SLMOOC17: About the Presenters

The fourth annual Second Life MOOC (SLMOOC17) will take place from June 1-30,
2017. The theme of the current MOOC is Connecting for Learning in Virtual Worlds.
There is a plethora of communities in virtual worlds promoting education and learning
through connecting online via web technologies such as Second Life. The MOOC will
focus on connecting online for collaborative learning and teaching around the world
through virtual worlds like Second Life, Minecraft, or OpenSim. The live presentations will
include the speakers’ reflective process on teaching and learning in fully online and
blended learning formats. SLMOOC17 is for educators, schools, and public and private
businesses that wish to provide training in virtual worlds. Weekly badges and a final
certificate of completion will be available for free.

Sponsors
The Azire Library
& Learning Center

Organizers of SLMOOC17
Dr. Doris Molero (Pionia Destiny)
Dr. Nancy Zingrone (Maggie Larimore)
Dr. Nellie Deutsch (Nellie Homewood)

Doris Molero (Ed.D) a.k.a Pionia Destiny combines teaching as a
way to learn, education technology, and teaching for peace.
Passionate about language learning, instructional design and related
educational technologies, specifically 3D Multi-User Virtual
Environments for situated, experiential learning. She has been in
Second life since 2007. Back then she was invited to participate by
the Webheads in Action in EVO Village, since then she has been
part of different communities of practice like VWBPE, Camelot
project, Edunation, NANEC, Virtual Pioneers, Virtlantis, and different
roleplay communities as Avilion, Sylvhara and Artstonia. She has
brought her students to SL for different projects. You can visit her
URBE EFL Center in Edunation. Together with Nancy and Nellie
organized the first SLMOOC in 2013.
http://www.doris3meflcenter.blogspot.com
http://pioniadestiny.blogspot.com

Nancy L. Zingrone got her PhD in psychology at the University of Edinburgh in
Scotland. She is a research psychologist who combines her thirty-year fascination with
exceptional experiences with her passion for teaching. Dr. Zingrone is a part-time
Professor of Psychology in the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences at
Northcentral University, an eager member of Dr. Nellie Deutsch’s various teaching and
learning networks, a Moodle and WizIQ facilitator, a community land manager and the
curator of The AZIRE Library and Learning Center and the SLMOOC Headquarters,
both in the Chilbo Community in Second Life. Zingrone blogs on Thinking about
Learning and uploads tutorials and other goodies to her YouTube channel, Teaching
and Learning Online. Her contributions to psychology with her colleague and husband,
Dr. Carlos S. Alvarado, have appeared in such journals as the Australian Journal of
Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, History of Psychiatry, and Imagination, Cognition
and Personality. She’s also published on her experiences in Second Life in an article
in the June 2013 issue of the Virtual Education Journal called “Maggie Larimore and
Me.”

Dr. Nellie Deutsch (Ed.D) is an education technology consultant and
mentor to schools, organizations, and educators worldwide. She’s an
English teacher at a public school, teacher and organizer of blended
learning and fully online programs and faculty at the University of Phoenix.
She’s on EDMedia executive and planning committee and WAOE and
TESOL CALL-IS EVO committees. Nellie has been teaching English in high
school and college level for over 35 years and in blended learning formats
since 1992. She organizes free online programs for educators on how to
manage and teach with Moodle and integrate technology into face-to-face,
blended, and fully online courses, MOOCs, online conferences (Connecting
Online and Moodle MOOTs), webinars, and other online events such as Fall
and Spring Blog Festivals at Moodle for Teachers and IT4ALL. She is
passionate about using technologies such as Moodle, WizIQ, PresentMe,
Slidespeech, Screencast-o-matic, and google drive to promote active
project-based collaborative learning and teaching as a way to learn. She’s
been co-organizitng SLMOOC with Nancy Zingrone and Doris Molero since
it started in 2013.

