OK, I admit I was a doubter years ago when I first heard about Second Life. No more. Having just participated in tonight's "ISTE Speaker Series" event held on ISTE Island, I have to say that the experience was FAR more fun and "human" than most "slide sharing" webinars I've attended - even with the dinosaur and fairies in the audience...

We all met at the ISTE Island band shell, where there are plenty of comfy seats for up to 80 people. We apparently had about 56 people at one point:

First, I have to say that Gordon, a star science teacher at Brookfield High School, did a fantastic job. He is to be twice congratulated because he was brave enough to volunteer as our first HP grant recipient to be a featured speaker in ISTE's speaker series. The ISTE team did a great job coaching and preparing him, and he was a terrific sport, despite the new-ness of the experience. Three cheers for jumping in and giving it a go! The story about Brookfied High School's HP Technology for Teaching grant is an interesting one in many regards. But before I talk about the content, let me describe what was so interesting about participating in a Speaker Series event in Second Life.

"KJ", our ISTE host did a fantastic job facilitating the session and welcoming everyone (he's standing in the aisle, while Gordon is sharing a video). The video, produced by Edutopia and ISTE, with funding from HP, was playing on a "big plasma screen TV" that KJ conjured up. I take a snapshot of the portion of the video that happened to be when Gordon was being interviewed. You can view the Brookfield video, and others, by visiting our HP Technology for Teaching webpage.

After the video, KJ removed the TV and replaced it with a screen for projecting powerpoint slides. Gordon, KJ, and I all spoke using Second Life's audio chat function. Everyone else had their mics off (to avoid background noise) while Gordon spoke.

We concluded with some Q&A, where the audience asked questions via text chat, and Gordon answered via live audio.

Now to the whole point of the presentation, which was to share what the teachers of Brookfield High School learned from the experience. I didn't take complete notes, but some highlights for me were:

• The most important impact the project had was on colleagial collaboration, which persists today
• Teacher retention is high at Brookfield, despite its status as a school that serves a large number of high-needs students. Gordon attributes this to "teamwork through projects like this"
• The change is, in fact, spreading to other teachers, because of the positive affect the experience has had on both teachers and students

So the project, like so many other HP Technology for Teaching projects, is less about the technology and more about the people (teachers and students) using it. Collaboration and engagement has increased - and there's no going back.

Nice job, Gordon! Thank you for sharing!

KJ and the ISTE team, thank you for making it possible!

 SL: "JamesG Sorbet"

Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Worldwide Education Grant Strategy
HP Global Social Investment
Hewlett-Packard

For information about the HP Technology for Teaching philanthropy initiative in higher education, visit www.hp.com/go/hpteach-hied