I will admit that I was (am still am) a bit skeptical about Second Life. It is NOT yet easy on the resources (I had to upgrade to 1gb of RAM and a new video card just to have it run on my pc – (grins) but my mac needed no upgrades), I was harassed and overwhelmed my first visit, and just learning how to walk in Second Life can be a real challenge……….so I fought it. BIG TIME.
But, because I was challenged by a friend to “Open My Opportunities†a bit……I wandered in and spent a bit more time there…….and I am seeing potential – FOR AN EDUCATOR. (I will continue to strongly state that Second Life is NOT for kids – but I do invite you to read more about the Teen Island Option.)
What I have found, at Second Life, is a new “watering-hole†for educators to share information. My “safe place†at Second Life is the ISTE building. (Click here for the SLURL.) There is usually almost always a docent there to help you out and on Tuesday and Thursday nights; there are both formal and informal gatherings to participate in. (9pm EST/6pm PST) There is a white board where presentations can be shown and there have been some very lively and also educational conversations occur. Each week is like a mini conference session – and it is worth your time to come check it out.
I decided to jump in with both feet and even “rent†an apartment in Second Life. Many other educators are doing the same on EduIsland and EduIsland II and if you wander around long enough you will probably bump into Will Richardson, David Warlick, or Kathy Schrock – all who are now home owners as well – and Discovery Educators just moved in too! The verdict is still out on whether I will keep the apartment – it’s a week by week lease – but it is interesting to see the connections that can be made and the conversations that ARE occurring in Second Life.
Check out these sites for more Second Life Information:
Kevin Jarrett — http://www.storyofmysecondlife.com/
Matrix Learning — http://matrixlearningsl.wordpress.com/
Victoria Gloucester — http://www.victoriagloucester.net/
Dr. Kelly Woestman —
http://teachinghistory.typepad.com/technology/social_networking/index.html
Four-Eyed Technologist — http://www.ryanbretag.com/technologist/
Sloodle — http://www.sloodle.com/
Second Life Education — http://secondlife.com/education
Second Life Education Wiki —
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki
And look for me there – I am MacsMom Alcott!!
Guest Blogger — Jennifer Wagner
Second Life Photo Album
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Comments
5 responses to “Do you need a Second Life??”
I have also been checking out SL, and I too had my doubts at first. Now I am having some good conversations about a variety of ed tech subjects. Still, most people I have chatted with agree that SL is a tool for educators to social network, but would never think of opening it up to their students.
But wouldn’t it be great if we could make a relatively safe virtual school for students? I have shared this idea elsewhere in a blog comment, but gotten no feedback. I am not very “techie” really, and I am not sure it you could even do something like this, but I think it could be an amazing thing!
by the way Macsmom, I am Tansmom:) Perhaps we’ll see you in SL.
Hi macsmom,
I too have had great conversations in SL, and have been amazed at the things that NASA, University of Hawaii, and other places are beginning to offer. You are right though, at this point, not for my students k-12, but great possibilities for college.
see you at ISTE.
Blizzard Oates
I’m so far behind in my blog reading, so parden the late comment. There are school districts who are buying islands in Second Life and creating a safe atmosphere for students. Somewhere I have the link to that article…another option is The River City Project through Harvard Graduate School of Education: http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/index.html
I’m not sure how I stumbled on this page … oh yes, a sidebar link from David Warlick’s Educator’s Guide to Blogging, and therefore I’m not clear whether this post is by Wesley or Jennifer. But anyway, glad to have passed here. I’m a great fan of Wesley’s podcasts, and if you like podcasts too you might try Wayne McPhail’s Who’s on Second. I’ve got it linked from my SL site which is one of the places I track my own interest in SL/Education: http://www.vancestevens.com/secondlife_edu.htm. If I can remember to do it, I’ll link this posting somewhere in there.
Incidentally, this is my third try posting here. The first time I used IE and it crashed for some reason unrelated to this blog I’m sure. The second time I used Mozilla and got a wordpress message “Your comment was rejected as your browser’s user agent string has changed since you viewed the post.” Hmmm, well, I’ll try IE again and see if it works this time.
Nope, didn’t … same error msg but in IE, not Firefox. ok, this time I’m mailing this to my laptop and I’ll try a fourth time from there …