The Story of My “Second Life”

The new year is officially underway here at my school and today is our second day with students. For me personally, it’s incomprehensible to think of missing today to attend the Second Life Education Community Conference, now underway as we speak in Tampa, Florida. Still, as I peruse the wiki, twitter feed, Flickr stream, and a smattering of blog posts, I am astounded at the quality of this event, which is, unless I’m mistaken, effectively the first year it has run as a dedicated conference-within-a-conference.

At last year’s Second Life Community Convention, the education track featured some of the best and brightest researchers, practitioners, and STUDENTS in the metaverse. I know, I saw them and met them. I was there.

When the conference organizers (of SLCC, not SLEDcc) made the decision to have the event the first week in September, it was because that was the very best decision they could have possibly made given the available venues. Many in the education community (particularly K-12) were upset, including me. These things happen. Nonetheless, it’s VERY CLEAR that the people who committed to SLEDcc made a GARGANTUAN contribution to the event.

Take a look at this program. No, wait. Take a look at THIS program first. That is the overall Second Life Community Convention program for 2007. The items in GREEN are education track events. Unbelieveable!

This is by NO MEANS a slight on the people who put together SLCC 2007. Far from it! We would not be where we are today if it were not for them. But when you consider the depth, breadth, style and substance of the programs listed, you have to (in my view at least) agree that education is really, truly driving development in the metaverse. While businesses have come and gone, the educational community is thriving in Second Life. The reason? Dedicated individuals like Chris Collins, Jonathan Richter, Jennifer Ragan-Fore, Jeremy Koester, Scott Merrick, and so many others. You guys are KILLIN’ ME! I want to be there with you, but I *NEED* to be here with my students. :/

How far have we come? Check out the first-ever SLEDDies award competition. That’s the award rubric at the right. Look at those categories. Usability. Technical execution. Crossover & communication. Skills transferance. Innovation. What we are seeing here, folks, is the emergence of a new instructional medium, driven by educators, people woring with actual students on actual lessons in actual classrooms in actual schools, but also virtually, pushing the boundaries of learning into exciting new dimensions.

To be sure, Second Life is NOT the be-all and end-all virtual world. Far from it. No one claims it is. Many people, however, rightfully (in my view) claim that Second Life is, today, the most powerful, flexible, AVAILABLE and easy-to-use virtual world platform available today. It’s natural for educators to flock to an awesome, FREE, cutting-edge tool. The fun part: watching what these creative, driven, professionall learners come up with, and to imagine what learning will be like for our children’s children, whether it involves Second Life or some other immersive 3D environment. Educators are at the forefront of virtual world development!

Ok, gotta get going … I really, really wish I was there, but the bell will be ringing soon and I’ll have a class full of youngsters to care for. Enjoy the conference, congrats on pulling it off, and keep on innovating!

Best,

-kj-

Technorati Tags: SLEDcc08

Still enjoying summer? Or are you already back in the classroom? Either way, hope you are still interested in learning a few new things before the year gets underway! Accordingly, I’d like to tell you about a couple of upcoming webinars I happen to know about. :-)

I’m part of the first, a three-parter, scheduled August 14th, 18th & 20th. We’re calling it “This is Second Life!” and it’s being presented by the North American Council for Online Learning. Ourt webinar is unique because it features four presenters at a lively Elluminate session followed by inworld tours the next week. It’s a great opportunity to learn about Second Life and then experience it with the help of a personal tour guide. Here are the speakers:

• Chris Collins (SL: Fleep Tuque) IT Analyst, University of Cincinnati
• Chris Haskell (SL: Dalai Haskell) Special Lecturer, Boise State University
• Kevin Jarrett (SL: KJ Hax) Technology Facilitator, Northfield Community School (that’s meeeee!)
  
• Allison Powell (SL: Allison Wiggins) Vice President, North American Council for Online Learning (Moderator)
• Peggy Sheehy (SL: Maggie Marat) Library Media Specialist/Instructional Technology Facilitator, Suffern Middle School

Chris Collins will be focusing on higher education, Chris Haskell will talk about socialization & play in learning, I’m going to deal with professional learning communities in Second Life (on the Main Grid) and Peggy will be talking about the Teen Grid, especially her work on Ramapo Islands. To register, click here! The Elluminate session is at 4pm Eastern on 8/14 and the inworld tours are at 6pm Eastern on 8/18 & 8/20. The cost is $29 per session or $75 for the whole series.

