Back to LOEX of the West 2008....

The next session I went to was called a Pecha Kucha. It was three different presenters with about10 minutes each on the same topic and was called A MUVing Experience: Three Perspectives on the Curricular Integration of Second Life. The presenters were Colleen Carmean - Director, Information Technology Services, Arizona State University, Sandra Ley - Instruction Librarian, Arizona State University, and Lisa Kammerlocher - Librarian, Arizona State University. All of the presenters discussed their experience as instructors using Second Life to teach their courses. Most of the students responses to the experience were positive.

The next day I went to a great session given by Jerremie Clyde- Liaison Librarian, University of Calgary and Chris Thomas - Liaison Librarian,University of Calgary entitled Benevolent Blue: Playing with Information Literacy. This was the best session I went to because it actually included a virtual game that the presenters are creating that we the audience actively played on the computers. The game addressed information literacy in a very political theme with violence and adventure.

The interactivity and then short survey of our experience really made this session worthwhile and interesting because, remember, I was looking for ways to make my classes engaging. Here I found it but it still wasn't an easy answer. It wasn't just the game they had made, it was the combination of their case study type presentation, along with the hands on experience and the short survey questions they gave us that made the whole session more energetic. We were all participating and exchanging information, audience and presenters. Now that is a class. Their project is still in beta and they did ask us to email them if we wished to be included in the future in the testing before the game goes public.

I really went the opposite way with the next session I chose because it was a discussion of information literacy competencies. I went from hands-on with game to discussion of the information literacy theory. I felt like I was playing the game where someone hides something and they tell you when you are hot or cool as you get closer to what you are looking for. I was cool to almost cold.

Cold was a good way to be in the hot dessert city of Las Vegas. I took a tour of the beautiful LIED Library to see what a ultra-modern library has to offer. It didn't disappoint me with its automated retrieval (space saving) system and comfort in the interior of wood and steel. I loved this library and actually took a lot of pictures to help me with our library's space assessment team that I am a member of.

I never found the perfect game to use in my instruction sessions so I will just have to make up my own game. But I guess now I know what parts of a session make it engaging for me and that games do make you think, which is better than watching someone blather on sans active participation. Yeah for games, LOEX of the West and for Vegas!