Beth S. O’Connell, M.Ed., known as Beth Ghostraven in virtual worlds, is
a middle school librarian on the East Coast of the US, teaching ages 11-
14. This is her 19th year of facilitating information literacy and inspiring
immersion in stories, in whatever format they are available.
Beth began using the virtual world of Second Life to network with other
educators and librarians. Her work with a variety of special interest
groups in education has evolved to the point that she is one of the great
publicists in virtual worlds, making sure her colleagues know what’s going
on and where, not just in Second Life, but in Open Sim worlds and in
Minecraft. She is the owner of Ghostraven Professional Attire, classic
clothing for educators in SL; Communications Chair for the VWBPE
Conference; Transcript Editor for the Virtual Worlds Education
Roundtable; Facilitator for the VSTE Virtual Environments PLN; and
Communications Chair for the ISTE Virtual Environments Network.

John Herring (johannes1977 Resident in SL)
Real life and current United States Marine Corps Officer, who did
two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan in support of Operation
Enduring Freedom. While deployed in the war zones, I would take
photos to show my view of the wars and the scenery. I love black
and white photography, mixed with sepia and vintage tones in
order to channel a vintage look.
John is also the Publisher, Editor-in-Chief and owner of Windlight
Magazine at http://www.windlightmagazine.com, has an art show at
The Rose Art Gallery called “Scenes from a War”. Additional
photos are available at his Flickr account.
John also created the "Postcards From BayCity Collection" for the
Bay City Celebrations. Contact for this project is Marianne
McCann.

Some Biographical Notes about Thinkerer Melville (Selby Evans, RL)
1. Phd, Texas Christian University 1964
2. Professor of psychology, Texas Christian University 1964-1990. Taught
courses in psychological measurement, computer applications, and systematic
problem-solving.
3. Conducted research and operated a consulting business in psychological
measurement, problem-solving, and computer applications in human behavior,
supported by U. S. Military organizations, NASA, National Institutes of Health, and
other government organizations.
4. Currently posting a blog, Virtual Outworlding, about Second Life and other
Virtual worlds, with focus on art, video production, and the use of virtual worlds in
education
5. Specialties: Intersection of behavioral sciences and modern technology

Dr. Evelyn McElhinney (SL: Kali Pizzaro) is a Nurse
Lecturer in the Nursing and Community Health
Department of Glasgow Caledonian’s School of Health
and Life Sciences, Scotland. She completed her PhD on
December 15th, 2016. The thesis, Living in 3D Social
Virtual Worlds and the Influence on Health Literacy,
Health Behaviour and Wellbeing included two studies. In
this presentation she will discuss her study which
investigated how being involved in 3D virtual world
communities influenced people's ability to live and cope
with their long term health conditions and improve
wellbeing in the physical world.

Dieter Edward Heyne (Avatar: Edward Tarber)
Dieter was born in 1966 and raised in Munich, Germany. Making first contact with computers
and programming in 1981 set the course for a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the
Technical University in Munich in 1991. In parallel he founded his first consulting company in
1988, which is still in operation, specializing in software architecture and design as well as
quality and security management.
Since 2007 Dieter is a frequent Metaverse traveller through almost all available grids,
evaluating their usability for education, collaboration and entertainment.
To provide a safe, simple and reliable entry level access to the metaverse, he started to create
his own web based virtual world platform from scratch ( http://www.cybalounge.com ) to be
accessed from the browser without any installation and plug-ins.
To provide a dedicated platform for educational uses, Dieter founded the METAVERSE
SCHOOL in 2017 and plans to start operation later this year.
A cooperation with a German college aims at providing a virtual learning environment for up to
40 student groups starting their courses next winter. Currently a prototype is designed and built
by a group of nine students, which will be ready in July.

