DIT IOLE Class Presentation 17-May-2012 PICTURES, VIDEOS

Virtual Environments: Is one life enough is an award-winning, university-level course on the professional use of social media, including Second Life, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and YouTube. The course is taught online at the Dublin Institute of Technology in Dublin Virtually Live Campus. Students attend as Avatars and maintain online journals.

The final class of each semester is a formal presentation to guests and judges of the showcase work each team has completed.

This semester’s theme was Virtuality.

 

Slideshow

Enjoy these shots of the students and audience as their Avatars, presenting and interacting.

http://www.flickr.com//photos/sitearm/sets/72157629776514572/show/

Video

Enjoy these mixed-media videos, produced by each team cooperating using virtual tools and creativity, and presented to their lecturers and guests.

Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Believe in the characters, not the actors KOAN*

Have you seen the movies The Blind Side or Miss Congeniality starring Sandra Bullock? Have you seen the TV series Bones starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz?

The best actors make their characters real. We express ourselves through characters whether we are the actor or the watcher. Characters are art expressing itself through us.

Believe in the characters, not the actors. This is the koan.

*koan: a paradox used in Zen Buddhism as an instrument of meditation in training monks to despair of an ultimate dependence upon reason and to force them into sudden intuitive enlightenment

Death, Sex, Space – Mary Roach; a brief review

Mary Roach has been tagged as “America’s funniest science writer.”

I’d characterize her as much more than that… a person who objectively, and helpfully, addresses, on behalf of all of us, key issues such as death, sex, and space.

Ignoring taxes, death, sex, and space are arguably the top three concerns of humanity. Roach researches and reports latest developments with thoroughness and humor.

Regarding space, read her 2010 “Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void.” If you’re an evangelist of humanity reaching out to space, this will give you new encouragement.

Regarding sex, read her remarkably good-natured* 2008 “Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.” This will give you much new data into vaginal arousal, cross dressing, and such related topics.

Regarding death, read her 2003 “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.” Or her 2005 “Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.” This will give you specifics on what goes on at mortuaries, experiments weighing bodies before and after death, and other insights and data.

Mark Twain once said, “Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.” Mary Roach combines humor with rigor to document what most matters (and entertains) us all.

Mary Roach, Wikipedia

*Good Natured – would YOU be willing to have a vaginal implant installed to measure sexual stimulation?

Colosseum: A Gladiator’s Story MOVIE – a brief review

This 2003, one-hour BBC special dramatizes the only detailed description of a gladiatorial fight that has survived to the present day. The actors speak in Latin. The narrator and protagonist (main character), Verus, speak in English.

This one-hour special far exceeds the Russell Crow movie, Gladiator. in my opinion. The special has more historical detail, excellent visuals, and excellent fights; a much happier ending.

It’s not just the title bout in AD80 that’s featured… as background the special tells the story of how the Colosseum came to be (Emperors Vespasian and Titus) and Verus’ own biography. Many gladiators were volunteers rather than slaves forced to fight. Gladiators were hot!

You can catch this on Netflix or YouTube.

Netflix: http://movies.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=60034722&trkid=2722743&t=Colosseum%3A+A+Gladiator%27s+Story
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy_0CvfsJ7o
Wikipedia: Verus

Mujhse Dosti Karoge! MOVIE – a brief review; Jane Austin meets Bollywood

Will You Be My Friend?, released 2002. is a love-triangle story placed in India.

This movie does not have a bunch of musicals – just cute (child), beautiful (adult) actors; and dialogue. It’s available on Netflix or your otherwise favorite movie sources.

Wikipedia Review: Mujhse Dosti Karoge!
Netflix: http://movies.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=60036754

Kalypso by Arwenone DIGITAL ART

Kalypso by digital artist, Martina Ufen.

Working Together in Virtual Worlds Presentation SLIDES

Guest Speaker Presentation, Is One Life Enough class module, Dublin Institute of Technology
. Experience of working in a virtual world
. Overview of virtual tools
. 3D-Web as a platform for education
. Multiple affiliations and contemporary networking theory