Jun 05 2008
One Week to Go
I have to admit that I’m new to social media. Six months ago, I’d never heard of Second Life, let alone Teen Second Life (TSL). I had no Facebook or MySpace account, would have thought “Twitter” was a type of bird and had never written a blog entry.
So it’s with much delight that I find myself now involved in the fascinating Kidz Connect project, about to embark on a three-week educational frenzy, with an avatar of my own and more accounts and pages than I can reasonably keep track of. Some of the students that the teachers and I will work with will probably already have their own avatars in TSL and be experienced in online communications than I am. I look forward to learning from them. Other teens, we’ll have the joy of introducing to the amazing virtual world of TSL and watching them blossom along with the creation of their avatars.
Personally, I’m most excited about watching the students learn about their counterparts. Since I’m geographically located in Tampa, I’ll see the Floridian teens discover life, culture and youth in Holland and am sure to learn right along with them. Although I did get to travel to Amsterdam, it was before our students were even born! It will also be interesting to see the students here explain about themselves, their community and their country to those abroad.
We have one week to go before classes start and everyone involved with the project is busy finalizing and perfecting lessons plans. But the truth is, I think we all know that planning will only go so far and we’re setting off on an adventure with a group of young people we’ve never met – some of whom we never will meet in person – who will influence us as much as we’ll influence them.