 Dr. Larysa Nadolny was named a winner of a Blackboard Catalyst Award for Exemplary Course Program, which recognizes faculty and course designers from schools, colleges and universities around the world who develop exciting and innovative courses that represent the very best in technology and learning. Not only was Larysa’s course chosen to receive an Exemplary Course Award, but it was also named a Directors’ Choice for Courses with Distinction, an honor awarded to a select group of courses that stand out even from other winning entries.
Part of the annual Blackboard Catalyst Awards program since 2000, the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program Award highlights technologically rich, engaging, well designed, and pedagogically sound courses that showcase best practices for the user community. Over 200 entries were evaluated in a rigorous peer-review process by more than 300 faculty and instructional designers. Submissions were judged on the following components: course design, interaction, collaboration, assessment and learner support. The Blackboard Catalyst Awards program annually recognizes and honors innovation and excellence in the Blackboard global community of practice, where teachers and learners work every day to redefine what is possible when leveraging technology.  The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference is pleased to confirm that Larysa Nadolny will be our closing keynote in Second Life. Dr. Nadolny knows about research, education, and learning in the 21st century. Her grant funded projects have resulted in some extraordinary transformative ideas, which incorporate game-based learning, augmented reality, and leveraging the power of social networks. As the closing keynote, Dr. Nadolny is sure to motivate other educators and researchers to engage more avidly in the potential of interactive and immersive tools to revolutionize education.
Date: Saturday April 12th, 2014 Time: 1:00pm PDT Location: Second Life – VWBPE Central Auditorium Closing Keynote “There’s always room for a virtual zipline”, and other lessons from SciEthics Interactive How do you make room for fun when serious learning is the goal? Dr. Larysa Nadolny will share lessons learned from the NSF funded SciEthics Interactive project, a virtual world simulation with an ethics twist, to show it’s possible. She will discuss how collaboration and global community are keys to success. Finally, she will challenge the audience to bring islands like SciEthics Interactive to the next level in order to overcome the current challenges present in today’s virtual learning environments. Read more about this keynote at the VWBPE website  It has been quite a long winter in Iowa and across the country, and I'm finally seeing signs of good things to come! Besides being able to see grass for the first time in months, other good events are "springing" up everywhere:
It is official! SciEthics Interactive has been announced as a finalist for the Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. The winners in each category will be announced at GameTech 2012.  I've been honored to be nominated for the Virtual Excellence Awards 2011 due to my work in virtual environments. Take a moment and vote for me at http://awards.associationofvirtualworlds.com/555/ (refresh the page if you can't click on the stars).
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