Coming up tonight the Onlinevents.co.uk team are presenting a fantastic interview on Teaching Counseling Theories in Second Life with Edina Renfo-Michel.

Starting live inworld from 12am SLT / 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM (GMT+0100) / 5am AEST, you can check out the live video stream of the session below! You can even join us in our IRC Chatbridge to participate live from the jokaydia Blog via our Mibbit Chat Bridge Tool which is also included below.

Alternatively join us inworld at the Onlinevents.co.uk Headquarters on the Islands of jokaydia in Second Life (SLurl).

Following the interview Edina will take us on a tour of the project so that we can see for ourselves the power of using virtual worlds in Counsellor Education.

This event is part of a series of live interviews planned to whet your appetite for the CESL 2010 conference that will be held entirely in Second Life, this is a great way to open up learning to a worldwide community of practitioners and students without the cost of travel and acoomodation.

CESL 2010 is sponsored by the Online Therapy Institute who will be offering Continuing Education Credits for U.S. psychologists, social workers, counselors, addiction specialists, marriage and family therapists, nurses and educators.

To find out more about Online.co.uk events check out their website which includes video recordings and information about their previous interviews and training sessions.

Today I had the pleasure of giving an online presentation in Elluminate for students from the New Learning and New Literacies Online Masters program at the University of Illinois. It was a jam-packed, super speedy session to give them a taste of some of the fabulous things happening in virtual worlds and games, and I hope they enjoyed it. I’ve published the slides from the session above.

To follow-up we’ll be meeting with the group in Second Life this Saturday morning (aus time). Check out the session description below for details, and feel free to join us!

New Learning and New Literacies Session 2: Second Life Field Trip

• Friday 14 May 7pm (US) & Saturday 15 May 10am (Aus). (Check your local time here.)
• Venue: The Islands of jokaydia in Second Life
• Meet at the Islands of jokaydia Landing Point to attend (SLurl)

Join us for a hands on workshop in Second Life with Jo Kay aka jokay Wollongong, an Australian designer and facilitator working across a range of virtual worlds to support education, arts and social change! The main elements of this session will be:

• Second Life Basics: Moving, communicating, searching and teleporting
• Dressing Up Your Avatar: Using the avatar tools to create your virtual you
• Exploring the Islands of jokaydia – the home of the jokaydia Community of Practice
• Virtual Touring – including visits to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Headquarters, Foul Whisperings, Strange Matters: Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Second Life, ISTE’s Headquarters and StoryBook Island.

During the session you will develop skills in using Second Life, meet some educators who are currently working in virtual worlds, and develop a better understanding of how educators and institutions around the world are currently using Second Life and other virtual worlds for teaching and learning.

How to Attend the Second Life Workshop

1. Click on the SLurl link above to open a map of Second Life and a teleport Link.
2. Follow instructions on the page to login to the right location for our workshop – the jokaydia Landing Point. If you get lost you can IM jokay Wollongong inworld for a lift to the venue!

Additional Virtual Worlds Events and Opportunities

There are also a range of other sessions that we can attend. Go to the events calendar.

We have a huge week of activities planned on jokaydia this week – check out the details below!

jokaydia in Second Life: Dialogs with Uncle D -  A Story Quester’s Workshop

Following the success of our EduMeet visit to Story Quest a few weeks back, Marty and Jenaia from the The Virtual Worlds Story Project (TVWSP) have very kindly offered to provide us with two free and very exclusive workshops this week!

These sessions will allow us to further explore how Story Quests like ‘The Life and Times of Uncle D’ can be used to develop interactive, immersive, and educational experiences which allow participants to explore specific issues, ideas or themes; and to teach vital 21st century learning skills.

Workshop 1 will be held on Thursday 12th Nov @ 8pm Sydney Time / 1am SL Time. Workshop 2 will be held on Sunday 15th November @ 8pm Sydney Time / 1am SL Time.

