Wiz Nordberg

A conference is coming up on Second Life that promises to show off the site’s potential. It is on using Second Life as an education tool, but will be of interest to everybody.

Second Life at its best

Later this week Second Life will show off what it is best at doing: bringing people together and encouraging interaction and idea exchange. It is an all-day conference entitled Second Life Best Practices in Education, to be held on Friday (Saturday in Australia). You should check out the schedule at their Wiki site. I’ll warn that the website is a bit hard to figure out at first. I recommend going right to the left sidebar and clicking on the Speaker and Schedule links.

The conference is designed to help people understand how to use Second Life as an educational tool. But, it will be of interest to everybody. The keynote speakers read like a Who’s Who of leading-edge thinkers and educators who are using Second Life as a learning tool, as well as speakers such as Sarah Robbins, co-author of the upcoming Second Life for Dummies book. Presentations span a wide variety of topics from specific education issues to broader subjects of general interest to anybody interested in Second Life. There is even an Australian educators panel. All up there will be at least 20 keynote speakers and presenters, along with about 30 vendors.

If you have been thinking of trying out Second Life, this is a good time to cut through the hype and gain a deeper understanding of the truly special capabilities of this new virtual environment. Be warned: The conference starts at 9am Friday SLT (or Pacific Daylight Time). That’s 2am Saturday on the Australian east coast. If you haven’t used Second Life yet, you should spend at least a day checking it out before attending. It will take you a full day to learn how to navigate, chat to others, and control your avatar. You should also be sure you have a broadband connection suitable for using Second Life. Once you have a Second Life name, you should register for the conference as well. It’s free.

If you can’t attend and just want to see highlights, we’ll be there broadcasting it on SLCN, so you can watch on the web. We’ll also create highlights for viewing later next week after the conference. There is, however, no substitute for being there.

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