The PRESENT of teaching and learning in Second Life

I wrote this last night just before falling asleep at the keyboard:
Random good things have happened today. Tomorrow, of course is our SLedupotential presentation in both rW and SL.

This morning, we leap into the fray, 9 dedicated educators from 9 different states, all of whom met one another inside a computer platform in a place that doesn't exist, gathered together in San Antonio Texas to share a vast and essentially indescribable phenomenon to 30 mostly strangers we will be meeting for the first time this morning.

Life(s) is good.

Here's how I'm going to start, formally, in a little under 2 hours--

Good morning. I'm Scott Merrick and I welcome you to SLedupotential.

We've brought all these people into this room, and into this platform (welcome to any of you in Second Life, wherever you are in the RW (real world) for a whole bunch of reasons. Each of us is here for his or her own. Let me share some of mine.

I'm here because I believe the Present of teaching and learning is changing. You'll hear a lot of folks this week talking about the Future of teaching and learning. I want us to focus today on its Present. At this very moment a new tool for collaborative technology is poised in the wings of the internet's stage, going over its lines the way many of us up here have gone over theirs walking or in the cab on the way to the conference center this morning. The makers of this technology want us to use this tool to change the way we work, the way we collaborate, the way we view the world and most importantly--the way we spend our time.

I don't know what that technology tool is. None of us does because it hasn't been released yet. Last week it was Plurk, meant to be a "Twitter Killer app." Today it'll be something else. How do we see it and share it? Through our Personal Learning Networks.

Second Life has been that for me. Every single one of the dedicated teachers up at the front of the room with me this morning I met for the first time in Second Life. Every one of them has something special to share about her or his vision of the Present. Let's get started (speak to agenda notes).

The agenda is at the wiki. The tag for this session, btw, is n08s987. Please tag all your pictures, video, blog posts, anything with that tag. It'll make it easier for everyone to find what's going on.