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I found this YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGMH_1VnnaY) about a virtual museum exhibit created by teens. It showcases "Kristallnacht," or "The Night of Broken Glass" from the holocaust. Teens from the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. worked with teens from New York and museum staff via Skype, SL, & phone (sound familiar, COMETEERs?) to discuss issues, storyboard, and even create a design document (future COMETEERs!) to create the exhibit in SL. Interestingly, it seems that the build was done by an SL company called "Digital Refinery," "...an all teen in-world development company," headed by a 15 year old CEO. Teens visiting the site are placed in the role of an investigative reporter in order to find out what people did during Kristallnacht. They can click on cutouts of people to get information and learn about the choices that ordinary people faced during this event. Visitors also observe the environment; broken storefront windows, a before & after Kristallnacht replica of a synagogue, and just general destruction of the Jewish community. When they are done, they reflect, discuss and write about what they have seen & learned, and post notecards to share their experiences. I love that this is all built by teens, but that they also had to work with adults in RL to learn how to cooperate and communicate intelligently. I am big on making history interactive, otherwise it just seems boring to many kids. SL holds so much potential for this sort of activity; time for textbook companies to look into this instead of making ridiculously expensive, environmentally unfriendly textbooks that bore kids to tears. Ok, I know I'm dreaming, after all, if the textbooks weren't expensive, those companies would go out of business. Hmm.

T.H.E. article about end of Teen Second LIfe, other platform options and what it all may mean for K12 teachers (good and bad).

Shambles list of Teen SL projects

Virtual Storytelling Project - 125 Grade 8 students in 5 Regina Public schools were involved in an inquiry learning project integrating English Language Arts, Social Studies and Arts Ed Drama curriculums, as well as cutting edge technology through the use of Teen Second Life and the iLife suite of applications.

The Federal Trade Commission today issued a report that examines the incidence of sexually and violently explicit content in online virtual worlds. The congressionally mandated report, "Virtual Worlds and Kids: Mapping the Risks," urges operators of virtual worlds to take a number of steps to keep explicit content away from children and teens, and recommends that parents familiarize themselves with the virtual worlds their kids visit.

Second Life interview with Skoolaborate's founder, Westley Field. Good overview of exemplary Teen Grid education project now involving 40+ schools globally.

Overview of how Global Kids and other educational/non-profit organizations used Teen Second Life from 2005 until its close in late 2010. In addition to listing projects and case studies, Barry Joseph discusses what we might learn from this "experiment".

T.H.E. article describing impacts of the Teen Second Life closure and alternatives for K12 educators.

Guidelines for Educational Use of RPS TSL Used by Regina Public Schools Teen SL project

Happy Steve blog post chronicling ongoing student work on a Second Life Teen Grid Island. Booralie Island is the virtual extension of a Christian school located in Sydney, Australia. Their island is largely student created and used for many different subjects. Happy Steve is also a great example of a technology infused enthusiastic teacher. This post details students building a war memorial, scripted recording studio, coliseum ... on their own time and after school.

Kidz Connect is a program that helps connect young people from different countries and learn about each other's culture thru the process of music, dance, digital art, and storytelling within Teen Second Life. Kidz Connect holds events during the summer and throughout the year wherein collaboration between various schools and organizations in dance, music, theater, and multimedia art are organized. The collaborations culminate in mixed reality performance combining the various live performances and multimedia art with performance interactions in Teen Second Life.

My design document included an idea of connecting my senior students in Multicultural Literature class to students in another part of the country or even another part of the world. The goal of the class is to learn about other cultures and SL allows teachers to collaborate with other teachers to do this--inexpensively. The link above is to an article entitled "Student Exchange, Without the Jet Lag: Educational Collaboration in a Virtual World." The article details how students in Modesto, California connect with students in Kyoto, Japan -- it's called the Pacific Rim Exchange. They meet in Teen Second Life on a group of private islands. Eventually, these students will meet in person, however, they get to know each other virtually before they do.

Great example of middle school student created projects on Teen Second Life. Note how sixth graders hire 8th graders using Lindens and project manage collaborative problem solving. Doable, highly engaging and tied to core content.

This article discusses how Teen Second Life and similar dynamic online tools gives teenagers another way to explore their identity, in a low-risk, no consequences environment, and how teachers can use this environment to explore serious issues.