What Second Life has to offer « Connecting Through Conversations

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What Second Life has to offer

July 15, 2007 by rellis

I just read Ryan Bretag’s post on TechLearning blog and it is funny because I had conversations in SL last week with several people while visiting ISTE SL headquarters about this very topic. Is it time we started to have more directed conversations in SL, for example focus groups centered on topics people are interested in? I believe it is. SL is a place for me to meet others in education who want to continue to have conversations about changes in education, web 2.0, school 2.0, changing pedagogy, social networking for adults, what the value is. I don’t know about anyone else, but as an instructional technology specialist, I am responsible to introduce new useful technologies to teachers in my district for their personal productivity and for classroom use. I would say for the most part I find these tools on my own, or I depend on people I know and share project ideas with them. I also learn a great deal through blogs I read, and conference attendance, these are the sources for my own personal staff development. SL opens a whole new world for me beacause I am able to meet, connect with, and share experiences with people from all over in regard to my professional learning. It is an environment that is social, you feel as though when you are with a group, you literally are with a group of people, taking about issues that are relevant, you have that personal connection through this virtual environment. I think this is what people have to understand, SL is just the vehicle/environent to bring all of us together regardless of time or distance. I know in my own district after doing a presentation on SL and even having someone who works for IBM in SL join us with a co worker many of those in attendance talked about how SL avatars looked or walked and I wanted to scream it is not about that! Look at the opportunities for creating personal/professional networks and creating our own personal learning environments. I am ready for those conversations to begin in SL BloggersCafe here I come!

Posted in Second Life, blogging, education, professional development, school2.0, virtual environments | 3 Comments

3 Responses

on July 16, 2007 at 07:56 am | Reply brenj

Hi. I wonder if you might be able to give me a little advice. I’m very interested in getting to grips with ‘Second Life,’ but unfortunately I bought a new laptop that had Vista pre-installed, and last time I went onto the SL site it didn’t support Vista.

Do you know if there is any way Vista users can use Second Life? If not, do you know when SL is likely to support Vista? When I read your post I just thought I would ask as you seem to be very knowledgeable.

Thanks.
on July 16, 2007 at 07:56 am | Reply rellis

I checked on the SL blog and came up with this link http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/03/28/windows-vista-ati-drivers-that-run-second-life-now-available/
It seems as though there are drivers available for SL vista. Take a look as to what you need to do, hope it helps, Robin
on July 16, 2007 at 07:37 pm | Reply Tina

My husband’s friend (who is also a teacher) first told me about Second Life a couple of months ago, but I didn’t really “get it” until I joined at necc07. Amazingly, my only experiences, thus far, have been as you have described! I haven’t really ventured out into the other areas, but in fact have experienced the sharing and collaborating among other educators. That has been so exciting! I want to share it with others at my school but feel so inadequate! I have bought a book from Amazon.com on the subject in hopes to get more familiar with SL. I think if I continue hooking up with ISTE, Bloggers Cafe, etc., it will all become more apparent. The exchange of ideas has been so invigorating! When people ask me, I describe it to them as a “social network.”