Educators across Canada are invited to login to the latest professional learning webcast, on Second Life, A Virtual World for Professional Learning, June 1, 2009 at 5:00 pm (E.S.T).

The session is the final in a series of webcasts and learning resources made available to teachers acrossCanada, by the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) and the award-winning Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning (ABEL) program, from Toronto’s York University.

The session will include a tour of ABEL Island in Second Life with avatars Atina Lemon and Abel Blinker. They will explore the different areas of the island, which was developed in part by the Virtual World Design Centre at Loyalist College, and discuss how Second Life can be used for collaboration and professional learning.

While these resources are usually limited to ABEL membership, ORION partnered with ABEL to make 2009 webcasts and curriculum support materials available to schools and teachers across Canada.

Archived materials from previous 2009 series sessions, on topics from digital story telling to the use of whiteboards, are now available to view and download.

“These professional learning webcasts are very popular with teachers as they provide them with easy to access, just-in-time instructional video that also present practical instructional strategies that engage students,” says Janet Murphy, Director of ABEL.

“These are great resources,” said Phil Baker, ORION President and CEO. “They help illustrate the benefits of using interactive teaching and learning technologies in schools, while raising awareness of the importance of advanced networks like ORION and CANARIE, Canada’s advanced network organization, to deliver positive, measurable outcomes in teaching and learning.”

The webcasts can be viewed at http://abeldb.abel.yorku.ca/webcasts

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