Jarosław Maciejewski, in the Second Life and Minecraft also
known as NitroPL , he is M.Sc. in IT, where he takes a little bit of
everything, but his main domain of interest is programming.
He is in Second Life since 2014, when was on first Second Life
MOOC.
Currently associated with virtual campus in Second Life →
Academia Electronica – The Jagiellonian University from Cracow,
Poland, where he supports campus in IT things, helps new students
in harnessing interface of SL, directs them to the appropriate
lecture rooms, he also prepares tours for them, so they can explore
interesting regions in virtual world outside campus.
When he travels the SL world looking for interesting place to
present students, he makes photos which places them on profile
his avatar on Facebook and Flickr.
FB profile: https://www.facebook.com/jaroslaw.maciejewski
NitroPL FB profile: https://www.facebook.com/nitropl.sl
NitroPL on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nitropl/albums
NitroPL YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/nitrobys

Andrew Wheelock (Spiff Whitfield, in Second Life) is a Technology
Coordinator at Erie 1 BOCES/WNYRIC in Western New York. My
primary role is to do hands on professional development workshops
inspiring teachers to use technology to enhance learning and
increase productivity.
My Virtual Environment ventures are many. I am the Co-Chair of
ISTE’s Virtual Environments Network. I am also one of the founders
of the Virtual Pioneers. This group uses Second Life to explore
history and culture. Last but not least I have been the project
director for the OpenSim Islands of Enlightenment Projects. These
projects are a NY State Dept. of Education funded project where
students learn about history themes through OpenSim.

Scott Merrick, Scottmerrick Oh in Second Life, Scott Merrick in
OpenSim, is Associate Virtualization Engineer at MNPS Virtual
School in Nashville, Tennessee. This past year he has been
teaching inner-city students in a K-4 Computer Lab and he looks
forward to his new RW assignment for 2017-18, whatever that
will be. Co-founder of the ISTE SIGVE, now ISTE Virtual
Environments Network, he has been a vocal proponent of
Virtual Worlds in the service of learning and teaching since he
discovered them back in the day. At ISTE17 in San Antonio, TX,
please seek him out for your free hug. And add the ISTE Virtual
Environments and Games & Simulations Networks Playground
to your ISTE17 schedule! See his about.me presence to
connect.
Syllabus | Presenters | Second Life Area | Moodle Certificate Area | Live Sessions | YouTube | Facebook | #SLMOOC

Dr. Valerie Hill received her MLS from Texas Woman’s University in 2007
and a PhD in Library and Information Science in 2012. Valerie is a library
and information science educator with a research focus on the
intersection of information literacy and global digital participatory culture.
She has taught at all age levels, served as a school librarian, and is a
National Writing Project trainer. Working in virtual worlds for the past
decade, her focus has been providing virtual world resources and
archiving immersive learning experiences through machinima. For the
past decade, she has worked on embedding information literacy
(particularly digital citizenship) in curriculum, online learning platforms,
and virtual worlds. Valerie has presented at conferences both physically
and virtually and currently serves as the President of the Community
Virtual Library in Second Life. A current project is a virtual world database
of learning environments and communities. Her name in virtual spaces is
Valibrarian.

Martha Eugenia Lino
Eugenia Calderón
Eugenia Calderón (Martha Eugenia Lino en RL) is the owner of "Spanish with Eugenia"
in Second Life, a teaching facility in the Chilbo Community on the mainland. She is a
Spanish teacher with six years experience in real life and seven years in Second Life.
She teaches classes in basic, intermediate and advanced Spanish. In addition to writing
her own textbooks, incorporating "field trips" to Spanish-language sites and sims in
Second Life, she also coordinates plays and presentations, sometimes written by her
students, and also portrayed by her students as an exercise in using Spanish. More
recently she has begun to teach Spanish on the Escape Playground in the virtual world,
DigiWorldz.
For more information see:
https://www.facebook.com/martha.e.lino/
https://www.facebook.com/spanishwitheugenia/
http://spanishwitheugenia.blogspot.mx/
https://www.facebook.com/spanishlanguagelearningatescape/
Eugenia Calderón's YouTube Channel

