Online Experience

[Bill Brennan]

Second Life meeting, Webinar, Elluminate session or something else?

Please share your online experience using this forum...

[Bill Brennan]

Good work Leslee...I didnt realize they had the pw help. Yes, it does take time, but you might have some really good applications for this in your classroom. Reach out to Craig in your district. I am sure he would have some practical applications for this.
Bill

[Stephanie Pawlik]

My Journey into Second Life…

This time of year, when my first life seems to require so much attention wasn’t perhaps the best time to try out a new life. However, given the task of trying an online learning experience, in addition to thinking of it as an escape from the hustle and bustle of holiday preparations and carpooling children from basketball court to basketball court…I figured what the heck? I received the link to a meeting that was (I think) scheduled for 9:00 pm our time. Hearing about the learning curve I thought I should try it out early in the evening so that I could stumble around a bit.

So…I began the process of creating my Avatar (which was a bit challenging for me). I have been accused of “over thinking decisions” before, and this could have compounded my challenges. After all, I had to choose a new name and then select a last name from their collection. I was quite frustrated by my numerous attempts at name combinations, because they were unavailable. How do criminals with multiple identities do this? Eventually, I applied my previous “what the heck” attitude and typed a strange approximation of my name and tada…I had an alias. My next stop was the fun of selecting my Avatar’s appearance. Should I choose the serious looking woman in the tank top, or the spiky hair, or maybe even the one that looks like she has a bird on her head???? Whoa…again...over thinking. Most frustrating of all however, was my navigational challenges once I had my new life. I would just about get to where I think I needed to be and then I would get an error message of some kind or other. Needless to say, I didn’t make it to the meeting, but I had a great deal of introspective time along the way!

In the midst of the decisions being made, I did realize that kids might really enjoy this anonymity and perhaps I should embrace it as well. From my experience, kids seem to enjoy creating characters for other games they play. So in applying the use of second life to education, students may be able to allow themselves the freedom to try new experiences since they don’t have to worry about what others think. I have seen many children and teenagers stop themselves from asking questions because of the way others might react. Imagine if they could communicate with experts or people from other places, without the risk of embarrassment? In addition, to be able to attend classes or simply communicate with others that share common interests or educational quests can be a phenomenal benefit. Often educators tell kids that they will need the information that they are learning when they get out in the “real world”. With second life, students can apply information in another world before needing to make it “real”.

As I reflect upon my dabbling in SL, I have come to the conclusion that it has taken me 43 years to figure out (sort of) what this first life is all about…I need to cut myself a break and allow myself more time if I need to figure out a 2nd one! Unfortunately, the time needed to create a second life might just be time that I don’t have right now, due to my first one!

[Bill Brennan]

Great response Stephanie. I like your reference to the gaming ideas. I think "time" is the number one concern of everyone. Nice job on getting involved with this. Stay tuned to group updates from ISTE. They tend to have good events for educators.
Bill

[Kathleen Richter]

I'm finding that with so many of these programs they sound great and it seems like they'd be wonderful to use in the classroom, the learning curve is so steep and the time it takes to set them up is just too much to make them effective.

[Kathleen Richter]

I did a webinar on Professional Development and Corporate Training: The Webinar Weakness. Here's the link to the site (thanks Kim) http://elearnqueen.blogspot.com/2007/06/professional-development-an....
Though I chose it because it has a corgi as an assistant, it was an excellent presentation that make some great points.

Susan Smith Nash talked about making online presentations interesting and how to use a variety of programs and tools to engage the audience.