NCATE visit…

The NCATE team is on campus for an accreditation visit. A poster session was held Saturday night in the atrium of the Casado Campus Center. It was a fun evening of talking with the NCATE team, most of whom are faculty members at institutions across the U.S. We were also able to see the posters of other areas of the University, and there were a couple of areas I had no idea about. I was impressed – and I’m here everyday!

One thing I like about the accreditation process is that it helps institutions see the forest beyond the tree they’ve been focused on for years. So many of us have our heads down, working so hard to complete that which is in front of us that we forget to look up and see what others are doing, what all is out there, what new options are now available for use in higher education… This is a fun conversation to me, and this is where educational technology – as an academic field – can be very helpful to the conversation.

One person I spoke with Saturday night started talking about Second Life in higher ed.  I’m all for it, I think Second Life could be extremely useful for many purposes. Check out this article on tech use among young people.  The point being that young people use technology not only to access information, but to create new information.  Higher Ed institutions have yet to harness this reality into their mission.  Think about this… many of IBM’s upper-level management meetings are now held on Second Life. Check out this article. Think about the possible scenarios an Education department could test in a virtual world like Second Life. It could be a powerful laboratory that would help prepare ed students for real-life teaching.

Are any of you on Second Life? Do you have an avatar? How else do you see this virtual world being useful in higher education?