However, merging the environment and the topic would make things more interesting – you could for example take a tour of a speech rather like using a memory palace (‘method of loci’ on wikipedia). But that requires a lot more setting up than a bunch of slides, and a new way of thinking about how to construct an activity. The collaborative approach may be interesting – a 2L area could behave like a 3D wiki?

For me the main barrier to using SL is the high requirements on your system – my little iBook mostly shows grey rectangles unless I stand still for ages! Otherwise, I’d be experimenting away…

As one of the organizers, probably a bit of background information would be in order. The venue was carefully structured around the U. of Washington’s expressed requirements. They very much wanted everyone to actually see folks going through the maze. This lead to the above the ground seating with the maze in the middle. In addition, we had placed everything at the intersection of four sims in order to accomodate the maximum amount of people.

Dr. Bransford had indeed written out his entire talk. However, according to one of his assistants, he was choosing to type to lend, I believe, a greater sense of presence.

Finally, the $10L fee, which we later reversed was part of a series of strategies (including that of landing away from the actual talk) to reduce griefing, which has the potential to ruin a serious event such as Dr. Bransford’s presentation. We encountered a bit of griefing during Dr. Dede’s talk in July and didn’t want to repeat that experience. (For those that might not know: Griefing is an intentional disruption by other residents. It can take the form of heckling, rude noises, the rezzing of objects and general mayhem.)

All that said, your comments, as a new educational resident of SL, need to be carefully considered in the planning of future large scale events. Usability and the incorporating of “newbie educators” are important ongoing concerns for many of us.