Second Life ™

This year I missed attending NECC in Atlanta, but I didn’t really miss NECC. I was envious of everyone being together F2F. I didn’t get to give hugs and laugh with everyone, or walk the exhibitor floor collecting free stuff. But, I did learn a lot while attending NECC virtually.

I Skyped into the DEN pre day event for a few minutes that was held at Stone Mountain. Wish I had thought of that earlier in the day, thanks Jen, Anne, Hall and Steve for chatting with me. Also thanks to Charlene and Skype I even heard most of the Sunday night keynote. Congrats again Charlene on your well deserved award.

I chatted and twittered with some friends as well throughout the week. I’ve been reading all the blogs I can this week. It will take me weeks more to get through hitchhikr and technorati,  but I did keep up with all those in my bloglines. Each day this summer, I’ll go back and watch as many of the VOD I can find off the ISTE site or TeacherTube and listen to the podcasts from ISTE or itunes.

But the best part of NECC was participating in SL. I spent a lot of time on Monday at ISTE Island HQ visiting with everyone who was at the NECC RL playground in Atlanta and some like me just trying to experience NECC from their own homes.  I made so many new friends, who have similar interests. We shared ideas and links and I invited many to join DEN in SL too. Monday night I joined  the Birds of a Feather ISTE event in SL, while others watched in RL. My avatar is right in the center of the screen movie made in RL from that session.

Then Tuesday night I met Kristy Flanagan in SL to listen to the WOW2 Tuesday Night Chat which was being broadcast live from NECC. Macsmom came into SL and started inviting others to join us in the DEN house in SL to be together while we all listened in. Some of us were able to join the live chat, others chatted in SL. We didn’t figure out how to all stream the audio into SL, but we listened via web or iTunes at our own computers.  It was an impromptu gathering and the conversations lasted well after WOW2 went off the air. At one time there were about 15 avatars in the DEN experiencing NECC in SL. Some were both in SL and RL.

It was so much fun sharing this experience together.

That’s Macsmom, myself, Kristy, Beth, Etdoc and some others around the fireplace in the DEN house. 

So although I didn’t get to go to Atlanta, I did experience NECC virtually.

Look for me, Lor Fredriksson, in SL and let’s continue the conversations. I’m usually hanging out in the DEN house on Eduisland II  or ISTE island, when I’m not exploring or taking others on tours.

I really hope to be in San Antonio next year and experience NECC in RL and SL!

Let me introduce you to your DEN in SL Leadership Council members. I have had the pleasure of working with this group of dedicated DEN STAR educators for the past month. The amount of energy generated by the LC to make DEN in SL the place to be in-world is absolutely amazing. On top of it, we’re all having a fun time working together. So without further ado, let me introduce you to….

Riptide Furse (Fred Delventhal in RL) is Chair of the DEN in SL Leadership Council. He works as senior level Instructional Technology Coordinator in Arlington Public Schools, Virginia. He has presented at Northern Virginia Technology Educational Consortium conferences, the Technology and Learning Symposia (Virginia), and the Virginia Department of Education Educational Technology Leadership Conference. Riptide has worked as an adjunct professor for George Mason University Instructional Technology Certificate Program and for the Four Rivers Consortium (Virginia). Along with the teachers Riptide works with, he has won multiple awards at the MHzNetworks International Shortie Film Festival. He is a Discovery Star Educator and sits on the Discovery Education Unitedstreaming Advisory Board. This year he flew with a team of teachers aboard NASA’s Weightless Wonder Microgravity Jet through the NASA Explorer Schools program. Riptide was one of four DEN Star Educators to present for the final EDTechConnect Live Webinar this year.

Lor Fredriksson (Lori Abrahams in RL) is Co-Chair of Events Planning on the DEN in SL Leadership Council. She is an Information Specialist in a 5-6 school in RL. She has been a STAR DEN member from the very beginning. Among her many accomplishments are: Member of the Illinois Computing Educator Executive Board and Program Chair for IL-TCE, the Illinois Technology Conference for Educators. She was curious about SL and since coming in-world has met the most incredible people from all over the world. She spends her SL time learning about best practices in education and having fun at the same time. She believes that DEN in SL is another way to network with educators about new and exciting technology tools to enhance and improve student learning.

