Briefly - as promised I am giving you the “blow by blow” development of this literature project. Teresa Ivey, the classroom teacher for this projectm emailed me and said:
“See you in the morning! I’ll start my kids in my room and we’ll head down.(to the library where the computer lab is located) I want to partner them up with kids who are already familiar with 2nd Life.”
I responded: “May I make a suggestion? When you say “partner” your kids – please make sure that it is “in world” (on Ramapo Islands) where the partnering happens. In other words, you can tell Mary that she will be partnered with John – but have them “meet” and cooperate in Second Life rather than physically, in the library -. What I am trying to encourage is that they negotiate the orientation virtually – as if they were all in different physical locations. Anything else would be contrary to what we are trying to accomplish.”
We have two considerations here. One is that time is always a scarce commodity and Teresa is more than likely trying to expedite the orientation process in a way that is tried and true - pairing an experienced student with a “newbie”. But the other factor to consider is that one of the underlying fundamental aspects of education in Second Life is the virtual cooperation, networking and communication.
More later…blow by blow!