James T. Abraham, Ph.D. aka Calisto Encinal in SL and El Profesor in DW
El Profesor has been living in virtual worlds since 2006. He has taught in
Second Life as Calisto Encinal since 2007. In the spring of 2009, he completed
a sabbatical in which he created an interactive, immersive Mexican village in
Second Life. His current pedagogical interests include the use and creation of
virtual worlds for education, serious gaming and innovation in the classroom.
Escape is his latest and most ambitious project.
He holds a BA in Spanish and International Studies, University of Wisconsin-
Platteville, MA in Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, Ph.D. in Hispanic Literatures, The University of Arizona. Dr.
Abraham has been a residential faculty member at Glendale Community
College, AZ since 1998. He teaches a variety of introductory and intermediate
Spanish classes in several formats including face-to-face, online, hybrid and in
the virtual world. He has received several grants and speaking/workshop
invitations for his work in educational technology.
http://web.gccaz.edu/~jamtc53471 | http://jtabraham.org/escape

Niela Miller/ Marly Milena
Niela Miller, M.S. Education/Communications Gestalt therapist,
composer, musician, artist, actor, educator, trainer, coach,
facilitator. In SL since 2007. Founder: Octagon:Creative
Exploration/ Facilitator: Adventures in Lifelong Learning, Whole
Brain Health. See www.peoplesystemspotential.com for more.

Dr. Marie Vans (Amvan Lapis in SL)
Integrating Virtual Worlds Experience into a SJSU iSchool EPortfolio
Ph.D. Research Scientist at Hewlett-Packard
An author of over 50 technical papers and holder of 20 U.S. patents,
Vans started working at HP before college. The company supported
her undergraduate studies and then hired her again after she
received her PhD in computer science from Colorado State
University. Vans first worked in software development in Fort Collins,
Colorado, and then for HP Labs in Haifa, Israel where among other
projects she developed an image inspection algorithm deployed in
today’s Indigo commercial printing presses. Now back in Fort Collins,
Vans works in HP’s Print Adjacencies and 3D Lab.

Alyse Dunavant-Jones
Alyse Dunavant-Jones has known since high school that she
wanted to be a librarian, and that the MLIS degree was part of
the path to achieving her goal. After volunteering in the local
middle school library during high school, and then working in
a public library in college, she graduated with a bachelors
degree in English and a minor in Information Technology. Her
interest in digital libraries remained strong, and she started
looking at MLIS graduate schools. Shortly after entering the
iSchool Dunavant-Jones became enraptured with archives,
and knew she had to find a way to bridge all of her library and
archives interests. She’s now halfway through the MLIS
program exploring the best of both worlds.

Camie Rembrandt
C. M. (Camie) Elias
Camie is an independent e-learning professional.
She holds a BA in History and a Postgraduate
Diploma in Education (endorsed in E-Learning
Pedagogy) from Aberta University, and is officially
certified as Professional Trainer by the IEFP
(Portugal). Camie is the owner of “Creative Learning
Park” at Chilbo (Second Life) and the educational
sim “Learning Lab” on Craft World.

Edith Paillat/ Cyber Placebo
Language Technology Specialist at Victoria University in Wellington,
New Zealand
Edith specializes in educational technologies specifically related to language
acquisition and teaching in higher education. More info on my activities and
projects.
Her special interests revolve around experiential and socio-constructivist
learning theories and applying the use of Web 2.0 tools and 3D virtual
environments to foster situated language learning. She strongly advocates
Communities of Practice (CoPs), OPen Access and MOOCs as spaces for
professional training as well as personal development. More information
about 3D virtual environments and the Second Life Romance Language
project.

