Educators! It’s time to Pay Attention to Virtual Worlds!

Over the last two days, I have been attending online events as part of the AFLF’s E-learning Networks June 19-20 Online Conference.

Last night I attended the Second Life In-World Presentation: Showcasing Australasian Educational Projects in Second Life

This is event was brilliantly hosted, within the 3D online virtual world of Second Life , by Jo Kay (aka jokay Wollongong) and Sean FitzGerald (aka Sean McDunnough). They handled the technical aspects of this event seamlessly, while the presenter avatars showcased some of the Australasian educational projects currently being undertaken using the Second Life platform.

The presenters comprised of a number of educators from Australia and New Zealand, who gave brief overviews of their educational activities using both the chat functionality and the media rich capabilities of Second life. the presentations came in the form of slide shows and short films.

Spinner Mills at the In-World Presentation

Please have a look at more screen-shots of the “in-world” conference here. (These are better than mine, I have yet to learn how to operate the “in-world” camera as effectively as Jo kay and Sean Fitzgerald!)

Please see: http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/enetworksjune07 for further information about this event

Note: The above event was a follow-on from the Elluminate session the day before, which looked at;

• how these environments can be used in education and how they can help explore new learning models.
• why it’s important for educators to pay attention to online 3D virtual worlds and become involved in their development.

These guys are so clever! Have a look at some of the work they are doing in Second Life with Illawara Institute on joanna kay’s flickr site.

See you “In-World”.