ASD Virtual Collaboration and Community Building

The Anchorage School District (ASD) is harnessing the power of virtual collaboration through the use of Second Life. Second Life is a synchronous online virtual community that has become the educational standard for building online professional learning communities.

ASD has a private island in Second Life where we hold professional development events associated with various credit classes. Additionally, we host monthly island-wide events designed to build knowledge and community between the various groups that use the island. Our community events are typically held on the 3rd Wednesday of the month in the evening hours.

Below you will find information about our Upcoming Event, Benefits of Second Life, the Virtual Collaboration and Community Building (VCCB) Planning Team, and Past Events!

Upcoming Event

Tuesday, June 16th, 2010 @ 7pm Alaska time / 8 pm SLT

Alaska EdTech Island in Second Life

Over the summer we will be having weekly meeting times in SL to help anyone with getting up to speed on Second Life Viewer 2, SL Basics, tutorials - whatever you need us to help with. Current Schedule is:

June 8 Tuesday 10 am AST/11am SLT
June 16 Wednesday 7pm AST/8pm SLT
June 24 Thursday 12pm AST/1pm SLT
June 29 Tuesday 10 am AST/11am SLT
July 1 Thursday 12pm AST/1pm SLT
July 6 Tuesday 10 am AST/11am SLT
July 15 Thursday 12pm AST/1pm SLT
July 21 Wednesday 7pm AST/8pm SLT
July 27 Tuesday 10 am AST/11am SLT

We look forward to seeing you over the summer

Benefits of Second Life

What are the Real Life Benefits of Second Life?

Second Life:

• Provides an interactive platform offering an innovative, creative and cost efficient way to communicate, collaborate, connect and learn

• Extends professional development opportunities through shared learning experiences, global networking, and the use of other skills and resources that are needed to thrive in our technology rich world

• Creates an active professional learning community where educators are immersed and engaged in an environment that allows individual and global interaction unhindered by real world boundaries

• Advances educators' opportunities to nurture their relationship with technology, which better prepares them to guide 21st century learners, as they address the issues of today and develop the solutions of tomorrow

Virtual Collaboration and Community Building!!

VCCB Planning Team

Atom Eyre

Rez Date: 9/30/2009

Passion: Online Learning!

Role in ASD EdTech Island: Find ways to use Second Life to help students access curriculum.

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Brooklin Paule

Rez Date: 7/25/2008

Passion: Technology infusion in ALL areas of the curriculum.

Role in ASD EdTech Island: I am a host on the ASD EdTech Island. I enjoy helping educators discover the collaborative potential this incredible virtual world has to offer.

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Cleo Korda

Rez Date: January 15, 2007

Passion: The individual and collective value of thinking critically cannot be understated.

Role in ASD EdTech Island: My primary research focus is to better understand and harness the power of collaboration and communication afforded by virtual environments. Consequently, I have a great deal of passion about our work in Second Life. In the fall of 2008, MiAn Lander envisioned the use of a virtual environment to meet a learning goal for a credit class she was facilitating, and so the ASD EdTech Island was created. Since that time, we have evolved the mission of the Island to include even more opportunities for collaboration and communication. As the current owner of the ASD EdTech Island, I am involved in all aspects of running the island, and am available if you have questions or wish to join our group.

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Elaine AdamskiRez Date: 9/20/2008

Passion: Education and learning from everyone, everywhere, everything around me.

Role in ASD EdTech Island: I am one of the hosts on the ASD EdTech Island helping others to learn about

all the educational and wonderful things there are in a virtual world.

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Haldis Jashan
Rez Date: 1/1/2008

Passion: “Every generation needs a new revolution.” Thomas Jefferson

Revolution in mind and habit need not be bloody but is almost always painful, most especially for those who have a vested interest in the way things have “always” been.

Role in ASD EdTech Island: I am the Library liaison between the RL ASD Library System and the growing professional learning network in Second Life. Exploration and collaboration are my passions for this effort.

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Izumi Baxton

Rez Date: 6/10/2008

Passion: “Each of us has stories to tell. That includes children as well as adults. For thousands of years we gathered around the fire to share our stories. Now that the fire has become the glow of a computer monitor, we must ensure that the stories told around this new light are as powerful as those told around the old.”
--David Thornburg

Role in ASD EdTech Island: I am one of the hosts on the ASD EdTech Island and joined this community as a relative neophyte to broaden my horizons.

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Talliver Hartnell

Rez Date: 11/19/2005

Passion:

Role in ASD EdTech Island: Talliver and MiAn Lander envisioned the ASD EdTech Island, created it, and started the ASD journey into virtual collaboration and communication! Talliver also uses Teen Second Life with students to extend and create learning opportunities in a variety of content areas.

Past Events

Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Guided Tour of Second Life by Talliver Hartnell, Haldis Jashan, and Elaine Adamski

Have you ever wondered what the bigger Second Life world has to offer educators? We will tour a small sampling of the many interesting places Second Life offers educators for teaching, learning and collaborating. Tours will leave the Compass Rose in small groups.

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Exploring Instructional Possibilities in Second Life: Opportunities for Increased Professional Engagement in an Immersive Learning Community by Dr. Trina Davis

With so many universities using Second Life as a critical element of their coursework, do you ever wonder what they are doing in this virtual world and how it is making a difference to the achievement of their goals? Join us as Dr. Trina Davis, Assistant Professor and Director of eEducation at Texas A&M University and Past-President of the International Society for Technology in Education, shares her experience as a university professor teaching in Second Life. Dr. Davis will discuss student learning perspectives, as well as the impact on collegiality within the professor ranks.

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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Building Community in Second Life: Junkyard Blues Style by Richardina Petty and Kiff Clutterbuck

Dina Petty and Kiff Clutterbuck, owners of Junkyard Blues, will share their experiences building community in Second Life! Both are retired educators who have much to share with us as we learn to leverage the power of Second Life to collaborate and communicate within the ASD EdTech Island community. They have arranged for a live music concert featuring ArorA Chadbourne to be part of this exciting event!