Can’t make it to this year’s NECC in person? There are many different opportunities to participate:
NECC 2008 Community Network
Podcasts
Webcasts, video on demand
Second Life events
And of course, read your favorite educational blogs, tweets, podcasts, etc. to catch up on personal takes of a very exciting conference.
It’s fascinating to see how face to face conferences extend beyond their physical space.
New in Second Life – virtual Israel! Come visit!
Below is the press release about Second Life Israel:
* * * * * * * *
This January, join us in Israel for an exceptional launch party.
SL Israel, the first complete virtual Israel, to launch January 13th in Second Life
In one of Second Life’s newest developments, its residents are now just a click away from being able to teleport into and experience the entire length and breadth of Israel.
This event in Second Life, an internet based 3-d virtual world with more than 11 million residents, marks the first time that a Second Life island will be dedicated in its entirety towards Israel.
To celebrate its inauguration SL Israel will have two parties on January 13th at 10 AM and at 7 PM PST.
Israel is a country that is at once very dynamic yet rooted in its history. SL Israel reflects these qualities as well. It features on the one hand the holy sites of all three major monotheistic religions, including the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Dome of the Rock.
At the same time, as a very modern and colorful country, SL Israel made sure to include such sites as the Tel Aviv promenade and Opera House, the Eilat underwater observatory, and the Machane Yehuda outdoor market.
The purpose of SL Israel is to present a complete and comprehensive Israel experience, both for the experienced sightseer and for the first time visitor. It aims to convey a variety of experiences about what Israel is all about, and to present the country in its complexity and diversity. SL has many residents who come from Israel, Jews from all over the world, and people from all over the globe who are interested or curious to learn more about Israel.
SL Israel offers them alike the opportunity to meet one another, to learn about each other’s heritage, and together to travel around a country that is both ancient and very modern.
For additional information:
Contact in SL; Hagibor Shepherd or Beth Odets
E- Mail: SLisrael8@gmail.com
Who we are: SL Israel is the initiative of Chaim Landau, assisted by Beth Brown.
Chaim (SL Israel founder) recently completed a Legacy Heritage Fellowship at the European Union of Jewish Students and currently studied at the Pardes Institute.
Beth (SL Israel Building/ Design manager), built the first Synagogue in SL, in 2006, which has grown into a full Jewish neighborhood in SL .
VoiceThread is a digital storytelling tool that allows users to create and share multimedia audio-video presentations. Students, teachers, and families are using this nifty tool to tell their stories and share ideas. Here’s an example of how an Israeli class at Maaganim School at Kibbutz Maagan Michael used VoiceThread to practice Hebrew and English language skills (thanks to Reuven Werber for bringing this to my attention!):
Hebrew/English for Kids
Two more formal Hebrew language learning programs are being offered. Hebrewulpan.com is based on the Jewish Agencys’ Ulpan methods. The other course is an Aleph Bet beginners’ Hebrew class taught by Kat Coronet in Second Life, at the Second Life Synagogue’s Hebrew school. If you are interested in running a Jewish educational course or discussion in Second Life, contact Beth Odets inworld (or drop me a note and I will pass it along to her).
To learn more about Jewish life in Second Life, read the latest issue of 2Life Magazine, “Virtual Reality – the Hanukah Issue - and don’t miss Hanukah candle lighting in Second Life, in addition to lighting in “Real Life.”
If you are interested in Jewish education and virtual environments, see my article, “Jewish Learning on the MUVE: The 3D Web, A New Frontier in the 21st Century Landscape,” over at CAJE’s Jewish Education News (an earlier version of the article was posted on jlearn2.0). Check out the entire issue on The 21st Century Jewish Learner and the 21st Century Jewish Educator, including “Jewish Education in the World of Web 2.0” by Brian Amkraut, who presented a keynote at last summer’s CAJE on the topic.
I did not start out to create the neighborhood. It started with the Synagogue, which was really an artistic rendering (back then there wasn’t anyone around… I had no idea the phenomenon that would occur with the growth of the place). I attribute the success of my area to the fact that it grew slowly, with no motive but to provide a *Jewish Environment*.
The Jewish community on SL holds regularly scheduled activities include a weekly Torah Talk on Thursdays, 11am SL time/Pacific Time, and a marathon “Shabbat around the world candle lighting” on Fridays over the course of twelve hours as sundown moves from Israel to the West Coast of the United State. Candle lighting times on Fridays are held 7am SLT-Israel, 10am Europe time, 3pm US Eastern Time, 5pm US Central Time, 7pm SL time-US Pacific Time.
Holiday festivities are also celebrated online. The community held a Purim carnival and mini-seders in commemoration of Passover. Other events include musical performances and social gatherings. Beth estimates that participants are equally divided among Europeans, Israelis, North Americans, and others.
Beth emphasizes that Jewish activities in Second Life are not intended to take the place of real life observance. Rather, the programs are designed to bring together Jews from around the world and to create a sense of Jewish community online.
For more about Beth’s work, see Kafka Schabel’s interview with Beth on his blog, Kafka’s SL World, “Virtual Sanctuary,” an article from the Forward by Julian Voloj, and ekzept’s article on the Second Life Synagogue.
So, how might Jewish learning happen in a virtual, immersive environment? Below are a few examples of what Jewish learning might look like.
Imagine:
These environments can be used to extend and amplify the work of established Jewish educational institutions. They also support grassroots, do-it-yourself venues for Jewish learning. And they can be used to create Jewish education and learning in completely new ways that have not yet been imagined.
There are challenges, to be sure. On Second Life, for instance, adults and teens are for the most part segregated by age for security reasons, although there ways around these restrictions for educational purposes. There is a steep learning curve. Creating rich learning environments can be time consuming. Communications can be clumsy and the technology erratic. There are aspects of these environments that would not be considered appropriate for many people.
In some ways, open participant-driven virtual environments like Second Life are still wild frontiers. It is anticipated, however, that as these landscapes mature, they will become more normative and accessible environments for robust learning.
The strength of these communities lies in the vision and good will of its participants. Imagine the talent, creativity, and collaboration that can be fostered online and inworld for Jewish learning.
On the lighter side, check out this video produced by DraftFCB Paris, a media agency. It should provide a chuckle or two to those who have experienced life on Second Life.