Presentation for the "Future is Now: Libraries and Museums in Second Life"

1. The AASL-SIGMS Virtual Learning Community in Second Life Presented by Lisa Perez (Av: Elaine Tulip) Chicago Public Schools Dept of Libraries ISTE SIGMS Chair

2. AASL-SIGMS Virtual Learning Community Chosen as a PD delivery technology because ISTE & ALA already use SL extensively Synchronous Immersive environment supports a sense of community

3. AASL-SIGMS Virtual Learning Community Non-geographically dependent Easy to learn for this purpose Can provide sustained, frequent PD in a learning community environment.

5. Monthly learning community meetings featuring guest facilitators who are recognized leaders in school librarianship

6. One hour, 15 – 20 min lecture followed by group discussion

8. David Loertscher – “The New Learning Commons – Where People Win”

9. Rhonda Trueman – “Virtual Libraries in Second Life”

10. David Warlick – “Cultivating a Personal Learning Network”

11. Mike Eisenburg – “The Crisis Facing School Libraries and Librarians”

12. Chris Smith – “Keeping Current in a Global Environment” (Thailand)

13. Jon Mueller – “Assessing Critical Skills”

14. Will Richardson – “Googled Well: Helping Our Kids Lead Transparent Lives”

15. Marla McGhee & Barbara Jansen – “Keeping School Libraries Relevant in the Age of Accountability”

16. Doug Johnson – “Are You a Format Bigot?”

17. Bernajean Porter – “Book Trailers – Seen Any Good Books Lately?”

18. Ernie Cox & Linda Braun – “Professional Communication Tools”

19. Banned Book Week – “School Librarian Discussions”

21. LIS Students in Second Life University of Maryland – Meredith Dreamscape and Elaine Tulip Emporia State University - Rob Panache w/Rocky Vallejo, Cindy Elkhart and Elaine Tulip

22. Winter Shopping Spree – Extreme Avatar Makeover

24. Our Students Are In Virtual Worlds Source: http://www.kzero.co.uk/radar.php

25. TIPS for Success

26. Making a Learning Community Work Keep the focus on the profession, NOT the technology Set up a planning committee Establish regular meeting patterns & orientation sessions Communicate broadly Share responsibility, take breaks Follow up with asynchronous discussion Keep it fun and stay flexible

27. Locating and Preparing Guest Facilitators Go primarily with well-known guests who are leaders in the field. Help new guest facilitators set up an account and prepare their avatars Practice in advance Set deadlines for receiving files and stage the items in advance – slideshow, notecard givers/notecards, pictures

28. Marketing the Learning Community Form appropriate organizational alliances Create a communication plan to include listservs, nings, wikis, and other social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Create expectation of future meetings Enlist colleagues to spread the word Take pictures of events and post to Flickr Blog about the events – create a history

29. Technical Expertise Needed Participants Practice in movement and communications in 2nd Life Headset/mic; practice with using voice Understanding of how to access chat history Understanding of camera movement Organizers Uploading slides and inserting in slide viewer Voice control options How to take photos How to create objects and insert scripts to launch URLs and give notecards How to create signage Understanding of groups and group permissions

30. Measuring Our Success What worked… Meetings are usually a success – on topic and rich interaction Good documentation of our meetings Few technical problems Strong support for newcomers What needs improvement… Spread leadership of virtual learning community Continue to increase attendance Look at holding other events

31. How to Join Our Learning Community Hear about our monthly meetings at ISTE SIGMS listserv AASL listserv LM_NET LinkedIn – sigms group Twitter @ sigms and leperez1 Facebook group – sigms ISTE Community ning (SIGMS group) Teacher Librarian ning

33. Spread leadership more broadly

34. Continue to attract leaders in school librarianship and educational technology to be guest facilitators

35. Continue periodic orientation