Norma’s  virtual class space on Reaction Grid,  never having to leave my home state over 2000 miles away.  What a treat  to see 12 and 13 year olds assembling, communicating and cooperating in a medium that many are completely unaware of.

The class is an art class, lucky for these students they have a teacher who acknowledges and has taken the time to learn an art medium for the future.  The young architects and 3D artisans have used floor-plans to build 3D homes, decorated them and added items like video games and chess sets. Learning objectives  focus primarily  on standards in the area of art and mathematics. Additionally, Norma is incorporating 21st Century objectives like collaboration, communication and problem solving.  These are not as easily tested in the traditional assessments required by the state but obvious in the products the students have created and obvious as well when you watch them engaged in their work.