I was able to jump back into Second Life again - have only had time for sporadic visits during the teacher institute the last two weeks. I met at the Elven Institute about coordinating educational efforts throughout Second Life. They had us meet outside around a campfire - a virtual campfire, that is. It's an interesting way to get a group together to talk - as contrasted to a classroom setting or everyone bumping into each other standing in a circle. I'll get back there more this week.
The grant teachers dove into Google Docs, wikispaces.com, blogging and a few even made it all the way into Second Life. I'll detail more later but it will be interesting to see how they utilize these social networking tools throughout the year. The ultimate goal is for them to use them - at least at this point - rather than worrying about using them in their teaching - there are still too many obstacles given administrator, school board, and parent fears. More controls will have to be put into place to protect children (even teenagers who don't realize they are still vulnerable). My prediction is that organizations like Greenbush will launch their own Second Life-like servers around which they can control access and keep out potential predators and/or griefers.
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