Monday, August 3, 2009

Thing #10 - Virtual Worlds

I love Second Life. This has wonderful applications for education. I am now part leader of a group called K - 12 in SL Now! We are working together to attempt to find a way to bring students into 2nd life as avatars. We realize that this needs to be done carefully and we are trying to talk to lots of people so that we can present our ideas to the Lindens. I now am a landowner in 2nd life thanks to some wonderful people at the Nebraska Technology office. I have a castle for my classes with my kids. I am very excited about this year.

Finally today, I got to share SL with my principal. She was very excited about it and immediately saw the educational aspects of it. However, she also realized that if I put that on her computer she would never get things ready for school because she would be PLAYING!!!!

SL really allows you to play and learn. It is extremely addictive. One morning at 8:00 am I got up and decided just to go and look in at SL for a moment. At 7:00pm I realized that I had only moved from the chair one time to go to the bathroom. I had not eaten, or had anything to drink that day. However, I had done 3 interviews, held 2 meetings about sharing at conferences by linking in through SL, and I had worked at building in my castle. I had had a very full day, and never moved from the chair. Hey, that is doing something. The only problem - exercise. How will I get it? Oh, I know, make a stand for my computer of my exercise bike. Now I can exercise and do SL at the same time. Now, if you want me to spin like a hampster in a cage, just make my computer run from the electricity that my exercise bike generates. That wheel will be spinning.

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