Come visit Jokaydia and meet the community members
Field trip Friday 25th September (USA) 01.00 GMT SL Time: Fri 6pm PDT/9pm EDT
Facilitator: Bron Stuckey (Bron Bloxome)
Location: jokaydia Beach (SLurl)
Imagine if you will a brand new town where people have leased property and begun to establish their residences, shops, offices, and play spaces. The property developer was truly canny and knew what it took to make, the disparate groups of people who would come to reside here on the fringes, a community and wholeheartedly invested in strategies and infrastructure to encourage people to socialize, associate and support each other.
No it’s not Stepford, nor some other Sci-Fi town but the very real Islands of Jokaydia in Second Life. The real-estate may be virtual but the community and the ties between people are as real and tangible as they can be. Joanna Kay opened her spaces in Second Life in November 2007 with leasehold areas offered to other educators to support the cost of the then one sim. Two years ago, even with her evangelistic zeal and vision, she perhaps never dreamed how successful a community of practice it might become in so short a time. Jokaydia now covers 3 sims (islands) and is home to hundreds of educators.
So who are these people that reside in Jokaydia? Members are drawn from places as far apart as Montana, USA to Tassie, Australia. They vary from small scale builds by individuals with projects, like this Community Capers blog, through to large educational institutions and not-for-profits. You’ll find Al Upton the sculptor, alongside Macquarie University, Learning and Teaching Centre and Konrad March’s visually compelling design for Teachers Without Borders nestled up against the authentic inworld practices of the Online Therapy Institute.
This community crosses all the educational sectors as it draws individual and institutional members from school, tertiary, vocational and workplace learning contexts. In most cases the presence of educational institutions was provoked by visionary educators such as Leanteamer Zenovka at Kangan Batman TAFE, Victoria and slammed Aabye from Macquarie University. This community strength is not at the cost of individual profiles and kudos, far from it. Whether recognized by second life addies or real life names, community members continually network and gain recognition for their various and varied educational strengths. The unique mix of people allows for a rare and dynamic field of practice where the educational blinkers, often worn by each sector, are definitely off and each has the chance to admire the strengths of practice of the others.
The capacity of this community and the dynamic nature of the roles played by core members has never been more evident than in the upcoming Jokaydian Unconference September 25th -27th. Members have rallied to provide speakers, distributive leadership, contribution and support. Community is embodied in the way core community members step up to take on leadership and service roles in support of the community good and the learning of colleagues. The unconference wiki shell was posted and within a matter of a two weeks many of the proposed session times were filled by community members wanting to share their practices.
Come along and meet the community members and get a sense of how the people who inhabit Jokaydia make it the vibrant community of practice that it is today!
