Holistic and Integral Education

The Lives We Lead...

I had a great chat with Australian educator Jo Kay earlier today on the deck of one of her properties in Second Life. Jo is doing much to help network Australian educators interested in the application of Web 2.0 technologies to learning and teaching - she is about to launch activities through the Austlalian EdNA group eCommunicate 2.0

We touched on many topics of mutual interest in 'First Life'.... accessing Second Life behind ever present firewalls.... giving students control over their own learning resources and products.... use of portal technologies.... the pros and cons of hosting spaces for students in-house....

There is something very engaging about chatting with someone - even via text - when you can see them moving - albeit an avatar. This medium has enormous potential and I'm keen to get some colleagues involved...

I've spent the last week learning to build on a piece of land I've bought in SL. It's on an island in a region called Eldora - above the snowline. It cost me L$2,250 and I'm building a gallery to show off some of my wife's art work... I even managed to get a ball rotating :-)

To learn to build I had to do a course - which was a fascinating experience in itself.... The course in building using 'primitives' was laid out on several floors of a building called Ivory Tower Library. Each floor had several 'stations' set out with sample models, instructions and a place to try it out for yourself... You can do the course in any order, take as long as you like, repeat steps as often as you like... and chat to others doing the course with you...

Lots of foundational mathematics and physics is involved in all of this - something many students might be interested in learning in this way... It's amazing what you can make with some basic shapes and a little maths and physics :-)

Jo has linked me in with an educational community on Second Life so I'm looking forward to some interesting conversations and experiences...

Labels: communication, virtual

posted by Roger Stack @ 6:41 PM