Learning2gether Episode 504
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The Electronic Village Online Opening Kickoff
The EVO Minecraft MOOC pre-session server party
Skip down to Earlier Events that happened since the previous Learning2gther post
January 10, 2021 was a big day in the compatible but overlapping worlds of EVO, Electronic Village Online, and EVO Minecraft MOOC. The former held its annual kickoff event on this date, starting at the internationally sweet spot time of 1400 UTC, tentatively expected to last an hour, and the latter was holding a server party event at the same time (through no fault of my own; CoP cats are known to be difficult to herd) but set to go on for two hours. I attended and presented in the EVO annual kickoff until 1500 UTC (it went on for another half hour after that) and popped over to the Minecraft server to catch the last half of the party there.
Here’s the story of these two amazing events.
Electronic Village Online Opening Kickoff for 2021
EVO2021 officially began with an opening ceremony in Zoom on Sunday Jan 10 1400 UTC
Slides
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rbwr2Bal1t4zSGeEE_4wuFHtQUdkWDVbqnBXnzMM-K0/edit?usp=sharing
More information: http://evosessions.org
All interested #EVO2021 moderators and participants were welcome
Announcements were made in these
Facebook groups
- EVO MInecraft MOOC – https://www.facebook.com/groups/evomc
- Learning2gether – https://www.facebook.com/groups/learning2gether
- Learning with Computers – https://www.facebook.com/groups/6577061586
- Multiliteracies – https://www.facebook.com/groups/evomlit
- Teaching and Learning in IsolatioN – https://www.facebook.com/groups/talin2020
- Webheads in Action – https://www.facebook.com/groups/webheadsinaction/
And at Groups.io
- EVO Minecraft MOOC – https://groups.io/g/minecraftmooc/message/198
At the EVO Minecraft MOOC spaces above, we also noted that:
For #EVOMC21 participants there is a BBQ at Dak’s place on the EVO Minecraft MOOC server coinciding with the start of this event at 1400 UTC but extending for an hour after the EVO session ends (or we slip out early, see you there 🙂.)
Meanwhile, back at the EVO 2021 kickoff
A job well moderated by EVO Lead Coordinator for 2021, Martha Ramirez
EVO announced its sessions Jan. 11 – Feb. 14, 2021, with Registration: Jan. 3 – 10, 2021
Celebrate EVO’s 20th Anniversary with us!
It is a pleasure to announce the Call for Participation for the Electronic Village Online (EVO) 2021. As a project of TESOL’s Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section (CALL-IS), EVO has been offering free, open online professional development sessions and workshops to teachers of English around the globe for 20 years.
For five weeks in January and February, TESOL experts and participants from around the world engage in collaborative online discussions or hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. These sessions bring together participants for a longer period of time than is permitted by land-based professional development conventions and allow a fuller development of ideas than is otherwise possible.
Sessions are free and open to anyone around the globe. It is not necessary to be a TESOL or IATEFL member nor to attend the TESOL Convention in order to participate. All you need is access to the Internet. The sessions carry no academic credit, and participants may choose the level of involvement that works for them.
This year, we are pleased to offer a record 19 five-week sessions, with the EVO21 Kick-off event on January 10, 2021 at 2 PM UTC (9:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada). Register in advance for this meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItfu6gqzMoG9xWVH-w1JTo9FsvscdihdOz. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting
Please inform your colleagues about this unparalleled professional development opportunity! For descriptions and abstracts of all sessions, visit the Call for Participation at evosessions.pbworks.com/w/page/10708567/….
Here are links to all of the sessions
- CEFR VS Assessment: How can new revisions help?
- Classroom-based research for Professional Development
- Digital Imagery and Designs
- Effective Presentation Skills
- EVO Minecraft MOOC 2021
- Flipped_Learning_in_language_teaching
- Grammar for TESOL
- Immersive Storytelling in Virtual Worlds
- Intercultural Competence 2021
- M4TEVO21
- Scientific Literacy and CLIL
- Self-Care for Educators with Mindfulness
- Shaping New Ways of Teaching English for Tourism in Uzbekistan
- Synchronous Online Flipped Learning Approach
- TECHNO CLIL 2021
- TEFL2YL EVO21
- Tools for Student Collaboration
- Technology for Spoken English
- Wellness: A Happy and Healthy You
Please share this invitation with your colleagues and e-lists. Thank you for helping us spread the word!
For additional information about EVO, visit http://evosessions.org
EVO Minecraft MOOC pre-session server party
Here is the recording of the Sun 10 Jan EVOMC21 pre-session Kickoff & BBQ. Having left another online Zoom meeting and come directly to this one, Teacher Vance started it quickly and did not take time to make a test recording first. Everything usually works fine, but maybe because I had taken my USB mic to another computer for the Zoom session, Camtasia switched my mic off for this recording once I put it back in. I was devastated to discover that at first, but then it dawned on me that no one needs to hear me natter on all the time, so here is the result
YouTube URL https://youtu.be/c6O9emiidWQ
In this video we meet at the spawn point developed by Sura so meticulously over the past week or so. I exit the gate to look for MrMikeGR whom I find standing near the chest full of shears, provided so that newcomers won’t simply slaughter the sheep in order to get wool to make beds. However the sign says “Please use shears to get wool. Do no kill the sheep”, but it looks like a sign posted in a park somewhere. The newcomer doesn’t know that it’s posted on a chest, let alone how to to right-click to open it, and then how does he use what he finds inside on sheep? Being in Discord would help us to explain. However MrMikeGR is a brave newcomer here in this survival world for the very first time, though the area around the spawn point has been rendered ‘peaceful’ – no monster mobs. I am even unable to place a boat in the water here except in the designated safe swimming area directly off the pier.
