My story- career discoure

In Ulmer’s book, he mentioned that he employed the website as the medium of instruction and learning to represent his pedagogy. He stated that” the best way to learn about the potential of websites and the internet for supporting learning is to invent a new practice of writing native to hypermedia” (P.Xiii) and that “the invention concern how the new technologies might affect our working condition and teaching practice and what we might do to reduce the negative aspects and enhance the positive” (p.5). His statement of Internet intervention in higher education motivates me to think the educational potential of new medium of 3D virtual worlds in educations.

Nowadays students have been heavily influenced by information technology like i-Phones, PDAs, and online networks; traditional lecture format and aging infrastructure of universities and colleges cannot meet their expectations (Oblinger, 2003). Currently I am interested in exploring the educational potential of second life, and the information technology in travel and tourism may become my primarily discipline discourse. The virtual environment provides opportunity for students to develop social skill, attend life events, and facilitate collaboration.

Here is a medical education example in SL Educational institutions began to use the virtual environment to provide training program for medical students. Learning in virtual worlds provide wide access for geographically remote student, distance learners and offer a risk free environment for student to practice medical skills. Medical education in SL


Another example associated with education implications is virtual conference.

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One example related to travel and tourism is that Virtual Hotel are providing conference room for for people looking to hold virtual meetings in SL. Like Inter Continental Hotels

conference in Lugano

ENTER2010, the 17th International Federation of IT in Travel and Tourism conference, held at Lugano, Switzerland on Feb 10-12. Participating in this conference provided me opportunity to meet experts from academics, industry, destination managers and to gain updated knowledge and information in E-Tourism through dialogue. The conference also offers great opportunity to develop social networking and exchange research idea.

Getting to Lugano, we took flight from New York to Milan Airport and stayed in Milan for first two days in our trip. It was our first time to visit Europe. We also took the opportunity to visit several tourism destinations in Milan city.

Milan Central station

The first tourism spot we visited is Milan Central station, a historical building with modern intern facility. We also took train from central station to Lugaon, Switzerland.

Milan Cathedral

The second tourist spot is Milan Cathedral, one of the greatest churches in the world. Tourists are allowed to visit the roof that offer a chance to view some spectacular sculpture but we did not have a chance to go on the roof.

Castello Sforzesco
Sforza Castle, a very well kept castle. Now it houses several of the city's museums and art collections.

Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), the host of ENTER 2010 Conference, is a multilingual university and lectures are given in both Italian and English. It is also only one Italian speaking school outside the Italy.

Our presentation on Feb 11th in the auditorium of University of Lugano.










Our first day in the conference. The ENTER 2010 used twitter and Flicker to provider updated information and image about the conference.











On our way back to Milan, we visited a very popular tourist attraction, Lake Como which is also popular retreat for wealthy people. Currently, many celebrities have real estate on the shore of Lake Como like George Clooney.









Bellagio
We took a boat to visit Bellagio, a small town located in the intersection of three branches of Y shape of Lake Como. We enjoy the beautiful and wonderful view on the way to Bellagio.











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