Become an active participant in SecondLife in-world educational space
Virtual Conferences
Attend a Virtual Expo (April 24-25, 2008) - Federal Virtual Worlds Expo: Implementing the Future The Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds is a newly formed group of federal government employees and contractors interested in exploring the use of virtual worlds in government, sharing best practices and policies, creating shared repositories, and networking. Also explore presentations from last year’s conference.
Second Life Educators
New Media Consortium Campus Observer - The NMC Campus is an experimental effort developed to inform the New Media Consortium’s work in educational gaming. In early 2006, the organization made the decision to create a space for experimentation in a virtual 3-D world and began a search for suitable platforms, with a special interest in massively multi-player environments. (http://sl.nmc.org/about/)
- SLED Blog – a blog dedicated to the ins and outs of K-20 education using the Second Life® world. This blog is written by educators and for educators, for those who are seasoned Second Life veterans and for those just starting out, for those who are die-hards and those who are skeptics.
- SLED Events Calendar
In-World Groups
Second Life has a number of active groups who collaborate inside the metaverse and who keep in touch using the group system tools. To join a group, click the “Find” button and search under “Groups” for “Education” (http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki#In-World_Groups)
- Real Life Education in Second Life — find colleagues and collaborators to help you with your education work in Second Life. Anyone may join; contact group owner Pathfinder Linden inworld if you have any questions.
- Second Life Grad Student Colony — for support in research, dissertation writing and promoting collaboration among researchers/student researchers, Limited to students pursuing advanced degrees. Contact group owner naiad – bbovard at nmsu.edu
- Second Life Research — To help ensure ethical treatment of subjects and to promote collaboration. Limited to academics pursuing IRB-authorized research projects covered under SL’s Terms of Service and research ethics policy
- K-12 Educators — A group created specifically for K-12 educators and interested others, focusing on collaboration and communication of events in Second Life that are useful to support teaching and learning. Membership is open. Contact group owner Kathy Dryburgh (SL)/Kathy Schrock (RL) for more information.
- Community Colleges in Second Life–A group for Community College educators focused on support, research and discussion of challenges unique to the community college environment. Open membership. Contact group owner Pipsqueak Fiddlesticks (SL)/Denise Cote (RL) for more information.
- NMC Teacher’s Buzz - The NMC is offering a regularly scheduled, informal discussion session for practicing teachers using Second Life, or those just plain interested in the idea or process of using SL for a class. Not a series of lectures or presentations, we envision more of a relaxed coffee hour to share the “buzz”
- Sloodlers - Sloodle user group. Sloodle is a project which aims to bridge web-based and Second Life virtual learning environments. Moodle + SL = Sloodle.
Mailing Lists/Groups:
- SLED (Second Life Educators List) (listserv)
- SL Researchers (listserv)
- Professional Educators & Trainers of Second Life (Google Group)
- List of Second Life Mailing Lists
- Flickr Group
- SlideShare Second Life Group