We travel across the water to Dak’s and climb some vines to reach the terrace where the BBQ is in progress. We meet Dak’s cured zombie, Captain Francis, who guards a freezer full of fish and dairy supplies. He is standing near a chest where we can get fishing poles and take them down to the water to catch our own fish. Back on the terrace Dak has prepared special mesquite charcoal for us to cook our catch, which is delivered unfathomably into a separate delivery system. Go figgah!? Meanwhile Olivetree Grove is busy digging her own firepit that emits puffs of smoke that would pollute any real world, but here the smoke has zero effect on the environment.
Mattie comes along and brightens up the night with an incessant display of fireworks, though when his mom Jane is handed an ‘Old Betsy’ fireworks launcher she turns out to be equally hedonistic amongst this group of staid and serious educators. Just kidding (about the educators)! We all pose for photos on the landing, we can probably find them posted in Discord, although the video renditions are not that bad either. They just won’t hold still.
Eventually MrMikeGR finds his way to where we are and we pass him snacks and I pass him my finest stone sword. It is not an easy process explaining to someone who is not in Discord the seemingly simple series of keypresses required to eat something, so that takes some time.
Finally it approaches midnight in the uber-overworld where Teacher Vance, Bobbi Bear, Jane Chien, and Mattie Tsai go about their real lives (Mattie is still up? we thought he has gone to bed already). Teacher Vance and Bobbi /home home off to their castle elsewhere and though you can’t hear it on the video, we are all saying goodbye to one another in Discord.
Feedback
Mr Mike’s take
https://mreltmike.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/evomc2021-day-1-the-beginning/
My reply
Hi Mr Mike, it was great to see you in world with us. Thanks for the family portrait. I’ve produced a lot more videos starting from the spawn point where the shear sign is (that’s a chest, btw, you can right click on it to open it and help yourself to shears inside. Then with a shear in your hand, you right click on a sheep, and it ‘drops’ wool. You walk over the wool to pick it up.
The updated videos are here, http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142108218/Video_Tutorials. The first one here, https://youtu.be/iLxoWmbbJpw is a better one for showing you how to survive in the wilderness. The rest of the videos guide you down paths that others have made, where there are shelters along the way.
My advice is to go on the server and meet people there. Contact us through discord to see when we’ll be online, or write us at https://groups.io/g/minecraftmooc/. I follow all messages posted there. Also, you can visit our dynamic map at http://mc.evomc.net:8123/ and see who is online now and use the dialog box at the bottom to chat with people on the server whether you are in game or not.
There’s much to learn, but many on hand to help you, especially if you want to learn by doing. When you get into discord and can speak to us this will speed up the process because then we can explain to you quickly, directly, and hands free what you should be doing. Look forward to seeing you in #evomc21
Announcements
in the Google Calendar in the screenshot above,
and on the EVOMC21 live events page
http://missions4evomc.pbworks.com/w/page/142133859/2021_Live_Events#Sun10Jan14001600UTCEVOMC21presessionKickoffampBBQ
In Facebook groups
EVO MInecraft MOOC – https://www.facebook.com/groups/evomc
At Groups.io
EVO Minecraft MOOC – https://groups.io/g/minecraftmooc/message/198
Earlier Events
Sat 19 Dec 1500-2000 UTC – Free CETE/TESOL (Virtual) Annual Online International Conference, with Deborah Healey plenary
Mon 21 Dec – TEIS Webinar Recording: Lessons from Africa: Teacher Development through Language Teacher Associations
Webinar URL: youtu.be/NXos-eysyXs
Aymen Elsheikh, (President of Africa ELTA (formerly known as Africa TESOL) & Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University at Qatar) and Chadia Mansour (Athabasca University), discussed unique circumstances, opportunities and challenges language teacher associations in the region face in language teacher development. Amongst the many points raised included the uniqueness of Africa ELTA’s focus on diversity, its community-based orientation, and its emphasis on cultivating leaders as well as the fronting of expertise from within its membership. Amongst Africa ELTA’s challenges included garnering resources to support its members and navigating turf lines amongst sponsors. The discussion began with Elsheikh & Effiong’s 2018 research on the subject. With the participation of audience members, the discussion concluded with a recognition of the monumental efforts it took to establish the association, with minimal funding sources, and based heavily on the work and unwavering belief of volunteers and advocates.
Sat 26 Dec and Jan 2 & 9 noon UTC – Free Graphic Design from EVO Moderator Omal Peter
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87135894763?pwd=eXRsQXpMSTVuL2VVUThwV2U5dHU4QT09
Meeting ID: 871 3589 4763
Passcode: 6Bgf8n
Sat 26 Dec and Jan 2 & 9 1400-1600 UTC – VSTE Second Life Saturdays – repeats each Saturday
About this intitiative, https://vste.org/upcoming-events-virtual-environments-pln/
Jaz and Thunder are at VSTE Space in Second Life every Saturday morning from 5 am to 7 am Pacific time.
Feel free to come learn more about the VSTE VE PLN there. Follow VSTE on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VSTEVEPLN/
Below are directions for joining the VSTE VE PLN in Second Life and Minecraft
Basic directions to join VSTE Spaces
If you don’t have a Second Life account get one, it’s free. We recommend setting one up at the Rockcliffe University Consortium’s Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/
- Download and install the software.
- While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Soulgiver/155/144/58
- and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, “Hey, I’m new!” We will take care of the rest.
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This blog is written and maintained by Vance Stevens
You are free to share-alike and with attribution under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
The date of this update is January 14, 2021 06:00 UTC
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