To add to my excitement and the plans for next semester, I have been given what could be considered both good and interesting news for the upcoming term. You see, I was twiddling around, as I occasionally do and happened to ask the head of the teacher training center about her plans for the future. We had both been to a seminar earlier in the year which discussed the use of Second Life as a teaching tool. One of the other women's colleges had purchased an island and were developing various lessons and interactive activities for students. The head of the teacher training center was really excited and I was definitely interested in it, looks like fun to me, so we talked about it briefly.
Well, last week when I stopped by to chat with her about it, she explained to me just how education without borders had basically taken over her life and as much as she wanted to do something with SL, she couldn't until it was all over... unless I wanted to write something up on what it could be used for here.
So I did.
Cause I'm just that good.
I wrote up a proposal on how our campus could use second life, and what would make it special to our location.
She took the proposal, added a single paragraph introduction to the beginning (saying that she asked me to write it up because I was interested in it as a teaching tool) and promptly presented it to the Dean.
It was approved in less than a day.
So, my semester is layed out pretty nice.
I get to teach a course that should be the greatest cake walk of all times... all the lessons are already planned out, the materials are there, the books are there, the students always love these classes, and all I have to do is show up and make sure the work gets done...
I get a second duty... I was appointed to an Academic Coordinator position to oversee the student's laptops. Which should be harder to do than the course teaching... and it will still be easy.
and to top it all off,
I get to play in Second Life as part of my job.
experimenting, exploring, researching lesson ideas, figuring out how to implement it as a teaching tool, organizing teams of teachers to be trained in it, writing a manual for the teachers for using it properly.
There are things about this job that I don't particularly like. And there are things about living so far from my friends and family that I really don't like.
That being said, this place really seems to fit me at times.
I mean, yeah the work is hard. There is so much of it and it needs a lot of focus. And I am not always doing things that I want to. But at the same time, I get to do so many things that I do want to, to play, to experiment, and to have fun and I get to do it on their dime.
So to sum up, the school is going to buy an island in second life, and I get to be a huge part of it. Like massive. I am seriously excited.
Well, last week when I stopped by to chat with her about it, she explained to me just how education without borders had basically taken over her life and as much as she wanted to do something with SL, she couldn't until it was all over... unless I wanted to write something up on what it could be used for here.
So I did.
Cause I'm just that good.
I wrote up a proposal on how our campus could use second life, and what would make it special to our location.
She took the proposal, added a single paragraph introduction to the beginning (saying that she asked me to write it up because I was interested in it as a teaching tool) and promptly presented it to the Dean.
It was approved in less than a day.
So, my semester is layed out pretty nice.
I get to teach a course that should be the greatest cake walk of all times... all the lessons are already planned out, the materials are there, the books are there, the students always love these classes, and all I have to do is show up and make sure the work gets done...
I get a second duty... I was appointed to an Academic Coordinator position to oversee the student's laptops. Which should be harder to do than the course teaching... and it will still be easy.
and to top it all off,
I get to play in Second Life as part of my job.
experimenting, exploring, researching lesson ideas, figuring out how to implement it as a teaching tool, organizing teams of teachers to be trained in it, writing a manual for the teachers for using it properly.
There are things about this job that I don't particularly like. And there are things about living so far from my friends and family that I really don't like.
That being said, this place really seems to fit me at times.
I mean, yeah the work is hard. There is so much of it and it needs a lot of focus. And I am not always doing things that I want to. But at the same time, I get to do so many things that I do want to, to play, to experiment, and to have fun and I get to do it on their dime.
So to sum up, the school is going to buy an island in second life, and I get to be a huge part of it. Like massive. I am seriously excited.
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