For Immediate Release VWBPE 2025 Conference TRANSITIONS 3 - 5 April 2025 in Second Life® ~ The SL Enquirer

The 18th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference, beginning on Thursday, April 3rd, 2025, will be an online distributed conference happening in multiple virtual spaces. This conference focuses on the use of immersive virtual environments for educational purposes including virtual and augmented reality.

This year we are returning to our Earth build. Each region represents a different terrestrial biome, including wetlands, desert, badlands, grasslands, and forests. Conference attendees will be able to explore 3D immersive virtual representations of these biomes.

To the best ability possible, VWBPE provides educational and networking opportunities that are relevant to educational curriculum development utilizing virtual environments and “best practices”. These include

helping to build community through extension of learning best practices to practical application of those ideas and techniques;

providing networking opportunities for educators and the communities that help support education; and

providing access to current innovations, trends, ideas, case studies, and other best practices for educators and the communities that help support education

One of the key challenges faced by the educational community is how to make the best use of new immersive technologies in a way that is sustainable and accessible based on limited budgets available to both instructors and students. Platforms that are free or open source, or that can be shared across a broad audience, are showcased, including methods and research around best practices in their use and applicability.

Our theme for this year is Transitions.

Transitions, like pivotal shifts in a story, capture the profound changes educators and students have faced in recent years. These shifts highlight the need to adapt and redefine social dynamics within virtual environments as education evolves to meet new challenges.

Join us as we all share experiences and successes in how virtual technologies used in the classroom have helped shape education for the better.

This year's keynote speakers are Phylis West Johnson and Rabindra Ratan. Invited speakers include representatives from Linden Lab, and the 2021 Thinkerer - Lynne Berrett.

The VWBPE conference keynote speakers and their respective presentations are featured on the conference website (http://vwbpe.org), along with a program of exciting presentations, social activities, and networking events that will set extraordinary discussions in motion.

The VWBPE Immersive Experiences showcase unique and interesting work being conducted across the metaverse. We invite you to join us as we explore eleven interactive and engaging locations across five virtual environments. The Immersive Experiences are scheduled from March 17th through April 17th (exclusive of the conference dates). Details and access instructions for the experiences are found at https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe25-program.

Additionally, this open and free conference would not be possible without the generous contributions of our VWBPE sponsors. https://www.vwbpe.org/vwbpe-2025-sponsors

The Rockcliffe Registration Portal is open for people to register new Second Life® avatars and find out more about the VWBPE conference in-world. Go to https://www.enroll.onl/secondlife.php . The instructions are there to get you and your friends started at this educator-friendly newcomers’ region in Second Life®.

The full conference program is online here: https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe25-program.

You can also view presentations live on YouTube at http://vwbpe.org/watch.

All of the conference events will be in Second Life® this year, and the locations are included in the listings. When you click on a conference event and click Add to Calendar, you can add the event to your own calendar (Google and more).

NOTE: Daylight Savings Time

In most of the United States and Canada, Daylight Savings Time is in effect as of 9 March 2025. In Europe, Great Britain, and many other locations, DST is in effect as of 30 March, 2025, before the conference begins. Check this page to find out when (and if) a time change is in effect for you: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2025.html.

*VWBPE 2025 GATEWAY**

SLurl:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Grasslands%20Gateway/128/123/23

**VWBPE 2025 SOCIAL VISITOR CENTER** http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VWBPE%20Wetlands%20Marsh/175/158/21

**KEYNOTES**

https://www.vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe25-keynotes

KEYNOTE:

Phylis West Johnson / SL: Sonicity Fitzroy

Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State University

Friday 04 April 2025

11:00 am SLT @ VWBPE Auditorium

KEYNOTE: