Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference

Second Life Best Practices in Education - 2007 International Conference

The presentation schedule for May 25, 2007 (in SLT / PST)

4:00 PM SLT / 7:00 PM EST
John Jamison (Virtual Bacon-SL)
Moderator: Rainbow Drake (SL)
Two Years of Introducing Educators to Second Life in 60 Minutes, or: Tips for Dinosaur Wrangling
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/imagiLEARNING/128/128/0

Abstract:
"How do explain Second Life to my boss?".."How do I explain Second Life to my budget officer?".."How do I get my faculty to use Second Life?".."How do I get my IT people to....(fill in the blank)...". These are some of the most common questions appearing in the SLED listserve, and the ones I hear most often from the educators visiting imagiLEARNING. Add those to the "Where can I find..." questions and you've got a pretty good picture of where many educators spend their time in SL. According to my friendly greeter bot, Alex, imagiLEARNING has hosted more than 7,000 educator visitors in the past few months, and this session will present the gleanings from interactions with most of those folks. Participants should come prepared to get involved and not just sit back and try to lurk their way through the presentation...WOOT. Sorry... This session will also feature VB's Seven Critical Issues for Educators...and you certainly don't want to miss those, now do you?

Review:
It was a packed room on a packed island like all the other presentations and posters I've attended today on Hyperstring (SLurl) and EduIsland (SLurl). As my avatar, AmsDiane Gustafson, I was able to snag the seat formerly belonging to someone who was "afk" (or "away from keyboard"). Once down and comfortable, I zoomed in on the presenter's screen, turned my music on, and listened as "Virtual Bacon - SL Presenter," otherwise known as John Jamison in "RL" ("real life"), spoke about what it is that SL offers in contrast to existing or "traditional" methods of interaction and learning.

He spent a long time discussing the differences in how digital immigrants and digital natives think about (re-)creation. This was an interesting component to the speech. Apparently, the immigrants to the SL world re-create a facsimile of their RL, and often ask, "What now or what next?" The natives immediate create whatever their imagination desires and then proceed to discover how to design, develop, create, use, and refine the items and objects around them.

Jamison followed it up with a stint about embracing and supporting SL in Education through a grassroots effort. Like Blackboard and it's history, use it and use it well in your classrooms. Continue to expand on it, contribute to EduIsland, the in-world libraries, and soon your students will begin to ask other professors, "Why don't you do what Professor X does in his class?"

Lastly, Jamison provided SLurl links to his land for imagiLEARNING (East | West), suggesting that any educator who is bona fide in developing something for their instruction may do so by contacting him.