Zinnia Zauber / Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond
Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond is an artist, instructor, and superhero empowering people to be their best
virtual and tangible self by advancing excellence, exceptional pursuits, and individualism through creative
expression and encouraging instruction with inspired results.
Renne has actively taught college level fine art and digital media for over twenty-two years, and her
company, unique as you, specializes in color perception, intention, and utilization to create motivating,
engaging experiences with innovative identity development, marketing, social media, events, and
immersive environments for businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions, organizations, and
communities. Renne creates art, apparel, and virtual goods embracing the power of brilliant hues,
uniqueness, and acceptance.
Focused on the evolution of intelligence, role models, and superheroes, Renne earned her Bachelors of
Science in Art at Lewis & Clark College and her Masters of Fine Art in Visual Art at Vermont College at
Norwich University. In 2009, she graduated from the first pioneering class of the University of Washington
Certificate in Virtual Worlds Program. She is an award winning artist, educator, nonprofit establisher, board
member, and Arts advocate who only uses her superpowers for good.
She has been teaching virtual world use since 2008 with University of Washington, Peninsula College,
Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds Conference at the National Defense University, Virtual Worlds Best
Practices in Education Conferences. New Media Consortium, TechSoup Global, Nonprofit Commons,
Virtual Ability, Rockcliffe University Consortium, Second Life Community Conferences, GeekGirlCon, and
Arizona State University. Renne is the Chair of the Nonprofit Commons Mentors and applies virtual

Vance Stevens works as EFL English Faculty HCT / CERT / KBZAC
in Al Ain, UAE. His online work includes founder of Webheads in
Action, On the Internet editor for TESL-EJ, a podcast series
Learning2gether with over 360 episodes, and since 2002 one of the
coordinators of TESOL CALL-IS Electronic Village Online. Vance is
in his third year as founder / co-moderator of EVO Minecraft MOOC.

Marijana Smolcec
English Teacher at Gimnazija Bernardina Frankopana, etwinning
group moderator
English and Croatian language teacher. I work with high schools
students age 14-18 in the secondary school Gimnazija Bernardina
Frankopana.
On the coordination committee of TESOL-CALL-IS Electronic Village
Online (EVO)

DR CHRIS MOONEY-SINGH (AKA Singh Albatros),.(PhD, Monash University). Dr Mooney-Singh
teaches in the MA Creative Writing Programme at Lasalle College of the Arts (Accred. Goldsmiths College,
University of London) and is the founding publisher at Red Wheelbarrow Books and Director of the Writers
Centre, Singapore. Since 2009 he has also been the Co-Director of Litup, Singapore, a seven-year-old indie
literary arts festival. Chris’ has published several collections of poetry and fiction in anthologies. He also co-
edited The Penguin Book of Christmas Poems.. Recently his verse novel Foreign Madam and the White Yogi
was Commended in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2015 (Unpublished Fiction MS category), and his
second novel is awaiting publication. Chris has worked as a print journalist, a radio arts writer and presenter
(Radio National ABC, Australia) and he has appeared at literary festivals in the UK, USA, Australia,
Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, South Korea and the Philippines. http://chrismooneysingh.com
Photo: top
SCOTT GRANT (AKA KAYLEE WEST), MA, Translation Studies(Monash University). Scott has been
teaching Chinese language and culture at tertiary level for 20 years. He is the Coordinator of Chinese
Introductory 1 & 2 and Chinese Online Media 1 & 2 and the creator of the Monash Chinese Island virtual
language learning simulation in Second Life that has been part of the formal beginner level curriculum at
Monash since 2008. In 2012. Scott was the Project Team Leader for OLT Seed Project funding that resulted
in the Virtually Enhanced Languages (VEL) project. Research conducted as part of the project has resulted in
two publications on task-based learning of Chinese as a Foreign Language and embodied cognition in 3D
virtual environments to date. Scott has also conducted collaborative research and jointly published a number
of papers on educational uses of 3D multi-user virtual environments (3D MUVEs) environments on topics
including self-efficacy, cognitive skills, second language acquisition and foreign language anxiety. Scott is
currently working on his PhD thesis on task-based foreign language and culture learning in virtual world
environments. Photo: bottom left.
JUDITH CULLEN AKA CALEDONIA SKYTOWER has over 25 years of experience as a theater designer,
and administrator. Since 2008 she has worked as a volunteer presenting literature live in the virtual world of
Second Life ©, logging in over 900 hours to benefit a variety of charities as part of Seanchai Library. She
currently works in both virtual and corporeal worlds as a narrator, artist, author, and as a consultant and
contractor to non-profits arts organizations. Photo: bottom right

