Last week, I attended the 2011 NMC Summer Conference at UW Madison. It is a beautiful campus, surrounded by a charming and accessible city. The Terrace, on the backside of the Memorial Union, made me think of the Waterfront in Burlington. The stores and restaurants on State St reminded me of the feel of Church St, although I do not believe I could have found Ashak here in Vermont, which was delicious.
Brainbow image of hippocampal neurons. Courtesy of Jeff Lichtman/Harvard University
Anha Skop, Asst. Professor of Genetics at UW Madison, delivered a stunning opening plenary “Too Creative for Science.” Her message on the relationship between art and science was punctuated by images of Brainbows, a cell division video, and the Tiny: Art from the Microscopes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A message from the editor
Next we used ARIS to create a simple alternate reality experience, led by David Gagnon. The platform has an intuitive interface, and has been used to create a number of experiences, including Mentira in Spanish. Future versions of the platform will include image matching, currently it supports QR codes.
Francisca Yonekura and Barbara Truman presented offerings at UCF in Everybody Wins: DIY Open Gamification 4All. Kogneato is a self-service platform that allows faculty to create games for assessment. Activities include labeling and flash cards, as well as crosswords and hangman. They also shared their online resource for information literacy.
Maria Woolson and I presented the Middleverse de Español project, where we used Second Life to create a conversation space for language learning. Our session was well attended and received, with a number of questions about the students’ experience and the impact on their learning.
Madison middleverse 2nd life 2
Other Interesting Links from Conference
Games + Learning + Society – http//gameslearningsociety.org
IdeaLab at Carlton College, creative space for faculty, staff and students to show what can be done with technology – http://apps.carleton.edu/weitz/VirtualTour/IdeaLab/
Mystery at MIT – http://www.mit.edu/~puzzle/
Poll Everywhere – http://www.polleverywhere.com/
Head Magnet – http://headmagnet.com/
POPUP, Psychology project using Kogneato – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsuZ_FhxkGg&feature=share
Middlebury Links Related to Post
Science and Art
Student Symposium – http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/resources/uro/symposium
Middlab – http://sites.middlebury.edu/middlab/
Geo-located virtual information
Murmur – http://sites.middlebury.edu/seniorfellows/2011/05/17/murmur-hear-it-here/