The NMC Symposium on Mashups is the eleventh in the NMC’s series of online conferences and the
second to be held entirely inside the virtual world of Second Life. Following up on how the topic was
highlighted in the two-three year time frame in the 2008 NMC Horizon Report, the NMC Symposium on
Mashups will explore the learning applications of data-driven, visual, and other artistic mashups.
Mashups, web applications that combine data from more than one source via a single, unified tool, are
often about data visualization, but they can also be creative products of other kinds - indeed, the term “mashup” originates from the music industry - such as assorted film and music clips assembled into
parodies of well-known productions, for instance. Data mashups are powerful tools for navigating and visualizing datasets; understanding connections
between different dimensions such as time, distance, and location; juxtaposing data from different
sources to reveal new relationships; and other purposes. We will explore both the tools for generating
mashups as well as the applications of them to teaching and learning.
The NMC Symposium on Mashups will explore all kinds of mashups - combinations of media, data, and
visualization tools - from art and creative expression to mathematics to the weather. The conference format itself embodies the concept of mashups, as it will be a mashup of online venues:
some sessions will be hosted in Adobe Connect, while others will take place in the virtual world of
Second Life. Session materials will be presented in both venues, and the Second Life sessions will be
streamed live into Adobe Connect. The conference will be supported by NMC Corporate Partners
LearningTimes and Adobe Systems.
The symposium will take place in both the Adobe Connect web environment and in the virtual world of
Second Life. All events in Second Life will also be streamed into Adobe Connect. Participants will also be
able to access Adobe Connect from within Second Life. Sessions, which will be conducted live, will incorporate a variety of visuals and rich media, and are
generally about 45 minutes in length. About one-third to one-half that time will be devoted to dialog
with participants using the chat and audio tools of the environment.
The Symposium is designed to encourage an examination of the ways mashups are being used in
education and the arts, and to further explore both the positive and negative effects on learning, social
interaction, creative self-expression, and more. The event will be conducted entirely online in the virtual
world of Second Life. Sessions, which will be conducted live, will incorporate a variety of visuals and rich
media, and are generally about 45 minutes in length, with about one-third to one-half that time devoted
to dialog with participants using the audio tools of the environment.
