Virtual Worlds Story Project Creators to Talk to Educators

Location: Story Book Island

I'm pleased to be the host for an event next week, at the Second Life Education Roundtable, for two very special guests, Martin J. Keltz (SL: Marty Snowpaw) and Jena Ball (SL: Jenaia Morane). We'll meet on Montclair State University's virtual campus in Second Life [direct teleport link] from 2:30-3:30 SL Time (PST) Tuesday, November 3.

Jena and Marty will discuss, in voice chat, their project to "develop and produce immersive, interactive, and educational Story Quests where people of all ages can embark on learning adventures."

Think of their project as a vast network of collaborative storytelling. And why stories? As Jena told Pathfinder Linden during an interview about the project, stories "engage, encourage creativity, and free the imagination. They help us make sense of our worlds." The Quest that I have begun concerns Uncle D, a man diagnosed as HIV positive, and I've read some of the work others composed as part of this project to educate collaborators (for there are no tourists in this project) on HIV/AIDS.

Jenaia and Marty encouraged me not only to plug their talk but to produce a creative piece linked to the Uncle D story. I plan to have something here and at their blog before the Tuesday meeting.

There is simply too much about this amazing project to capture in a single post here. So get a sense of the project from the trailer here and the longer film here.

Come join us Tuesday; we have two very talented individuals bringing their gifts to SL:

Jena Ball is a writer and journalist with extensive experience with new media, print publications, and creative writing. She's worked as a technical writer and editor at Sony in Japan and she founded The Nature of Writing, an online school for high-school and college students that emphasizes new media, virtual worlds, and online collaboration.

Martin J. Keltz came to SL with an impressive resume of more than three decades in publishing and media, including time as co-founder and President of Scholastic, Inc. and a long career as an Emmy-Award-winning producer for projects such as the films The Indian in the Cupboard and The Baby-Sitters Club as well as programming for ABC, CBS, HBO, PBS, CBC, and other networks.