world has an economy that is readily linked to the global economies of the world in order to easily transfer funds in and out of the platform? To us, the educators who comprise the Special Interest Group for Virtual Environments (SIGVE) within ISTE, Second Life has been, well, a place – a place to meet others and to learn. Lord, I remember when Linden Lab updated the Second Life program to include voice chat. Some people were outraged that the text chat which had founded (and archived) so many rambling and information filled evening conversations was now doomed. Whether you agree with that or not, it was certainly a sea change, or at least we thought it was. There were many more to come. I imagine that many still await us. As the first decade of the century wound down, educational institutions flocked into Second Life in droves, investing thousands of dollars in virtual real estate, just like corporations were doing. There seemed no end to the possibilities. Then came the real sea changes: In the early summer of 2010, Linden Lab laid off approximately 30% of its staff, including every single employee previously dedicated to the service of the educational community. In October of 2010 a piano dropped out of a window in the virtual sky when Linden Lab discontinued discounts it had traditionally offered to education and non-profits. Though there has been talk of the return of these discounts, it may be a case of too little, too late. Over time, it became clear that Linden Lab had no interest in nurturing the educational market or pursuing the potentials we so essentially grasped. Many educators, including the prolific and dynamic Jo Kay in Australia, fled to Open Simulator, preferring the somewhat reduced functionality of that “Second Life –ish” platform to the aggressive passivity that Second Life offered educators. Her robust Jokaydia Grid (http://www.jokaydiagrid.com ) is a thing of beauty.
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