Conference Announcement

[Isabel Danforth]

                       Conference
         October 9 - 12, 1998, at the University of Hartford
 Exploring virtual worlds: the educational applications of MOO
 
Sponsored by:
    DU Educational Technology Services, Inc.
    University of Hartford
        College of Arts and Sciences
        College of Education, Nursing and Health Profession
 
See the Saturday Schedule, designed specifically for librarians.
	http://www.du.org/dusvcs/duinfo/confly.html

Have you ever wanted to be able to:
--Meet in real time with your distance education students?
--Have your students work on group projects, even  if they are physically off
campus?
--Collaborate with another educator no matter where they are geographically?
 
Come find out how the virtual educational spaces known as
MOOs can help you do all that and more.  These sophisticated
and flexible environments, full of highly interactive spaces,
objects, and people, are used for social communities, scientific
forums, educational environments, and nearly anything
else people have imagined. Many have been adapted to work
with graphical web interfaces, and even 3D VR perspectives.
Artificially intelligent "bots", both running elsewhere and
programmed directly into the MOOs themselves, can interact
with users and other objects, while users can build and shape
the environment around them, and most importantly, share
information, ideas, resources, and communities online, from
thousands or millions of miles away. This is your chance to
meet educators in many fields who have used   this environment.
We welcome people with all levels of expertise or those who
are just beginning.  There are sessions for all of us.
 
We are keeping the cost of the conference as low as possible and
ask that people share their skills to help others.  Presenters,
workshop leaders and  helpers all come from the ranks of
conference attendees. We already have a number of people who
have agreed to share.
 
The web page with more details is at:
 
http://www.du.org/dusvcs/duinfo/conference.html
 
You can get more information there concerning workshops, schedules,
costs, lodging and so on. Your registration can be submitted
electronically via a form at the same site. A discount is available
if your registration check is received by July 15th.
 
New England in early October should be beautiful.  Weather and
people permitting, we will try to set up some driving tours,
before the conference starts.   Again, the natural setting should
enhance the intellectual one.  I hope to see many of you there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Isabel L. Danforth   Reference Librarian, Wethersfield Public Library
danforth at tiac.net       http://www.wethersfieldlibrary.org
		     Coordinator of Librarians' Online Support Team
		        http://admin.gnacademy.org:8001/~lost/ 
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