The Virtual Chalkboard

Monday, July 28th Metanomics learned about how K-12 teachers are using Second Life® as a Virtual Chalkboard to communicate with students, colleagues and administrators. Hear superstar educator Kathy Schrock of "Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators", Teen Second Life® pioneer Peggy Sheehy, and Linden’s Boston Operations Director (and academic evangelist) Pathfinder Linden. But first, we put the grid-spanning group ISTE “On the Spot” to talk about the Second Life activities of the International Society for Technology in Education.




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Metanomics explored how Linden Lab has given active support and guidance to educators attempting to make use of virtual worlds in the classroom. John Lester of Linden Lab's Boston Office stressed the importance of cultivating relationships between individuals and organizations and highlighting opportunities to build upon the work of others in a virtual world:


We have a lot of really interesting pioneers in Second Life, doing research, distance learning, ethnography and lots more. Now we need to be collaborating, aware of one another, communicating. I constantly rant about how people should really be spending as much time as possible finding other residents doing related work, and leveraging that.

A good example of leveraging is Peggy Sheehy's use of a replica of the Ivory Tower of Primitives to provide a self-guided building tutorial for students on her Ramapo Islands project in Teen Second Life. Second Life is chock full of rich content, and there is often little need to recreate products or programs when that same energy can be directed to elaborating upon -- and adding to -- work that has already been done by others. As Lester said, "In the classroom, you don't write your own textbooks."

Linden Lab established the group Real Life Education in Second Life to foster a networking environment that allows educators like Peggy to locate relevant content, obtain permissions, and to collaborate effectively as their programs grow and expand. Success stories like Peggy's -- where 800 middle school students engage regularly within Teen Second Life -- provide the impetus for involvement of other educators, and set a working example of a safe environment that teachers can use to present virtual world opportunities to concerned school boards and cautious administrators.

As Sheehy summarized, early adopters of virtual worlds for educational purposes, "edupreuneurs", tend to quickly see the benefits of a virtual world environment for their students:

"Engagement, edutainment, and the authentic applications of 21st Century technology in education is paramount to preparing our students for success in the “flatter” world."

What may be more difficult is to focus an educator's attention on those aspects of virtual worlds which are unique and which cannot be duplicated cost-effectively in real world or other web-based environments. This challenge takes time and effort on the part of each new educator avatar.

Kathy Schrock, well-known in educational circles for making new media accessible to teachers across the grid, is working within her own school district to provide professional development opportunities for educators at Lighthouse Learning Island. At the same time, she shares the insights of her personal learning curve, and the resource-rich results, via her respected Guide for Educators.

This Metanomics explores the implications of these examples for virtual worlds. Watch the video above and explore the links below to begin to sketch your own story on the Virtual Chalkboard.


Background Reading and Videos

Favorite Places in Second Life


  • Guest Biographies





    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. Previously a library media specialist, she is very interested in search strategies, evaluation of Internet information, copyright issues, emerging technologies and gadgets, and the use of technology as a tool to support instruction. Kathy created and has maintained the award-winning Web site, Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators, since 1995. Partnering with Discovery in 1999, Kathy continues to add to the site daily.

    Kathy has been an avid user of the Internet since November of 1993, and continues to investigate daily and add links to new sources which will be helpful for educators. She has written numerous articles on technology and education and has authored four books about Education on the Internet -- Evaluating Internet Web Sites : An Educator's Guide, Developing Web Pages for Educators, TeacherQuests for Today's Teachers, Writing and Researching Using the Computer and one entitled Microsoft Publisher for Every Day of the School Year. She also compiled a book entitled The Technology Connection: Building a Successful Library Media Program and is the editor of a series of books for Linworth Publishing. Kathy also presents keynotes and workshops all over the world dealing with various aspects of ed-tech to support teaching and learning, and has received numerous awards and recognitions.






    Peggy Sheehy (Maggie Marat in Second Life®) is Library Media Specialist/Instructional Technology Facilitator at Suffern Middle School, part of the Ramapo Central School District in New York state. Peggy is known nationally for creating authentic spaces and curricula for student learning in the “Teen Second Life” virtual world. Building upon twenty-five years as a professional musician, Peggy holds a master’s degree in educational technology and is pursuing a second master’s in library and information science. She is a fierce advocate for the authentic use of technology to support student engagement, and participatory culture within learning environments.

    Sheehy established Ramapo Islands in Teen Second Life in August 2006. 800 Suffern Middle School students and 15 eighth-grade teachers participated in Second Life this year.

    In 2007 Peggy established MetaVersEd Consulting Ltd. to facilitate the proposal, design, acquisition, and implementation of educational environments in the virtual world of Teen Second Life.






    John Lester (Pathfinder Linden in Second Life®) is Linden Lab's Boston Operations Director, coordinating the growth of the Boston-area office. He also leads the Lab's Proactive Education and Healthcare Mentoring Program, acting as a general resource and academic evangelist for people using Second Life for teaching, academic and healthcare research, and scientific visualization.

    Lester joined Linden Lab (the creators of Second Life®) in 2005, bringing experience in online community development as well as a background in the fields of healthcare and education. Previously Lester served as Information Technology Director in the Neurology Service at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he pioneered the use of the web in 1993 to create online communities for supporting patients dealing with neurological disorders. Lester also held an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School, where he created online collaborative environments for professors and students to advance the case-based teaching method in medical education.

    While at Massachusetts General Hospital, he created BrainTalk Communities, an organization who's mission is to provide online environments for patient and caregiver self-help groups focused on neurological disorders. Lester continue to work on my own time with BrainTalk Communities to create and support places in Second Life for people dealing with Asperger's Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and Stroke Survivors.


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