New ways to meet and greet...

I have been extremely busy as of late. These are busy and stressful months for all educators and this year has been particularly exhausting. I find myself bringing home more and more work and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the energy in which to finish it all. There is never enough time during the day and when I get home I truly want to be able to relax and refresh and enjoy my 3-year old.

What is making things even more stressful lately is that I feel as if there is never enough time to concentrate on things that are truly important and exciting at work, like working with teachers and students to think about learning and curriculum and how it all fits together along with technology. I love finding new ways to use technology, most of the time to make things easier to tackle and sometimes just to have fun and acknowledge my "inner techie."

I know it sounds as if I am venting here, and maybe I am a little, but I do have a point. I know I am not the only one feeling this way and I can't help but wonder if I can just chalk it up to the busy time of year. I can't help but think that education is really being given a complete overhaul and what I am feeling are growing pains. I just watched a short video clip that was posted on Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech -entitled Virtual Worlds, Real People. I watched the video of a gentlemen with cerebral palsy who created Wheelies in Second Life a virtual world in which people can live and play.

The video got me thinking of the idea of a virtual reality for people who do not enjoy the reality we take for granted. This really wasn't what I needed, one more thing to chew on, but it really made me think about what sites like this one can do for education. I started to look around on the site and the business and education tab caught my attention.

Second Life is an exciting new venue for collaboration, training, distance learning, new media studies and marketing.

Hold a virtual meeting with your sales managers located in Europe and Asia. You can present the new sales initiatives and discuss them with your team real-time.

This, to me is amazing. Is it the answer we all are looking for to put more hours into the day? Probably not, but it is a great way to collaborate in a way that we have really only seen in the movies.

Just something else to add to the growing list of possibilities.