Let's step back to how this rescue was set up. I had made a query on some lists about Second Life and her URL was sent to me, amongst other documents and contacts in addition to Peggy. Peggy's work had been praised by some of the responders including Ryan Bretag, and Madeline Brownstone.
Ryan's response:
There was a conference in 2007 in Second Life that discussed a lot of ideas about SL in Education. I did a lot of research on MUVEs during the early part of my PhD work and I blogged about a lot of it. If you are seriously considering bringing this to your school, you might want to read this article I wrote for the Illinois Computing Educators that was also put on the T&L Blog.OTHER Documents and Contacts:
Articles:
1. If Second Life isn't a game, what is it?
2. Second Life Improves Real-life Social Skills
3. Texas State Tech To Deliver Digital Media Program via Second Life
4. Literature Alive!
Contacts:
1. Beth Ritter-Guth
2. Kevin Jarrett
3. Nergiz Kern
Peggy was the one I needed to contact, so I did.
This was Peggy's response to my inquiry asking her for help and leading a workshop at my school during the summer. She was available in between her busy schedule:
Hi Ted-thanks for getting in touch--I love nothing better than acting as MUSE to those interested in braving the Second Life waters--and although they may appear murky at first - come on in - the water's fine! Let's do this - Why not let me know where your avatar is right now (are you still on Orientation Island or have you made it to the mainland?) I will be happy to set up a tour for you and help you get acclimated - but if you can't wait for me, here are some basic suggestions:
1. Get thee to ISTE! Use your map or search tool and find ISte Island - head on over there and most of the avatars you meet will be educators willing to help.
2. Join the group, Educator's Coffeehouse. You do this by again, using the search tool, but be sure you have th GROUP tab selected at the top of the dialogue box. Once you have successfully joined the group, you should see a title over your head that reads, "Real Life teacher" Now you will also receive notices about meetings and events from that group.
3. Send me your avatar name and I will esend friendship and we can then see each other's online status (you will see when I log in and vice versa)
Peggy addressing the newbies.Needless to say,I had no idea what she was talking about. Oh was I in trouble. I had never felt so helpless. Now the words of another responder to my initial query rang true.SL has a HUGE learning curve and as I stepped onto Orientation Island I realized this immediately. I just stood there as avatars approached me, offered me things, spoke to me and pop up screens cascaded on my screen. After a few minutes of this chaos I simply QUIT SL, poof, I just disappeared, but was unable to appreciate that disappearing image from a SL POV. "Wow, what was that all about." I thought, while safe in my First Life and went to the refrigerator for a much needed real beer.
It was about a week later a couple of days before Peggy was going to visit us and guide us in our initial workshop with Second Life. Using the arrows keys I was able to navigate, and began to feel comfortable. I heard myself laughing and before I knew it three hours had flown by. Still I had no idea what I was doing and I was still on Orientation Island.
On July 30, at 2:15, Peggy Sheehy (far right) walked into my classroom to join me and (counter clockwise) Paul Turtola, Paul Stengel, Stephen Fink, Albert Bouchard to begin our Second Life.
Stephen Fink working with Peggy in background speaking to Paul Turtola, far right, as Paul Stengel, with hat, works his avatar.So after we got started she gathered us with her at ISTE. We learned teleport and that there was life after Orientation Island. She teleported me, then I teleported the others. We learned how to move, fly, communicate, change our appearance, and in short many of the things we do naturally in First Life. It was magical and exciting. She was patient and responsive to all of our excitement. We teleported to another location and continued our tutorial. We learned about building. Before we knew it, nearly four hours had passed and the building was going to close. If we didn't have a First Life to return to, we may well have been locked in for the night.
Paul Turtola shared his thoughts:
i had a great time in ted's classroom as we learned how to move around the secondlife grid and begin to build objects. peggy is a great resource and is still a teenager at heart which is refreshing to see in such a wonderful teacher. her involvement and enthusiasm in sl was easily apparent and her patience with raucous students (like ted, haha) was impressive. 4 hours flew by and i foresee many more hours spent learning how to use this in my classroom. sl has GREAT possibilities and initially i see it as a very fine design project for literature and writing scholars as they design settings and costumes that go with stories they study. there's even potential for script writing at high levels and the possibility of character development with voice chat and other interactive elements of the game. sl is a very cool tool to engage the kids and allow them to explore the possibilities of flushing out the meaning of what they read and write.
Peggy making a point as Paul Stengel, in hat, and Paul Turtola, back to us listens.Now it is our time to grow and learn more about what we can do in SL. It will take time. What we learned was that the SL world is a serious one as far as education is concerned. There are two worlds, Second Life and Teen Life. In SL the real world activities of adult life is real and not the place for all students. Teen Life is too restricted. So we need an Education Life that allows for students to interact with others and with valuable resources like NASA, Museums, college classes, and more important learning activities. The reality of SL has to be considered and how we bring our scholars into SL.
Now when I reread her first email to me, it makes sense, whew. Now it is my time to play and learn. I'm jazzed. Thanks, Peggy and others who provided me important information when I needed it.
See you in the World,
Nellen Tennen.
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