Techlearning blog

There are certain moments that are turning points. Many of these points are realized from a far, a moment of reflection that shines a light upon the very moment when things changed. However, there are those rare occurrences where in the moment, you can feel a change, you can feel a complete shift. The past 24 hours I bore witness to that rare moment where you literally witness the shift happening in front of you and know things are never going to be the same from this point forward: the inaugural Second Life Best Practices in Education International Conference that will, rumor has it, occur twice a year with mini-conferences occurring between events.

With well over 1,000 attendees, over 30 presentations, and numerous social events, this conference was much bigger than just hearing the insights from the pioneers of Second Life. It painted a clear image of the vision many of us had with Second Life: a community of scholars exploring and evaluating together as one for the betterment of education. Whether new to SL or a long time SLEDer (Second Life Educator), each added to the moment as ideas were challenged, new ideas formed, and networks built. There was little in the way of blind acceptance. There was little in the way of negativity. It was all about critical dialogue in a virtual community that spanned the globe -- okay, okay, it was a whole lot of fun, too!

But that isn't the entire shift; it's just the start! As the conference chair Beth Ritter-Guth proclaimed, "The purpose of the conference was to legitimize the work we do here; the hard work, the long hours, the collaboration - we want our colleagues, our deans, our fundersto see this take form. We want them to understand that this is very real to us as educators and researchers that education is about to take off on a whole other plane, and if we want to prepare students, we have to do that through virtual learning." That is the shift that occurred: the shift from unwarranted criticism and lack of acceptance to an understanding that this is legitimate scholarly work and a willingness to engage in critical dialogue not simply dismiss SL as meaningless.

There was still criticism, there were plenty of questions raised, and even plenty of doubts and concerns. However, these points were coming from a new level of understanding. These were not coming from a point of fear, a point of unwarranted criticism simply because a person was unwilling to recognize SL as legitimate scholarly work.

What the Shift Means
What does this shift mean for Second Life? I venture to say we are about to embark on a roller coaster ride not seen since the advent of the Internet. There will be much debate, even great media coverage, and a very crowed virtual world :-) There will undoubtedly be more and more educators and stakeholders entering Second Life as explorers and scholars. There will undoubtedly be more and more questions and concerns raised as wonderful answers and solutions are discovered. There will undoubtedly be more and more organizations and businesses creating their virtual presence or even creating a virtual world to compete with Second Life. Most importantly, it will be a much richer community of educators coming together for the betterment of education from Kindergarten through Higher Education. While I may not have all the answers, what one of my favorite authors proclaimed in his book, Oh, the Places You'll Go, sums it all up:

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

Today is your day educators. The shift has happened and I can't wait to see the Great Places we are all going together. If you haven't joined us, now is the time, so get into Second Life today and join us as we journey together as one!

See you in Second Life!
Ex.

Final Note
This event could never of happened without the support of everyone involved from attendees to sponsors. The Second Life Best Practices in Education International Conference is no ones and everyones. However, I do want to give special thanks to a number of people from my the bottom of my virtual hear. If you see them in Second Life, please thank them for not only making this conference possible but more importantly the shift possible.

First, the Conference Chairs for which none of would have been possible: Marlene Brooks (SL Zana Kohime), Chris Collins (SL Fleep Tuque), Doreen Pugh (SL Veritas Variscan), and Beth Ritter-Guth (SL Desideria Stockton). They had the courage to do something that many would have never thought possible.

Second, and my bias will shine through here :-) My K-12 Conference Team that poured their hearts into this event and sacraficed sleep and family to help create a day for k-12 educators that would help make the shift for them possible. Honestly, I can't thank all of them enough. First my partner in crime and co-chair, Cynthia Alvarado (SL Cyndi Uriza) for being the structure! Second, Maree McKenzie (SL Collan Beck) for the wonderful insights and wicked sounds! Third, Andrea Tejedo (SL Marie Guyot) for the hard work. Last but not least in any way, Lisa Williamnson (SL Isla Masala) for doing anything and everything that it took to makes this the best it could be.

Finally, to the presenters that sent a shockwave throughout education over the last 24hours. We all felt it!

Conference Resources:
Wiki
Blog
Flickr
Video Coverage