Today was the second day of the ELI Fall Focus session on Learning Spaces. Today was great because we got to hear a lot about how to think about designing spaces that facilitate learning, what’s on the horizon, what’s happening in Second Life and there was great discussion among everyone. Focus sessions that are limited in size are, I’m sure, disappointing for the folks that weren’t able to register before it closed, but for the attendees it’s a really wonderful thing because you can have small intimate discussions and really have a chance to meet and talk with colleagues. It’s been a wonderful experience.

Because I’m not a faculty member, IT professional, librarian, learning designer, administrator, computer programmer, or web designer, I sit in a very unique position. I can listen to conversations about many areas and then try to put myself in a situation to examine, evaluate and experiment with how those things can translate into virtual spaces or communities. More often than not, it’s easily adaptable and perfectly appropriate and having the opportunity to be sort of the “center of the wheel” allows me to talk with people in all different areas of learning and learning design and experiment with scads of fantastic tools. I love being in that position. I adore being the girl who tries the new technologies and experiments with new tools. Don’t get me wrong, diamonds are definitely this girl’s best friend, but a new Macbook Pro runs a close second place for me.

I found myself having some really interesting one-on-one discussions today with many people but the one that really resounded with me was when someone came up to me and thanked me for presenting Second Life in the way that I did. He mentioned that he’s heard of Second Life many times before and understands that you can “do anything” in that space including have a classroom in the sky, but just the very thought of that was too overwhelming and kept him from thinking about Second Life as something he could truly use in his teaching. He said that by simply talking about Second Life as another “tool” for communication in much the same way we use email to communicate, it helped him to feel less anxious and overwhelmed by it. I wonder how many others feel this way and how many other people we could engage by just changing the way we talk about things or present things.

I certainly know that people are passionate about things they love. I am passionate about Second Life and virtual community and I think that is evident when I speak about it. I think the audience can tell I love these things, but I wonder now, how many times I maybe missed an opportunity to connect with someone or engage them in the conversation because I was *too* passionate about it and left little room for them to begin to envision how they might make these spaces their own, in their own way.

I had a discussion a few days ago about Second Life and the statement was made by someone that they had no idea why anyone would want a traditional office in Second Life- they said it was “beyond them”. I explained in that discussion that some people need, want, and feel comfortable in those ‘traditional’ spaces. Do I think that it’s a great idea to take a class into Second Life plop them down in a virtual classroom and show them powerpoint slides the entire semester? Absolutely not. I do, however, think that when we’re talking about and introducing these technologies, we need to remember, always, that nine times out of ten we are ahead of the curve on these things and we need to slow down, take a step back and think about what we could do to make these new tools less overwhelming and show people how they can potentially use the tool for their own needs.

I think another reason that those ‘traditional’ spaces are important in Second Life is because that’s what people are used to and I think those can be a fantastic ‘entry’ point for people just starting to use the technology. We need people to feel comfortable in a space before we can expect them to really use it and enjoy being there – this is exactly what we’re talking about in designing physical learning spaces so why would we want anything different in a virtual one?

One speaker yesterday used a quote that I loved. The quote was from Henry Ford and he said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” I think sometimes people have no idea what they want, because they don’t know about the tools. We can teach them about the tools but what’s just as important is helping them feel comfortable learning them. We can do that too.

I’m attending the ELI Fall Focus session on Learning Spaces in Minneapolis right now. I’m a presenter/speaker talking about social networking and online/virtual communities and the work I’m doing in that realm. Today started for me around 9:30AM with a ’speaker meeting’ where we got to meet everyone and learn about what they’re presenting and working with. That was wonderful. It’s always fantastic to hear what everyone else is doing and learn about new and exciting ways people are thinking and rethinking learning space and learning design.

This afternoon all of the ‘Project Parlor” presenters (that’s what I am) spent an hour and 45 minutes doing a 15-minute presentation over and over for five different audiences. Let me tell you, it’s more exhausting than it sounds and when group #3 rolls in, your mind starts to play with you and you can’t remember what you’ve told one group and what you haven’t. I made it through, thank goodness but wow – this must be what speed-dating is like. I’m glad I’m married, I’d never make it.

So the good part about being a project parlor presenter is that you get to meet with everyone for at least 15 minutes and share what you’re doing. It’s a fabulous opportunity and one that I really enjoy. Now, here comes the tricky part… for tomorrow, everyone has to choose two of the five sessions to revisit for an extended session of 45 minutes. So tomorrow, instead of 5 presentations, I’ll just do 2. Thank goodness.

What I’m learning already though, is that once again, what I’m doing, what *we’re* doing doesn’t necessarily fit into one category or any neat little space. I’m not building physical spaces, I’m not building classrooms and I’m not an educator. A few weeks ago this would have bothered me in that I was feeling a bit like a ‘misfit’ that didn’t really belong to any specific group, but what I’m starting to realize is that where I am is exactly where I need to be. I need to be hearing the discussions from all sides and I need to take all of those ideas and viewpoints and perspectives and start to think about ways they can work for us in building a virtual community. I think we all have much to learn from each other. I’m glad to be part of the discussion.