To take part, check out the details on the Storyquest Workshops Signup page. You will need to add your name to the table provided. We are limiting these special sessions to 10 participants only per workshop, so add your name now!

jokaydia@ReactionGrid: MeetUp with the ReactionGrid Team

On Sunday evening as part of our regular Sunday EduMeets, we’ll  have the pleasure of meeting up with Kyle G aka @Dr_Manhattan for an update, catchup and discussion session about all things ReactionGrid and the team’s plans for the platform. This is your chance to get all the goss and find out more about the options available.

To help facilitate this session, I’ve added a ReactionGrid Questions Page to our wiki here. You can use this to add topics or specific questions you’d like Kyle to address.  Go on – add your burning questions now!! ;)

ReactionGrid Q&A Event Details:

• Date: 15 November 2009
• Time: 9:30pm AEST / 1o:30am GMT / 2:30am SLT
• Check your local time here!
• Location: jokaydia Sim on ReactionGrid. (Instructions and ReactionGrid signup here!)

This week we’re going on a roadtrip! We’ll be meeting at the fabulous University of Western Australia campus in Second Life for a tour from their very dedicated project coordinator Jayjay Zifanwe.

The UWA team are developing a fantastic space, which includes spaces for collaboration and learning, and their most impressive feature – the 3D Art and Design Competition Galleries where you can check out the latest works in the competition.

For more info check out the video below, which was created by a UWA student, and gives you a glimpse of the space. (With just a little humour.. ‘dancefloor coming soon!’.. teehee!) You can also check out the project blog.

Event Details:

• Tour Meeting Point: UWA ‘s Island Landing Point (SLurl)
• Date: 1 November 2009
• Time:  9pm Sydney Time / 6pm Perth Time / 2am SL Time
• Check your local time here

It’s been such an exciting day for jokaydia! Rather than focussing on the negative aspects of recent events, I’ll just say that I’m really proud of the jokaydia Community of Practice for regrouping, supporting and re-energising each other and starting some new journeys. Go team!

I  have created a new jokaydia Outpost on Reaction Grid as a next step in our virtual worlds explorations and hopefully the first in a series of outposts across a number of platforms! For me personally, its been a wonderful and much needed burst of new energy and motivation, and we’ve been welcomed both by the Reaction Team and by a number of Reaction residents.  Thanks everyone!

And even more exciting – within hours of jokaydia @ Reaction Grid appearing we had a great group of educators and friends come to visit, play and share their ideas at our very first Educators Meetup. During the session we decided that we’ll be holding a regular Sunday night meetup and discussed some options for a voice tools.. stay tuned for more news on all of  that soon!

To visit jokaydia @ Reaction Grid, simply signup here and follow the instructions here.  When you arrive, you’ll find us either by searching the map for jokaydia, or look for a blue landmark button that the Reaction Team have kindly added at Core 1 (the Reaction Grid landing point) t0 direct visitors to our new space.

You can also add your contact details to our wiki page – so we can keep in touch about upcoming events.

But what about jokaydia @ Second Life?

Whilst the last few days have been a struggle…. I love Second Life and continue to be  passionate about virtual worlds (of all flavours) in education. Second Life has been jokaydia’s home since 2007 and is a space where our community has evolved and grown together. We have also connected to some amazing educators from all over the world there – invaluable networks which we intend to maintain.

The Islands of jokaydia in Second Life will continue to be our main headquarters and I’m looking forward to more learning and sharing there in the future.  All of our residents and visitors can expect a continuation of the support, activities and resources I have been facilitating there… including great new resources on our new wiki which will also be out soon.

However, this whole episode has offered us some great learning opportunites and we are using it as  chance to diversify. I’d like to thank everyone who has offered advice, support and feedback. I hope the whole affair also offers some great learning opportunites for other educators working in Second Life and virtual worlds more broadly…. and maybe even Linden Lab!

Onwards to more exciting things! Seeya at jokaydia @ Reaction Grid and/or jokaydia @ Second Life soon!