Elizabeth Hernández / Ehdem76 Resident
Hola, Soy de Venezuela, Estoy en Second life desde el año 2011. Inicio
mis aventuras con el Grupo Exploradores SL Desde el año 2015 aún activa
realizando excursiones grupales por estos mundos y prestando ayuda
voluntaria en Aprender de Tod@s y Ayuda Virtual
Grupo de Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1537135486532070/
Pagina
https://www.facebook.com/Aprender-de-Todos-Ayuda-en-Second-Life-
644256465619061/
https://www.aprendertodos.tk/
Exploradores SL
http://exploradoressl.blogspot.com/

Lynne Berrett/Lissena (aka Wisdomseeker)
Lynne Berrett, MA+, MSW, is the owner of Inspiration
Island in Second Life and Executive Director of Whole
Brain Health, the virtual arm of the nonprofit Ageless
Mind Project whose mission is to educate and provide
programs that promote ongoing brain health and well
being especially for people over age 50.
She is certified in an evidence-based approach to
brain wellness that, combined with her coach training
in positive psychology and her 35 years as a
psychotherapist, has led to her developing an
innovative brain training program in SL.

Dr. Barbara Poston-Anderson (Swords) (a.k.a. Bajoy)
‘The Deep Divide’--Songs, Letters & Memories from the
American Civil War (an ACT performance)
Since her retirement from the University of Technology, Sydney,
as an Associate Professor in drama education, Barbara (a.k.a
Bajoy) has focused on developing theatre productions in Second
Life. She is currently the Artistic Director of ACT (Avilion Cameo
Theatre) in SL and is the author of ‘Drama: Learning
Connections in Primary Schools’. In addition, she has produced
professional theatre productions in real life.
Second Life MOOC 2017

Shelwyn Corrigan has a Master's in Linguistics, a Master's in Digital Media
& Learning, and certification in Multimedia Studies. She has worked in
digital design since 1994.
In addition, she has taught ESL and EFL in Europe, South America and at
universities in California and New York. Her interests are in teaching
pronunciation, academic oral skills and the integration of new media in the
classroom. She is a media consultant and web designer, and has taught at
the University of San Francisco since 2001. In 2011 she won the USF
award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology, and in 2013 she won
the USF Team Innovation Award. Shelwyn teaches graduate courses in
the Digital Media and Learning Program and for the new online MA
TESOL Program at USF. She is currently working in machinima
development for language learning and has recently launched a language
school in the virtual world of Second Life.
Her colleagues Laura Jeffcoat and Ana Gema Gallego Garcia will join her
in the Learn It Town presentation.
Shelwyn Corrigan
Laura Jeffcoat
Ana Gema Gallego Garcia

Xenia Bastet is the virtual world avatar of artist, Gina Marie Lewis. Her reason for being is
to broaden the scope of exploration and interaction within creative, intellectual and
conscious communities. The avatar, Xenia, was born on June 30, 2016, with the intention
of creating spaces in virtual worlds through which she could research, experiment and
prototype innovative concepts that can be applicable in the physical world. Xenia’s
mission is to share the experiences and the resources that promote these goals and a
healthy & sustainable life for avatars and the humans who experience the virtual world
through them.
Gina Marie Lewis’s most recent artwork focuses on the process of being sustainable,
through acts of creativity, and community engagement. Her current projects seek to
employ her artwork in a quest for tangible positive impact in toward innovative resolutions
to real world problems. Gina was born in Columbus, GA in 1965. She is a mixed media
artist with 20+ years of professional experience, holding a Master of Fine Arts degree
from Howard University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts, with a focus on Cultural
Studies and Studio Art, from Norwich University. She is currently an Associate Professor
of Art, and the Studio Arts Coordinator, at Bowie State University in Bowie, MD teaching
courses in Painting, Printmaking, Integrated Studios and Digital Media Arts.
More information can be found on www.ginamarielewis.co
Gina A. Lewis /
XeniaBastet

Organizers
Drs. Doris Molero, Nancy L. Zingrone, Nellie Deutsch

SLMOOC17: About the Presenters

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