This session explores how women college students negotiate in virtual worlds. Aimee used feminist methods to identify how women in an undergraduate communications class understand the psychological and contextual factors which influence their establishment of identity and interaction in a Second Life learning community. Preliminary findings suggest that issues of avatar choice and control, time and responsibility, and technical competence emerge as influential factors. This session provides insight into the instructional design of Second Life learning experiences in order to support equal access and participation for all learners.

World of Warcraft is typically played “alone together:” Players solo game content while chatting with friends in voice or text. However, from the beginning MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) have been built around the assumption that playing together, particularly playing with strangers, is inherently good. Game designers have evolved rules, penalties and incentives to push players together, whether they want to group or not. The ‘pick up group’ or PUG, is a product of social engineering, with its designers attempting to teach vital social, civic and political skills in the game space. This examines designers’ motives for countering demands for solo play, the player experience of encouraged sociability, and trends in the engineering of social play. http://video.foxnews.com/v/4511179/video-game-class-offered-at-arizona-s... http://www.statepress.com/2011/01/17/professors-hold-class-in-%E2%80%9Cw...

Steve Zapytowski gives an overview of the vSTEM (Virtual Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) project at Kent State University - progress so far and still planning for the future as part of iLIVE (Institute for Learning in Virtual Environments)

Capturing Moments Through Machinima Dr. Phylis Johnson and partner Lowe Runo show educators and others the potential of making machinima that moves beyond the mundane to a new level of storytelling that will captivate audiences, especially students. What is it that makes a good story, and how can that be expressed through machinima? The authors borrow examples from their forthcoming book grounded in numerous interviews from the machinima community, as well as filmmaking research and experience, to reveal the fantastic and furious nuances of this expressive medium that borrows from animation, cinema and television, but has emerged with its own character. This presentation also shares an overview of the state of the machinima practice in virtual worlds. See: http://slmachinimaarts.ning.com/ http://promag.ning.com/ http://www.machinimaguild.com/