| Second Life: Lighthouse Learning Island, Part 2 |
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Collaborative PurchaseFour school districts in southeastern Massachusetts, with the approval of visionary administrators, collaborated on the purchase of a space in Second Life. We purchased our own island, Lighthouse Learning Island, in order to both have enough space and building blocks (called prims in Second Life) to meet our purposes, as well as learn how to limit and expand permissions for users within this environment. The ultimate goal of the Lighthouse Learning Island project is to train teachers so they feel experienced enough and secure in their skill set to have their avatars moved from the main grid of Second Life to the Teen Grid in order to work with students ages 13-17. Building Out DistrictsThe first part of the project involved the creation and building of the items on Lighthouse Learning Island. As the estate manager, I broke the island up into six areas -- a piece of land with a school building for each of the four districts, a sandbox area to allow the teachers involved in the project to practice their building skills, and a common area with a large presentation and multimedia stage for collaborative projects. Applying permissions for access to spaces, building, and other things in Second Life is done by groups. Each avatar can belong to up to twenty-five groups, and, within the groups, there are various roles (with different permissions) to which an avatar can be assigned. On Lighthouse Learning Island, we created four district groups and one common group, and each school district controls the permissions for their teachers and their space on the island.The Second Life leaders from each of the school districts carefully crafted the year-long plan. Starting in September, each district held real-life professional development workshops in Second Life and all educators were invited. There were sessions on literacy assessments, the use of public service announcements in the classroom, and Web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning.At the same time, each of the districts began to offer professional development about Second Life. The districts each decided what format that would take -- I created a ten-week professional learning community with six of my teachers. Other districts gave real life overviews of Second Life and scheduled lessons on moving and building within Second Life. Attaining ProficiencyThe goal of my district’s professional learning community was to prepare the teachers to become proficient enough in Second Life to work with students. In ten one-hour sessions, we were able to meet our goal. The first two sessions were dedicated to learning how to create the avatar, the various transport options, and how to communicate via text chat, IM, and voice chat. The third week included taking tours of the various types of sites within Second Life -- models, simulations, informational, reference, etc., and learning how to use the search tool within the environment. During weeks four and five, my teachers learned the economics of Second Life-- how to spend money, how to gather what they purchased, and, in some cases, how to wear their new clothes or new hair! Weeks six and seven were taken up with learning how to create items in Second Life and share those with others. During weeks eight and nine, the teachers began to collect their educational tools for their summative assessment-- an in-life, public presentation. They learned how to create their slides from PowerPoint, move them into Second Life, and place them on an interactive presentation board. During the last session of the PLC, each of the participants presented their real-life professional development program within Second Life. Educators from all of Second Life were invited and quite a few attended. During our PLC, I watched a group of educators progress through the various stages we all go through when taking a risk-- laughing at themselves, becoming frustrated, trying alternate strategies, and realizing ultimate success and satisfaction. A large part of the use of Second Life for real-life purposes is getting over the initial feeling that it is all fun and games. The attention to pedagogical methodology is as important as buying new hair; my teachers realized this early-on and definitely understand how powerful a tool this online immersive environment can be! For more information, check out: Books used in the project:
 Kathy Schrock is the Administrator for Technology for the Nauset Public Schools on Cape Cod, MA. A large part of her job is involved with infusing technology throughout the curriculum in all areas and at all grade levels.
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Comments (1)
pedagogical methodology written by Life cover, September 06, 2009
This pedagogical methodology of 'Second Life' is certainly a good initiative.The purpose and goals are clearly defined.I think, it will be very effective for those teachers whose aim is to be successful teacher meeting all the demands of an updated teaching methodology as well as knowing the inner strength of person.
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