The next webinar I’d like to tell you about features Peggy Sheehy exclusively and it’s part of ISTE’s Technology in Practice webinar series. Here’s a brief description:

First Webinar of the Season, August 26: Teaching in Second Life

Mark your calendars for this one and join innovator Peggy Sheehy as she focuses on the process of developing constructivist learning in the virtual world. Sheehy is one of the first school-based educators to use Teen Second Life in the classroom. She’ll outline best practices and student responses to this 21st century pedagogical shift. Webinar “From Good Intentions to Best Practices: Teaching in Second Life” takes place on Tuesday, August 26. Learn more and register now.

This webinar will be on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 4 pm Eastern and it promises to be an in-depth review of Peggy’s Ramapo Islands project, the oldest and largest (six islands!) teen grid project in the world. The cost is $50 for ISTE members and $125 for non-members.

See you online!

-kj-

It was a gorgeous summer day, absolutely perfect for some quality time behind the wheel of my Grand Prix on the Garden State Parkway. I rolled out around 8:30 am, expecting at least some delays, but about two hours and (approximately) 112.61 blissfully traffic-free miles later, I was at Marc’s doorstep.

[Read more →]

I will be in the car shortly on my way to Maplewood, NJ and the home of young adult author Marc Aronson. Once we get the technical details sorted out, we should be streaming live, probably around 11:00 am EDT. We hope you can join us!

Click here for the UStream!

Remember, if you want to join in the session chat, you first need to create a free UStream account and log in. Otherwise, you can listen in anonymously - no account is needed.

Marc has a terrific collection of teacher’s guides for several of his books that you need to check out, particularly if you teach high school (or upper middle school). These guides are blueprints for guided inquiry and personal synthesis at the classroom level, dealing with historical subjects as well as issues of our time (most notably, race relations in America). Add to this Marc’s interest in gaming and virtual worlds (including bringing his work in to Second Life) and we have plenty of material for a varied discussion touching on the past, present and future of books, media and education.

See you online!

-kj-

Thanks to a late-breaking tip from Malinda McCormick (SL: Joie Despres) I was able to attend a very casual, almost intimate presentation by Daniel Pink about his new book, “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, The last career guide you’ll ever need.” The event was decidedly low-key and several familiar K-20 educator avatars were there too. I managed to take some pics. ;-)

He only used a few slides, and his commentary was terrific. He presented each of the “six lessons of satisfying, productive careers.”

1. There is no plan. This really describes how I manage my career now, but not how I used to when I was in the corporate world. There WAS a plan. Oh, yes. Now, my plan is to be the best possible teacher I can be. Way simpler.
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses. This reminds me of an adage I heard years ago when I was into cycling: “train your weakness, race your strengh.” When time comes to compete, you want to do what you are inherently best at. For me, that is teaching. Always has been.
3. It’s not about you. So, so true. Dan explained this as ‘toughlove’ for the Generation Y set, who have been fed generous helpings of self-esteem their entire life, only now to find out the world doesn’t really love them quite so much as Mom & Dad. Time to focus outward, kiddos!
4. Persistence trumps talent. Well this is particularly good news for me, as I’m nothing if not persistent! (Wait, see rule #3, it’s not about me. Sorry.)
5. Make excellent mistakes. One of my favorite email signature quotes goes something like “few people have found something in life worthy of failing at.” Sums it up nicely.
6. Leave an imprint. Well this one is a no-brainer for most of us in education. Why do we teach? Because we want to make a difference. With apologies to 50 Cent, I’ll paraphrase this one to “do good or die tryin’.”

