My co-worker is taking a much deserved vacation this week and he typically works 12-9 so we’ve all been taking turns covering his shift this week. Today’s my turn.  Although it’s a bit weird to be here this late, it’s wondrously peaceful and a really great time to be able to catch up on work uninterrupted.

I’ve spent a lot of time tonight catching up on some blogs.  Second Life in Education, Second Life Education Events, Massively, TechCrunch and several others always have really great information and it’s a fantastic way to know what’s going on quickly.   Google reader is my friend.

I also found out today that my poster “Social Networking and Community Building for Online Students” has been accepted for the TLT Symposium that will be held at the Penn Stater on March 29.  This is great news, but also now means that I have to actually DO a poster about that.  It’ll be fun and another opportunity to meet people from all over Penn State.

I also have a meeting scheduled for this coming Monday with Brett Bixler from ITS here at Penn State to discuss PSU’s overall presence in Second Life and brainstorm about what we can do to better organize what we’re presenting in that space.  As I’ve mentioned before, Penn State’s presence in Second Life right now…. not so great.  I’m hoping we can change that.

SL THON is also coming up on Friday, Feb 22 and I’m in the process of lining up musicians in Second Life to play for that event.

I met yesterday with the technology captain for THON as well as with Brett Bixler from Penn State ITS to discuss this year’s virtual THON in Second Life.

Last year was the first time virtual THON was held in Second Life and it took place on my island of Mill Pond, but with ITS help this year we’ll be having it on the Penn State Isle which is a better choice and makes more sense.

We’ll have the virtual THON event on Friday, February 22 from 6PM – midnight EST. I will be working to coordinate the talent and overall running of the event. In the meeting with the THON captains, they promised they would work on the PR for the event and sending notices to listservs, etc. I’m hopeful that we’ll get more PR than we did last year and we’ll have an even more successful event.

I also plan to capture some video footage of THON both in and outside of Second Life that we can then use to create a short video clip about THON and Second Life to display on YouTube and promote to our World Campus students.

I’m also really excited about the implications for World Campus students and Second Life participation in THON for next year. It has potential to be a really wonderful experience.