Carolyn, I am currently acively looking in to using Second Life as a medium for virtual conferencing, and for linking international and national students on masters modules - Id be very interested in any debate and experimentation in this area.
I look forward to hearing from you on this.
All the best
Soo
>>> Carolyn McIntosh <[log in to unmask]> 02/04/08 9:43 am >>>
I am a midwife and midwife educator in New Zealand. I need to facilitate
an online group meeting as a component of a course.
I have been exploring social networking tools one of which is the
virtual world of second life. Second life is a place, similar to online
games that your children have been playing, where people can create an
online character (avatar) of themselves and meet online. Many
universities and colleges have been creating online learning
environments for students. I see potential to create a virtual birthing
centre where midwifery students could be exposed to scenarios which they
could work through and explore different actions and outcomes.
I am sure there are others out there who have similar thoughts and are
puzzling over where to go with this and what to do. I would like us to
get together and explore this in second life. Together we could
brainstorm the possibilities and make a start on the path to developing
something that could be really useful. This is a link to the one of the
blog postings I have made about this
http://mymidiblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/assessment-three.html . This is a
great opportunity for international cooperation and collaboration. Maybe
we could do a research project on it?
I am looking for your help. Would you be happy to join me in second
life? I expect that our first meeting will concentrate on getting people
into second life and getting them comfortable and starting to
communicate. Once we have done that we will be able to start to explore
the issue of the birthing centre.
Please respond to this email or visit my blog and leave a comment. If
there is interest I will give you further information about when, where
and how we will meet. I will try to organise a time that will be
suitable for international collaboration, any suggestions about time are
welcome. I welcome your thoughts on this topic.
Thanks for your time.
Carolyn McIntosh, M Mid. (aka Dacary Dumpling in second life)
Midwifery Lecturer
Otago Polytechnic
Dunedin
New Zealand.
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