EPIC.
I'm still processing the whirlwind that was this unique event, but that's the one word that comes to mind when I start reflecting on the experience. What was OCEANDOTCOMM exactly? It was a diverse gathering of writers, photographers, educators, podcasters, artists, storytellers, poets, and producers who all share a love of science - marine science in particular.
“WHEREAS, Lisa Tossey is deemed to be of sound mind and body; and
WHEREAS, Lisa Tossey is considered by peers to be of the utmost creative character and willing to generously give of this creativity; and
WHEREAS, Lisa Tossey is possessed of vital expertise in social media, science communication, and various other abilities—potentially of the supernatural variety; and
WHEREAS, Lisa Tossey agrees to further join a league of like skilled persons contributing to the greater good;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Craig R. McClain, Executive Director of LUMCON, with the strong support of the selection committee, two alligators, and a resident pelican, do hereby proclaim that Lisa Tossey is
ACCEPTED TO OCEANDOTCOMM”
We were all gathered on the Gulf Coast by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) for four days to "tell a story like one has never been told before." Once there, we were given a theme - "Coastal Optimism" - provided with an incredible array of experts and experiences, and encouraged to collaborate and create. And that we did. An amazing mix of 27 projects (and counting) were launched within those four days - some were completed, some are works-in-progress, and some are longer term, but the variety blew me away. I'm looking forward to sharing many of them soon via social media once they're finalized!
I'm still working through a lot of the footage and audio I collected while down there, but here's a peek at the start of two of the projects I worked on:
The first was a collaborative effort with Jason Robertshaw (Mote Marine Laboratory), Lali DeRosier (K12 science teacher), and Alexander Havens (Alaska SeaLife Center). We worked together to create a BreakoutEDU game for LUMCON's education team to use. Breakout EDU is an immersive learning games platform that lets educators turn a classroom into an "escape room" and facilitate games where players use teamwork and critical thinking to solve a series of challenging puzzles in order to open the locked box.
We completed a beta version of the game that we were able to test with three groups at OCEANDOTCOMM, which worked well. We are now fine-tuning it and aligning it to education standards before sharing it publically on the BreakoutEDU platform.
Here are a few pieces and glimpses of the game. This video shows the opening sequence, a few "hint" videos we created, and several time lapse sequences of our development and testing process:
These are a few graphic pieces I created and designed for the game - a fact sheet that is used to open one of the locks and a token that is used throughout:
I also started an educational 360, immersive tour to test some features of an Insta360 camera and the ThingLink platform. This final 360 tour will focus on several "defense systems" of the Louisiana coast, including levees, marshes, and barrier islands. The brief tour below served as a test for various types of file embeds, linking scenes together, and voiceover insertion. Stay tuned for more!
This post was created from OCEANDOTCOMM and supported by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON).