Sl Socialworker Web 1

Slide 1: “Second Life” Exploring Virtual Worlds for Social Work Education Dr. Bob Vernon, Indiana University School of Social Work Dr. Darlene Lynch, Ball State University Department of Social Work Dr. Paul Freddolino, Michigan State University School of Social Work Dr. Lorrie Greenhouse Gardella, St. Joseph College Ms. Susan Tenby, TechSoup.org Contact: http://hsmedia.biz

Slide 2: Today… Just what IS “Second Life” • • You and your “avatar” • Communications in “SL” • Potentials for Social Work Education • Implications and findings so far • How to function in a virtual world • Potential conversations

Slide 3: Just what IS “Second Life” People voluntarily create online virtual worlds... Travel Art/museums Fantasy/role play Nasties Shopping Sports Theater Worship Agencies/Services

Slide 4: You and your “avatar” You can change your avatar at will… Control over Dress Gender Age Race Ethnicity Ability Species! This is the same avatar!

Slide 5: You and your “avatar” You can move your avatar at will… Gestures Walking Flying Teleporting This becomes easy with practice.

Slide 6: Communications With individuals, groups, and objects… Chat/Typing IM Voice Languages Meetings Groups You can record everything through copying and pasting text, taking pictures, and making movies…

Slide 7: Potentials for SW Education Diversity HBSE Justice and Risk Values and Ethics Research Policy and Services Field and Training Practice There are potentials for all of the eight EPAS curriculum areas!

Slide 8: Implications so far… Adaptable to multiple teaching agendas micro-macro, generalist or concentrations, training, (?) field Practice diversity local-global-virtual Access issues connection, hardware, ADA Liability & risk uncharted territory The university local-global-virtual   “How ya goina keep ‘em down on the farm…”

Slide 9: Functioning in a virtual world • Remember what the Web was like in 1994? This is about as challenging! • Be prepared for a belligerent learning curve with crummy documentation! • Cut yourself some slack! Your students too! • Get a mentor! Make friends with librarians, teckies, and gamers! • Connect in both “SL” and “RL” peers, listservs, wikis, blogs, youtube!

Slide 10: Potential conversations • Theoretical concepts Social and individual identity, neighborhoods, control • Practice concepts Professional boundaries, self-awareness, professional use of self • Research concepts Participant observation, reflective ethnography • Degrees of abstraction The “medical textbook illustration” issue • Implications for distance education Many distance education possibilities Second Life: http://www.secondlife.com