EduNation Housewarming Party

Pio was invited to attend a really special party. The House warming Party at EduNation. But, what's EduNation you might ask yourself.  Well, that's great place for educators and students in SL. There are three EduNation islands and according to what we can read in their wiki, they are focused on the potential for Virtual Worlds (VWs) to enhance the language learning process and is maintained by a community of educators who contribute towards paying for the rent of the islands in Second Life.

These islands are owned by Gavin Dudeney, Randall Sadler, Heike Philp and Paul East, educators and visionaries that dedicate their time and resources to provide this virtual space in a not-for-profit manner.

So, this Sunday, 12 December 2010, Pio teleported to the first Island: EduNation I, there she participated in he opening of the Webheads HQ. Webheads in Action is a woderful CoP, (Community of Practice). The Webheads are a world-wide, cross-cultural, and vibrant online-community of educators with an open enrollment for anyone who wants to join. In their site you can read:

Webheads in Action was created in 1997-8 by Vance Stevens, in Abu Dhabi, Maggi Doty in Germany, and Michael Coghlan, in Australia, for ESL learners and facilitators as a student-teacher community. It has expanded to encompass a myriad of educators involved in e-learning in TESOL EVOnline (Electronic Village) and other language or cultural-based curricula. Webheads meet online regularly to explore the latest synchronous and non-synchronous communications technologies, including video and voice, to adapt and demonstrate new innovative ideas for e- learning and classroom curriculum. These educators also display a deep warmth and dedication to helping others. They are evolutionary and enterprising scholars who are harmonious and know how to have a lot of fun.

Doris Molero is a Webhead in Action and she's really proud of it. She's been a Webhead since 2002. She got to know about SL thanks to Webheads, that's how Pionia was born. 

Carol, Pio, Randall, Vance

Next January 10 - February 13, 2011. Webheads will be hosting "the village" a 5 week workshop on how to use virtual worlds for language teaching and learning. (VILLAGE is an acronym for Virtual Language Learning and Group Experience). Pio has already registered, so .. what are you waiting for to register? it'll be fun. Click here for more info: VILLAGE Language Learning and Community Building in Second Life. The organizers of this course will be: Dr. Kalyan Chattopadhyay (Kalyan Horatio), Dennis Newson (Osnacnatab Nesterov), Heike Philp (Gwen Gwasi) Mary Pinto (Mary Roussell), and Nahir Aparicio (Nahiram Vaniva)

Pio was happy to find  Vance Stevens (A.k.A Webhead Link) as well as her dear webhead friends, Nahiram Vaniva, Gwen Gwasi, Cyber Placebo, Karelia Kondor and she had the chance to make a new friend Mary Roussell.


Well, next thing we did was to go on a tour in Edunation I that included:

 Karelia's collection of games and tools

1.Language games at Karelias: There our Karelia showed us he collection of tools and games to teach languages. The most popular was a scrabble game to learn Italian words.

at the Piazza

2. Inauguration of the Piazza: There Gwen invited us to participate in a fun activity where avatars were supposed to rezz their most comfortable seating along, carpets with cushions, beanbags, chaise longues, anything was allowed. Gwen told us that was to imitate the famous 'Wohnzimmer' in Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg, a cult pub with old comfortable lounge furniture contributed by students resulting in a crazy mix of settees.  A famous and popular place.

Cyber Placebo.. a Lady Orc.

So we did, each one of the educators brought their favorite seat,  resulting in a very chaotic experience for many. Pio didn't have any problem with chaos.. she liked the chance to contribute with a piece of furniture she loved and that she got from her dear friend Anna Begonia. There was a really funny seat rezzed by Cyber Placebo that at the time has changed into a lady Orc. At the end of the activity, the result was a really nice eclectic seating place to have conversations. Where as a community everybody shared something they like and feel comfortable in. A place that in Pio's view represents what SL is about. Anything can happen. All the things we are used to when educators get together to share get a new light and freedom to be creative, cooperate, collaborate, share and learn by doing something and leaving your mark.

Later, Randall Renoir showed us the Holodeck tools. This is the recording of the tour: RECORDING: http://lancelot.emea.acrobat.com/p51745311/ (34min). We also visited The Underwater Research Pod where we can scauba dive. I got a really nice scuba dive outfit there. Next we went to a sky platform where ther's a Go-Kart racing track.

We finished our party at a winter wonderland. We ice skated and  rode some slides. It was a fun way to finish the day. Once more this is the recording of this part of the Housewarming Party

Edunation Islands  are a wonderful place for educators and students. I am sure Pionia will be writing more about the great things she'll be doing there.