It was a great presentation and Dan was very comfortable considering it was only the second time he’d ever spoken in front of an audience in Second Life. I’m really hoping we can get him to come to ISTE Island for the Speaker Series. I’m optimistic. Whaddya say, Dan? ;-)

-kj-

Technorati Tags: Daniel Pink

Happened across a terrific article today for the first time, despite the fact it was published more than a year and a half ago. Guess I need to get around more. :)

Kelly Czarnecki and Matt Gullett do a fantastic job explaining what Second Life (and Teen Second Life) is, describing its power as a learning environment, giving examples from Ramapo Islands, their own Eye4You Alliance initiative, the visionary Global Kids project, as well as the work of other educators an librarians across the country. It’s great reading and should be on the list for educators looking to introduce Second Life to other educators or their administrations. It’s concise, doesn’t use a lot of technobabble, and is a great starting point for a conversation about the value of virtual worlds.

School Library Journal is a treasure trove of Second Life articles, in fact. Click here to see a listing of all their articles about Second Life - 140 at the time of this posting!

-kj-

Greetings all,

I literally just heard about this series on the EDTECH listserv and after checking it out immediately realized it’s worth telling people about!

The Virtual Worlds CE Series is a collection of non-credit continuing education courses for educators (or anyone interested in virtual worlds). All but one of them are four-week classes (meeting once a week for two hours) that cost between $125-$150. Quoting from the site above - there are definitely some familiar names here - these are good people!

Second Life 101
Instructor: Barbara (Puglet Dancer) Galik

Technical Skills for Virtual Worlds
Instructors: Denise (Pipsqueak Fiddlesticks) Cote and Bernadette (HVX Silverstar) Swanson

Working with a Class in Second Life
Instructor: Dr. Bryan (Bryan Mnemonic) Carter.

Setting Up an Educational Presence in Second Life
Instructors: Lori (Lorelei Junot) Bell, Rhonda (Abbey Zenith) Trueman, Tom (Maxito Ricardo) Peters

POSTPONED: Immersive Learning in 3D Virtual Environments
Instructors: JJ (JJ Drinkwater) Jacobson and S. (Hypatia Dejavu) Thompson.

Sounds like a great way to spend the last few lazy days of summer!

-kj-

Hi everyone,

For those of you who made it to the session on time, despite my lame mixup of SLT/EDT (so sorry!), this was an event to remember! Maggie Marat (RL: Peggy Sheehy), Kathy Dryburgh (RL: Kathy Schrock), Pathfinder Linden (RL: John Lester) and Kittygloom Cassady (RL: Jennifer Ragan-Fore) presented live at Metanomics‘ Muse Isle studios to discuss the virtual worlds in education and their supporting user communities.

Metanomics production capabilities are astounding! Even though this was a ‘virtual’ session, it was carried live and broadcast to several partner sims, as well as to the web. Hearing the backchannel chat as the seconds counted down to the “we’re live” announcement (SLCN.tv was broadcasting) … really gave me the sense I was sitting in a professional studio!

Kittygloom got things started with an “On the Spot” solo interview focusing on ISTE’s thriving member community and did a fabulous job explaining why ISTE’s Second Life community has grown as far and as fast as it has.

Peggy, Kathy and John followed Jen’s lead and also were witty, engaging, fun, insightful, thoughtful and fun to listen to.

Check out the archives for yourself!

-kj-

Technorati Tags: METANOMICS

We start in 15 minutes! Locations for co-broadcasting (if one is full):

• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Muse%20Isle/163/175/30
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Colonia%20Nova/195/216/44
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Outreach/127/132/24
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Grieg/188/58/32
• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/150/224/69

See you there!

-kj-

Technorati Tags: METANOMICS

Don’t miss “METANOMICS: The Virtual Chalkboard” today, Monday, 7/28 at Noon SLT/PDT (3pm EDT)! [Note - this is a corrected time!]

For more information: http://www.metanomics.net/Event072808

Quoting from the announcement above:

Join Metanomics at Noon on Monday, July 28th, to learn about how K-12 teachers are using the Virtual Chalkboard. Hear superstar educator Kathy Schrock of “Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators”, Teen Grid pioneer Peggy Sheehy, and Linden’s Boston Operations Director (and academic evangelist) Pathfinder Linden. But first, we put the grid-spanning group ISTE “On the Spot” to talk about the Second Life activities of the International Society for Technology in Education.

Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Muse%20Isle/164/176/30

Let’s have a great turnout - hope to see you there!

-kj-

Technorati Tags: METANOMICS