Community College Librarian

I’ve been asked to give a talk in the ISTE Speaker Series about community colleges and Second Life. Now that the date approaches (June 10) I’m giving in to panic and just a little smidge of excitement. What can I tell this enormous group of K-12 educators about the benefits of virtual worlds to community college students? Well, I guess, a lot. I can tell them what we’re already doing: bringing literature to life, emergency room nursing simulations, electronics and engineering “labs,” introducing students to other cultures and immersive language learning, letting them experience art in a new and very personal way; not to mention bringing the students together in a learning environment that they can create themselves. I can tell them about introducing our students to the future workplace/workspace and teach them new forms of collaboration that go far beyond the dreaded online group project and into the realm of distributed teams. Second Life and virtual worlds in our sector of education is so exciting. So, why am I intimidated about giving a presentation to this group? Because my name is in the same lineup of speakers as Howard Rheingold’s. In the immortal words of Wayne and Garth: I am not worthy.