The Story of My “Second Life”

Hi everyone,

One of the most powerful aspects of Second Life is its ability to connect people who otherwise would never have the opportunity to do so in real life. Tuesday’s ISTE Speaker Series presentation (6pm SLT, ISTE Island Auditorium, http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/204/46/23) will be very special … not just because it will feature Tim Magner, Director, Office of Educational Technology, US Department of Education, but because YOU will have the opportunity to share WITH HIM about YOUR WORK (or interest in) Second Life (and other virtual worlds) for educational purposes.

We are expecting many people will want to speak with Tim; accordingly, we’ve set up this form to gather information beforehand:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p0dkjTX9XXv0O91Tkjqr0FA&hl=en

Please respond as soon as you can and we will get back to you to confirm you’ll have the opportunity to speak personally. Even if we can’t accommodate you, we hope you’ll join us as an audience member!

Here is the event description from the ISTE Second Life Events wiki:

Exploring the Future of Virtual Worlds in Education  featuring Timothy J. Magner, Director, Office of Educational Technology, US Department of Education
Alan Kay said “the best way to predict the future is to invent it,” and trailblazing educators embracing virtual worlds in their classrooms today are doing just that. How do virtual worlds benefit teachers and students? What challenges have these innovators faced? What joys and accomplishments have they relished? How can virtual worlds help students and teachers do “what can’t be done in real life?” And finally, how can the US Department of Education best support classroom innovation in these emerging environments? Tim Magner, Director, Office of Educational Technology, US Department of Education, will be our guest, but YOU, the educators using virtual worlds in your classroom (or those wanting to) will have an opportunity to share YOUR virtual world experiences, YOUR hopes for using these tools with your students, YOUR ideas for how virtual world technologies can help change education as we know it. Using a relaxed, casual “fireside chat” format, Tim will be joined by Dr. Leslie Conery, Deputy CEO of ISTE, for a freewheeling discussion about all that virtual worlds are now, and may be in the future. Our goal is to shine a bright light on the great work being done in virtual worlds by educators worldwide, and to highlight the challenges and obstacles others face in their desire to use these tools. Please join us!

See you there!

-kj-