What's the Big Idea?

As a newbie (person new to SL) I find it very time consuming to acquire knowledge and skills necessary to participate in Second Life (SL). Upon arrival to the 3D immersive world my avatar (Jeff Kurka) stumbled around as I tried to figure out how to control him to make it look as though he belonged. Or as one might express, "didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday."

Although time consuming, I am intrigued by the potential of Second Life. I believe this MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game) has levels of interaction and collaboration unseen, to date, through other web-based tools or platforms. My in-world experiences have kept me coming back to try and figure out the educational possibilities of SL.

I do not want to use SL simply because it is the latest technology or cool to use. I want to see real value for members of the educational community. Through the last year spending time in SL going to conferences and learning how other educators are using it, I believe it to be the beginning of something exciting.

This excitement has built up to the point that I feel I want to help others experience the potential of this place. In order to make it easier for other educators and students to make use of this immersive world, I am going to create a resource that will assist in the necessary skill development. This blog will describe the journey taken to create this resource.