Beth Kohnke (Beth Knittle in RL) is Co-Chair of Events Planning on the DEN in SL Leadership Council. She has taught Middle School Math and Science for almost 20 years before becoming a K12 Technology Integration Specialist. She has taught in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ghana, Jordan, Korea, and Saudi Arabia. Quoted from her blog, www.bethknittle.net/WP_Blog “I think one of the underlying tenets that effects how I relate to technology in education is the knowledge that there are many different ways to learn and therefore there is a need for many different tools and approaches to learning. Just as we need to differentiate instruction for our students we also need to differentiate for the teachers we support. SecondLife is just one more tool to help achieve this goal.”

Celestia Cazelet (Elaine Plybon in RL) is Co-Chair of Building on the DEN in SL Leadership Council. She started a "Second Life" because the enthusiasm of the DEN members who were participating intrigued her. Since becoming a resident of SL, Elaine has found it to be a very helpful experience, mostly because of the opportunities to collaborate with educators from all over the world. In real life, Elaine is the Science Instructional Specialist at The Academy of Irving ISD, is mom to five kids ages 6-15, and serves on the DEN Texas Leadership Council as blog coordinator.

JessieMarie Flanagan (Anne Truger in RL) is Co-Chair of Building on the DEN in SL Leadership Council. She first joined SL because it seemed like "the" cutting edge thing to do in education lately, but stayed because of all of the great collaboration and team building that takes place there. Where else could she be friends with all of these amazing educators whose work she has long admired…Kathy Schrock, Will Richardson, David Warlick, Jen Wagner, Hall Davidson, and Steve Dembo….just to name a few. Every day she is struck by what SL "could" mean to education, and wants to be on that bus when it arrives. If you haven’t tried SL, you should, but don’t do it alone…contact one of us to help you along. In SL and RL, you can find JessieMarie/Anne out dancing the night away…umm that’s after all of her DEN responsibilities have been filled. {WINK}

Laelia Laval (Nancy Sharoff in RL) is Blog Chair of the DEN in SL Leadership Council. She is currently entering her 15th year in education and has taught 2nd and 4th grade, 5th/6th grade Math, and will be the K-4 Technology Educator in her district this fall. She also teaches graduate courses in Educational Technology, Children’s’ Literature, and Reading in the Content Areas and has presented at local, state, and national conference on these topics as well. Her time in SL is spent attending various workshops, developing new skills, and traveling around to gather resources for the DEN-SLETs (Second Life Educational Tours) she is creating that will assist other educators acquire new skills while experiencing all that SL has to offer.

If you’re reading this blog, then I’m assuming that you know ‘something’ about Second Life.  If you don’t, not a problem!  I’ve listed a couple of links at the bottom of the post to get you up to speed.

Why a DEN blog on Second Life?  Because DEN has decided to have a presence in this MUVE (Multi-User Virtual Environment) called Second Life.   If you think about it for a moment it makes PERFECT sense!  I took this from the ‘About Us’ page on the DEN website:

“Connecting teachers to their most valuable resource…each other! The Discovery Educator Network is a global community of educators who are excited by the power of digital media and want to collaborate and share resources with other educators. “ 

Second Life is just another medium for connecting and collaborating and DEN wanted to make sure that its members had a venue to call their own in this exciting new virtual world. 

I’ll be using this blog to share events that will be occurring at the DEN in SL Headquarters, tips & tricks (I’ve coined the phrase, Slips, for ‘Second Life Tips’), places to visit, and just general observations about life in SL as viewed through the eyes of a DEN STAR Educator.

In my next post I’ll be introducing you to the DEN in SL Leadership Council members.

If you’re ever in-world (the term used to indicate that you are logged into Second Life) make sure to look me up!

~~Laelia Laval

Links to Information About Second Life:

Second Life 

Wikipedia