FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Orlando, Florida) August 3, 2010.

PulseLearning’s Dr. Irene Boland will be presenting at the world’s largest annual Defense industry event – the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC). In November of each year, approximately 19,000 industry professionals from more than 60 nations gather in Orlando, Florida, USA to share best practices in the high-stakes learning required by the armed forces.

It’s an honor to be selected as a presenter and to have my paper included in the conference proceedings. The standards are high and the selection process is rigorous. I consider this a great compliment from my highly respected peers.
- Irene Boland

Dr. Boland’s paper and presentation focus on her ground-breaking research on the effectiveness of the immersive 3D multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) Second Life (SL) for learning. Dr. Boland provided the industry’s first empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of learners working alone (cognitive constructivism) or in small groups (social constructivism) within the SL environment. This presentaton about live, virtual, constructive (LVC) training will also include discussions of rich demographic data, learner feedback, and proposed future research that can benefit the industry and learners. Dr. Boland’s presentation and the related exam questions will provide holders of the NTSA Modeling and Simulation Certification with continuing education credits to help them keep their certification current.

About Dr. Boland
Dr. Boland was awarded her Ph.D. in Education (specialization in Instructional Design for Online Learning) from Capella University in April 2009. She is a member of Women in Defense (WID) and National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) in Central Florida. She has over 8 years of expert hands-on field experience in the full spectrum of instructional systems design for corporate and military clients. Her end-clients include: the US Veterans Administration, the US State Department, The Boeing Company, Autodesk, CA Technologies, Bank of America, Symantec, UnitedHealth Group, and Harcourt School Publishers. Her concentrated areas of expertise include: immersive virtual worlds, social learning, accessibility, and usability. She is the author of the Practical Applications of Research column at eLearningFuture.com. She translates recent gains in learning research into easily understood and actionable intelligence for use in real world projects. She is also an active advocate of the proper and effective use of social media tools for professional development and learning.

To learn more about I/ITSEC (the world’s largest Modeling, Simulation and Training Conference), please visit: http://www.iitsec.org/Pages/default.aspx