While others have only begun to explore emerging media such as
Second Life—the Internet-based virtual world—as viable learning environments, Associate Professor of Electronic Art John Fillwalk and Ball State already have
received national acclaim for their
real-world work developing
virtual applications. One of the latest examples is Fillwalk's cinema arts project The Aesthetic Camera that employs Second Life as a platform to provide students—through use of the project's unique Holodeck tool—with a range of experiences created within a virtual studio. In addition to dynamic, digitally rendered sets and backgrounds, virtualized lighting, sound, camera, and other production equipment is designed to mimic real-world functionality in great detail, thereby allowing students to actually film, edit, and master movies within Second Life. The project was sponsored through the university's
Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts (IDIA) and is the winner of Blackboard Inc.'s inaugural Greenhouse Grant for Virtual Worlds, a $25,000 award meant to foster the integration of virtual worlds into everyday teaching and learning. It also helped IDIA and Ball State win
Campus Technology magazine's 2008 Innovator of the Year Award. There's a chance you may bump into Fillwalk, a regular visitor, in Second Life. But to reach the
real John Fillwalk, call 765-285-0132.