Event: U Penn: May 13th, 2-4pm: Virtual Worlds in Academia: Beyond the Hyperbole

[Tim Allen]

Wharton Computing and the Philadelphia Future Salon are proud to present an event, in conjunction with the Learning Lab’s Evolution of Learning Symposium: Virtual Worlds in Academia: Beyond the Hyperbole. The panel is free for anyone to attend, and we encourage people attending the symposium in the morning to join us after lunch. A hands-on demonstration will follow, in which people are encouraged to give some projects a test drive!

Location: Jon M. Huntsman Hall, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. (Room TBA)

Date & Time: Wednesday, May 13th, 2pm - 4pm

Over the past several years, virtual worlds have been through the peak and trough of the hype cycle. Gartner describes the hype cycle as having five phases: a technology trigger, the peak of inflated expectations, the trough of disillusionment, the slope of enlightenment, and the plateau of productivity. Virtual worlds have been through the first three steps of this cycle, with heavy involvement from the business, entertainment, and academic sectors.

The Gartner Hype Cycle, Related to Virtual Worlds

The panel will examine both the successes and failures of education in virtual worlds, and in particular, the most popular virtual world among educators, Second Life. We will explore how virtual worlds change the educational paradigm in comparison to other media types, and how educators can leverage the technology. Options other than Second Life are starting to appear, including several open source efforts attempting to establish a “hypergrid”, akin to the World Wide Web, but in three dimensions. What does the future hold?

Panelists include Don Bain, former Vice President of the largest virtual world services and development firm, The Electric Sheep Company; Fred Fuchs, founder and CEO of FireSabre, a virtual worlds firm focused on academia; Ana Reyes, who teaches a course on virtual work in organization dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania; Frank Taney, the leading expert on the state of the law in virtual worlds, who represented plaintiffs in the first two virtual worlds intellectual property rights cases of their kind; and moderated by Timothy Allen, founder of the largest yearly conference on virtual worlds and Wharton Computing employee.

We hope to see you there!