Written by Dick CarlsonYou may not be aware that there’s a parallel universe far beyond anything that Kirk and Spock ever imagined — and it’s at your fingertips right now. Second Life is a massive online environment (think World of Warcraft, X-Box Live) where you can build pretty much anything you’d like. You can have a little home — or a large one.
A presentation theater, a concert hall, or even a hot-air balloon.
Over six million people have already created accounts here, and everything from dance parties to library visits to learning conferences happen every day. Many universities have already created campuses there, and are busy moving parts of their teaching online. A few days ago, educators from around the world met in this online environment to talk about how we’ll be building learning experiences in the future.
Each attendee has an “avatar” — a little cartoon figure — that represents them. (Many are very human looking, but there are also robots and fuzzy little animals.) As you move your avatar around in the world, you can attend presentations. Discuss ideas with others. Visit virtual locations for IBM, Sony, AMD and more. Chuck Hamilton from IBM was one of the keynote speakers, and he talked about how his company already uses Second Life for onboarding new employees on a global basis.
You can also visit the web site for the conference, review the presentations, and experience some of what happened.
If you have a need to share information, knowledge or learning on a global basis — you need to know about this. I’d love to hear your
feedback — whether you teach, learn, or plan some kind of educational event.
Here’s a slide-show presentation of some of the learning that went on.
{ 0 comments… add one now }