Another NEH grant! For “Virtual Oaxaca”!

WHP, in collaboration with Dr. Jonathon Richter (Director, Center for Learning in Virtual Environments), Professor Gabriela Martínez, and graduate students Alina Padilla Miller and Yasmin Acosta-Myers, has just received news from NEH that we have won another grant (“Digital Dissemination and Impact” Supplement) to underwrite the creation of “Virtual Oaxaca” — a map-based, three-dimensional space where we can capture and keep alive our journeys around Oaxaca this summer using simulated islands in Second Life (and, later, Open Sim).  We will be adding still images, videos, drawings, and curricular materials to the various spaces we will create (archaeological sites, artistic communities, museums, and the ethnobotanical garden), enabling their preservation and dissemination, while also creating a rich educational experience for teachers and students alike.  This relates to our NEH-funded Summer Institute, but it is one step toward our vision of a larger, Virtual Americas project.  The Smithsonian Latino Center, MERLOT, and the New Media Consortium are partners in this exciting new Virtual Oaxaca endeavor.  Our local partner, CLIVE, is housed in the UO’s Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE).