BEETHOVEN - Educators met this past Friday for the Best Practices in Education Conference. More than 1300 educators toured the exhibits of vendors and non-profits and listened to the keynotes and presentations. Presentations utilized audio and video streams as well as textual chat, with handouts and swag for the participants.

Melissa de Zwart (Bramwell Writer in SL) gave a fascinating presentation about law as it touches virtual worlds. Clickwrap is a term used to refer to the license formed by clicking on something that indicates consent: such as an "I Agree" button. de Zwart cited different software packages, such as Second Life, World of Warcraft and Hotmail, that utilize this licensing technique and the implications of it. There was also a discussion of material created in SL and the ability of its creators to maintain copyright to it.

Suzi Mazzenga, Instructional Design Specialist at Peirce College (Xirconnia Morphett in SL) gave a presentation on “Drawing on Second Life Experiences to Enrich the First Life.” Some individuals create electronic images of themselves in SL. Mazzenga encouraged the audience to live their dreams and experience life in different ways. “As a writer, I was suddenly able to LIVE the characters I had written, complete with appearance and stature. I could create a walking, talking prototype and find out if it was believable to the casual observer,” Mazzenga said. “As an educator I was able to create a virtual Battlefield at Gettysburg, complete with images that talk to the observer when touched.” She created a Xircon and experienced life as a male on SL, noticing the different ways people interacted with this male image. “In a virtual Buddhist sort of way, the path to enlightenment in this case is through knowing both yourself in real life and in Second Life, and using virtual self-awareness to shape your experiences in both worlds into something more. Examine your online experiences as if they were in-person interactions, and then apply an objective viewpoint. Ask yourself what you take away from your Second Life experience and how it fulfills a need in your first life.”

Bill Moseley (Pirate Shipman in SL) is a professor at Pepperdine University teaching in their Online Masters in Educational Technology program as well as teaching computer science full time at the community college level. Teaching in a virtual world, Moseley encouraged the audience to look at new ways of communicating. “Use SL as your playground for teaching,” Mosely said, “and we may even influence RL education in return.”

The history of the Teen Grid given by Barry Joseph (Globalkids Bixby in SL) had a few technical glitches but was full of fun. Audience members wore light bulbs on their head that could turn on or off to vote on topics that came up during the presentation. The voting system was created by the talented Kim Anubis.

Sarah Robbins (Intellagirl Tully in SL), Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition at Ball State University, presented a discussion about creating engagement in SL. She suggested community was achieved by a mix of self-disclosure and bonding, sharing enjoyable experiences, sharing public spaces and a mutual respect of differences.