Back in 2003, when Second Life arrived on the internets, I was not in a position to take part. My computer wasn’t fast enough and I didn’t have the time available. Since then, I resisted joining on the grounds that it seemed really materialistic and commercial. While there were indeed interesting things happening there, what I saw seemed too close to the social hierarchies of first-life.
Over time, and as I became more involved in education, I discovered the growing numbers of educators and world changers flocking to SL. This gave me a compelling reason to invest my time there. And I finally made the plunge this weekend - four years too late but better late than never. What I found there was indeed compelling.
So there I am in the image above (note: my avatar is temporary) enjoying a conversation with a few other educators in a professor’s virtual condo. Aftewards, Smartlak and I roamed around Eduisland, Athens and a few other places. Here are some photos I took of our first adventure.
Eternally grateful to Prentiss for help getting started. Great to meet Leigh, Mal, and Fred Special thanks to Knowclue for rollerskates and Leigh for the tour of your beautiful space. Hope to meet many more geeky big brains in SL and take part in some of the forward thinking education innovation taking place there.
Yours in-world,
Verdana Madrid
thanks! It was fun!
Too bad you didn’t get a shot of Leigh Writer’s “educational” hot tub…
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I too am getting started in SL and finding my way around. Maybe I will see you there. (Loony Frog in SL)
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Verdana it was great meeting you and everyone else yesterday. We hope you come back and visit us at the DEN for one one of our Wednesday workshops as we explore more about the opportunities that Second Life has to offer educators.
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/secondlife
Please feel free to IM me in world any time even if it’s just to say hi or ask a question. You can even do it when I’m not in world and I’ll get in email.
Thanks again.
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Fabulous to meet both you and Smartlak last night at ISTE. Not sure if you’ve seen this link: http://simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL
list of institutions and orgs in SL - says it was modified extremely recently, but as our conversation went last night, there are institutions that enter SL and don’t seem to be searchable by their RL name (e.g., McGill). As a result, I think this list is highly incomplete. Anyhow, hope we can chat again!
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I am going to join Second Life in my next life
Course I told myself the same thing about Twitter and look at me now
I just have natural genes that make me avoid the next great thing!
Good to find you Melanie, I still remember you dissing me wayback when I was looking for linkbacks and you told me to get lost!
You have ethics and values I admire…
ZuD
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Jayne & Riptide!
I hope to connect with you both again in SL (I’m on the old puter right now so things are a bit slow). I’m hoping to put a conference together in SL at some point - something small but I want to see students there. Educators talk on and on about students but where are the student voices in these discussions? Absent. I want to change that. I want to put a conference together that includes a student panel. In SL.
Zudfunck,
What an honour to have you visit my blog! You are one of the ORIGINALS of the internet! I’m flattered by your comment and hope to live up to it.
Let’s connect in SL next time I’m in. Please message me with your avatar name :)
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