Jun 04
vEco ambassador Ian Redmond was a guest of the Voice America internet radio network last week, where he talked about the individual animals that lie behind our concepts of ecosystems and biodiversity for their “Our Wild World” program.
You can listen to the full interview here.
May 12
vEcotourism’s parent organisation, Chimp-n-Sea, is proud to announce the addition of a 51′ foot boat, Yosina, to the conservation team. Chimp-n-Sea co-founders Mark Laxer and Sara Lourie recently spent 5 1/2 weeks in Indonesia working with the Jari Foundation, a local NGO, on a plan for marine conservation and local education. Long-term projects may involve some underwater vEcotours of the spectacular ecosystems of the region!
Jul 13
Check out this panoramic photo that’s recently arrived courtesy of our Ugandan team. Showing the dramatic trail to the summit of Mt Sabinyo, where three countries meet (Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, altitude 3,645 metres, 11,959 ft) this was taken on a media-collecting tour of Western Uganda, including Mgahinga National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) earlier this year. We’ll be integrating all of their work into a showcase tour over the coming months.
Mount Sabinyo, Uganda, East Africa
Jul 10
We are delighted to announce that the vEcotourism team has expanded to include Ian Redmond, conservationist extraordinaire. With over 30 years of experience in great ape and elephant conservation and an Order of the British Empire in recognition of his achievements, Ian brings considerable skills to the table as well as his infectious good cheer. As Ian continues his constant travels he will now be bringing vEco to the attention of his wide network of contacts and snapping panoramas as he goes!
Mar 09
“Learning happens everywhere and at every age”
In this spirit, Virtual Ecotourism participated in the 4th Digital Media and Learning Competition for the first time last week. By recognising and promoting non–traditional learning in the 21st century, this competition brought together designers, entrepreneurs, technologists and educators with leading business and industry organizations to build digital badge systems and explore the ways badges can be used to help people learn, demonstrate skills and knowledge, and unlock job, educational and civic opportunities.
Following two preliminary stages of competition, vEco was selected as one of the 91 finalists to go to San Francisco. We had the unique opportunity to participate in workshops, network with many inspiring people to discuss possible collaborations and finally present our project on March 1st, 2012 to a panel of judges. Among the highly competitive pool of participants, thirty winning projects were selected (competition results).
We are honored to have participated in this event. Even though we did not win—this time—we are energized about what we saw (the future looks bright), made many great contacts and hope to be back next year.
Stay tuned for more exciting developments!
Feb 28
Over the next weeks vEco will be revamping our logo and site design to improve your interactive experience. We are excited about this evolution and have many stimulating projects in the works for 2012.
Watch this space!
Feb 20
Having successfully advanced through Stage I and Stage II of the Digital Media and Learning Badges for Lifelong Learning Competition, the contest organizers have invited two members of the Virtual Ecotourism team to San Francisco to pitch the project in person!
With flowers in our hair, we head to San Francisco for the February 28–29 finals at the California Academy of Science and a chance to win up to $200,000 in project funding for 2012–2013.
The winners will be announced at the Mozilla Science Fair on March 1st, 2012 and their badges will become part of the Mozilla Open Badges Ecosystem. This projects aims to recognize knowledge and skills obtained outside a formal classroom setting using online tools.
You can see our entry here, and two of our proposed badge designs below.
Feb 03
The vEcotourism team is pleased to announce the launch of our YouTube channel, which will hosts recordings made by our vEco tour guides in the field, link to amazing videos of the natural world, showcase brilliant conservation projects, bring awareness to environment and wildlife issues, and feature talks by renowned conservation professionals.
Our first feature video is a talk by Ian Redmond OBE, renowned conservationist, UN Ambassador for the Great Apes, and Chairman of the Ape Alliance, about his incredible experiences working with Dian Fossey and mountain gorillas.
Jan 31
After winning Stage I of the DML Badges Competition, the virtual ecotourism team decided to take destiny into our own hands and entered our own unique badging system in Stage II of the competition.
If we are successful in this stage we will be competing in a live showdown with other winners in San Francisco, USA, with finalists taking home up to $200,000.
Dec 27
The team is very proud to announce that the virtual ecotourism project has been chosen, out of over 350 applicants, to advance to Stage Two of the Digital Media and Learning Badges Competition. This means that our content was deemed compelling and original, and capable of evaluating 21st century learning as part of a worldwide badge ecosystem.
This brings us one step closer to sharing the grand prize of $200,000 which we hope to use to develop a badging system for our tours.
