Technology colleagues,

I posted the message below to the professional development list  
today. It may also be of interest here.

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net
-----------------------------

  ....there was one finding in the NSDC report that I think we should  
pay special attention to. ..

“Structured, course-based offerings scheduled during specific time  
periods are being replaced by on-demand, individualized learning  
opportunities.”

What this means, I think, is "just-in-time" professional development,  
including asynchronous online professional development that is  
tailored to teachers' needs as they see them,  or tailored to  
professional development requirements that, in any case, they must meet.

What is your mental image of what this looks like?  Short,  Web-based  
courses? Weekly "webinars"? "Podcasts"? Wikis? Blogs? Discussion  
lists/forums?

My mental image isn't any one of these; it's all of them and much,  
much more. My image comes from my experience online with Second Life  
(SL).  Some of what I will describe below is happening in SL now,  
some is projection into the very near future, only a year or two.

(Select the Web address below to see me in Second Life)
http://tinyurl.com/2vqf8k

Second Life is a three-dimensional online environment, a bunch of  
"islands" where some people build amazing architecture and where  
other people -- moving about as their chosen "avatars", dressed  
however they like -- explore, visit, spend time, and do things.  What  
do people do in Second Life? That's like asking what do people do in  
Europe or China.  Who can know all the things they do? But here's a  
start: they walk, run, look around,  and fly (yes fly -- some of  
those who are physically challenged in real life say it's amazingly  
liberating.) They teleport themselves to another island, talk with  
other avatars, gesture to them in normal and strange ways, sit down  
(on furniture, floor, grass, park benches, and more), flirt (and  
probably more), watch movies, shop (in real online stores with real  
money, as well as with SL money called Linden Dollars).

More to the point, they take seminars and courses at real (and  
invented) colleges and universities.  And there is some talk of there  
soon being a GED center on SL.

All of that is happening in SL now, but let's fast forward a bit to  
the near future, and imagine this scenario:

I am a GED teacher (although my avatar dresses casually, not in  
typical classroom garb) and in Second Life I am young and female, not  
grey and male. I teleport from the entrance to the National Adult Ed  
Teacher Professional Growth Center (remember this part is projection;  
it is not real yet) where I see a billboard catalog of offerings.   
Some offerings are short videos of teachers and classes, good  
examples of content standards and best practices; some are seminars  
("webinars") and, since there are hundreds of adult ed teachers here  
with me in real time, some can be just-in-time introductory courses,  
workshops and study circles.  I sign up for a study circle on  
workplace literacy that begins in two days, because I work part-time  
and I have noticed that some of the part-time jobs for teachers who  
work at companies sound interesting and pay better.

I also sign up for a one-hour introduction to the workplace literacy  
basic skills teacher professional development course. The intro is  
offered right now.  There are seven other teachers (their avatars)  
with me -- some look really weird!. Some say they have taken lots of  
courses and workshops at the Professional Growth Center, some are  
newbies like me.  In the intro to workplace basic skills, we listen,  
chat in dyads (using Instant Messenger), ask questions that the  
teacher answers (using SL's free voice software,) and at the end,  
after getting a copy of the course schedule that my avatar keeps as  
her own,  I head over to the Growth Center's coffee cafe for some  
shop talk with one of the other teachers in the workplace literacy  
basic skills Introduction, who it turns out in real life (IRL) is  
from my state.

This may seem far-fetched, but most of this can be designed on SL  
right now, and many more "just-in-time" features can be linked in to  
SL. This is a highly interactive environment.

Have you been to Second Life? Have you been thinking -- as I am --  
that this has very exciting potential for highly interactive  
professional development? Is anyone working on building an adult  
education PD center on SL now?  If so, let us know.  Maybe we can put  
together an online PD work project group to first learn more about  
SL, and then to experiment with building a PD center. Anyone interested?

For those who are curious about SL, when you have a couple of hours,  
start here:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/

David J. Rosen (aka DJ Duncan on SL)
djrosen at comcast.net