1. MOVING INTO THE METAVERSE: EDUCATION IN VIRTUAL WORLDS VALERIE HILL, MARY MINER, AND ELAINE PLYBON TWITTER BACKCHANNEL: #TCEASL A Panel Discussion February 9, 2011
The leadership council was established in April 2007 to begin a three-year project to see if there could be opportunities for professional development and networking for educators in Second Life.
There were three target areas – professional development sessions, called Wednesday Workshops; socials, which were held at various time; and opportunities for collaboration simply by being a place for educators to go and meet each other on a daily basis.
EduFair
EduFair
2008 was the peak year with 1881 attendees
2008 was also the peak year for events, with 81 scheduled events. Attendance declined each year, from an average of 25 to an average of 12 (and there were 19 events scheduled in 2010 which had no attendees).
What could be done to increase the interest in professional development sessions?
Educators will still attend networking opportunities in SL. Why? Because they are opportunities to increase collaboration and learning. However, as SL changes, educators demand that these events be structured, well-planned, and heavily promoted. The days of dropping in SL just to see what is going on seems to be gone.
![[object Object],[object Object],Valerie Hill is a school librarian in Lewisville ISD and a doctoral candidate at Texas Woman’s University’s School of Library and Information Studies.](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)