From jokaydia: Exploring Virtual Worlds and Games in Education

Professional Development and Communities of Practice

There are a large number of professional development organisations using Second Life to create networks and communities of practice. The global community of educators in Second Life provides a powerful and extensive network of practitioners, researchers and activists.

Discovery Educators Network in SL

The Discovery Educators Network is "a global community of educators who are excited by the power of digital media and want to collaborate and share resources with other educators.“

Since launching the DEN Headquarters (SLurl), their Second Life presence in June 2008, they have developed an extensive educators' community in Second Life, which is located on EduIslands II and merges together education, Discovery TV programming, and SL activities.

The DEN hosts a range of events inworld, including regular sessions for new residents and sessions focussed on particular educational issues. For example to coincide with Shark Week on the network in 2008, Discovery's SL educators organised a “Swim with Sharks Underwater Scuba Adventure” . They also provide a range of free resources for educators via their headquarters.

For further information visit the DEN in SL blog or view images in the DEN Network Flickr Group.

The EduIslands

The EduIslands (SLurl) were launched in and are operated by Squirrelverse in partnership with Alliance Library System through the non-profit organization Sambiglyon. The EduIslands host a community of educational, educator support and non-profit centres and provides rental properties to non-profit organizations. Communities, projects and resources on the EduIslands include:

• the Magical Infohub - EduIsland II's information center for all new visitors
• SLolar Central, a facility which provides free temporary residences for K-20 educators exploring Second Life
• InfoGroup, which provides educational programming in the Finnish and Swedish languages
• Literature Alive! and the Women's Studies Centre who operate a multi-building complex on EduIsland II that includes the American Literature Classroom, the Women's Studies Classroom, the Women's Literature Classroom, the Bradley Science Center, and the Connection Corner
• The Project Theater - showing Multimedia Works is a forum for teachers around the world to share best practices for using multimedia in the classroom to engage students and enhance learning
• Occupational Therapy Center, operated by Thomas Jefferson University, providing "skills for the job of living"
• the Center for Advanced Virtual Education (The C.A.V.E.), a complex of several buildings designed to facilitate conversation, networking, and community within Second Life
• the Discovery Educator Network - the Discovery Channel's online service supporting teachers and schools
• Diginalet - a personal virtual learning environment for Norwegian educators
• School of Medicine, Indiana University - which provides training simulations to its first-year medical students
• Wild Sanctuary Pain Management Portal who are exploring the use of natural sounds and natural soundscapes in healthcare
• the Senior Project Center, home of “The Senior Project People”, which provides focused Senior Project research, technical assistance, and resources to high schools.

Visit the Sambiglyon website for further information, view a slideshow from EduIslands, explore the Squirelverse website or read the EduIslands Livejournal.

International Schools Island (ISI)

Created by Shamblesguru Voom and Takeme Homewood, International Schools Island (SLurl) is designed to support the International Schools Community, with a focus on South East Asia.

The Islands are designed to provide:

• an environment for educators to run continuing professional development
• a portal for curriculum teachers to find materials more easily in Second Life (Curriculum Tower)
• an area to find links, resources and tutorials related to technology and ICT (Technology Tower)
• an area to find links, resources and tutorials related to information literacy and fluency (Information Tower)
• opportunities for international school to advertise their school and add to their marketing policies (Avenue of Schools)
• opportunities for teacher and school professional organisations and associations to share and raise their profile (Professional Village)
• an Environmental Literacy area (Rainforest)

ISI also supports the International Schools (k-12) Group inworld, which supports a community of International Schools educators in exploring virtual worlds and a rental community for educators who are exploring virtual worlds.

To find out more check out the ISI website, visit the ISI blog, read Shamblesguru's blog, view images of ISI's Islands on Flickr or watch a slideshow from ISI on Youtube.

ISTE Islands - International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) in Second Life

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the a nonprofit membership organization, ISTE provides leadership and service to improve teaching, learning, and school leadership by advancing the effective use of technology. In 2007 they opened ISTE Islands in Second Life as a space for the organisation and it's members to explore virtual worlds.

ISTE's Islands in Second Life includes a range of engaging spaces including: the Auditorium, the Bandshell, Discussion Skypark, Campfire Circles, 4-sim Auditorium, Educator's Experience Pilot, Podcaster and Blogger Areas, the Faculty Lounge cafe, Emerging Tech Idea Library, ISTE Island 2, ISTE Island 2 Auditorium, and the The Alamo.

In 2008 ISTE developed a pilot program for educators which provides a pathway for educators who are new to virtual worlds and includes a range of resources and support services. ISTE also supports an ongoing series of professional development events including the ISTE Speakers Series which brings together educators from around the world for presenations, discussions and workshops.

For further information check out the ISTE in Second Life webpage, visit the ISTE in Second Life wiki or view the ISTE Events page.

Lighthouse Learning Island

Lighthouse Learning Island is a professional development community created by four school districts in southeastern Massachusett - Barnstable Public Schools, Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District, Nauset Public Schools and Plymouth Public schools. It is facilitated by Kathy Dryburgh aka Kathy Schrock.

The key goal of the Lighthouse Learning Island professional learning community was to prepare the teachers to become proficient enough in Second Life to work with students. They achieve this via 10 structured one-hour sessions where participants develop skills in using and customising their avatars, basic building and using presentation tools inworld.

Early in 2008, the Lighthouse Learning team joined the Skoolaborate project, with the aim of taking their professional learning to the Teen grid to work with middle school students.

For more information visit the Lighthouse Learning Blog, watch a video tour of Lighthouse Learning Island on Youtube or watch a video summary of the Professional Learning community held in Autumn 2007 on Youtube.

New Media Consortium (NMC) Campus

The New Media Consortium (NMC) Campus (SLurl) is the largest educational prescence in Second Life and supports events, classes, demonstrations, art exhibitions and learning experiences. It was established in 2006 and continues to provide virtual spaces and experiences for educators and artists around the world. The goal of the project was to create an immersive 3-D virtual environment for higher education and museum professionals to interact, collaborate, and experiment.

The NMC presence in Second Life aims to:

• be a place for a variety of live events that use streaming video and web content extensively
• be a place to showcase and access content from the NMC’s online libraries
• be a place to experiment for both the owners/organizers, and for participants.

Additionally, the NMC have hosted a number of real life conference session and associated events in Second Life, using streaming technologies to broadcast real life proceedings in-world and to the real world including:

• Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning, November 2008
• 2008 NMC Symposium on Mashups, April 2008
• Symposium on Creativity, August 2007
• NMC Connect Media Arts Symposium, February 2007
• The Impact of Digital Media Symposium, October 2006.

They also provide a range of services and resources in Second Life, including:

• supporting the Virtual Learning Prize - an open competition to support ideas to be created in virtual worlds
• open-source content created as part of NMC projects including including amphitheaters, module building units, avatars, furnishings, and science equipment, made available on the Learning sim (SLurl)
• providing Educational Communties which allows educators and educational institutions to establish a presence in Second Life
• developing NMC Orientation (SLurl), an alternative to the public Second Life Orientation Island
• supporting the NMC Campus Teachers Buzz Sessions which were held from 2006 - 2008 as open, conversational meetings for anyone interested in Second Life for teaching and learning
• conducting the annual NMC Survey of Educators in Second Life, which collected responses from more than 350 educators in 2008.

To find out more about the NMC Campus in Second Life visit the NMC website, read the NMC Campus Observer, check out the NMC Campus wiki, visit the NMC Virtual Worlds website, read an article about the NMC Campus at Educause, join the NMC Group on Facebook, or watch a video about the NMC Campus on Youtube.