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I am busy preparing a keynote presentation for a conference that is being held in Second Life. (Sept 16-18)
The conference is for counselors and counselor educators and will address the following questions:
How can we teach counselors counseling skills in a virtual world setting?
How can we teach counselors how to counsel within a virtual world setting?
Are the skills that are learned in a virtual world classroom transferable to face-to-face therapy sessions?
These are the questions that many counselor educators puzzle over when they think of teaching in a virtual world.
And so, this conference preparation has given me pause, and I thought I would check in with the coaching community.
Are any of you conducting coaching in a virtual world? Perhaps you teach coaching to other professionals and have a presence in Second Life. I would love to hear what people are doing inworld and what the experiences have been. There appears to be an entire pedagogy devoted to teaching online using platforms like blackboard and moodle.
Now many teaching platforms exist that can facilitate online courses and certifications. Add the virtual world to this scenario and you give your student or your client a 3-dimensional experience.
Let’s envision some of the advantages of working with a therapy or coaching client in a virtual world setting.
I am sure many coaches use concepts like vision boards. Vision boards in Second Life pop. Therapists often use a narrative therapy approach encouraging clients can rewrite their own future with a pleasant outcome. What if that vision or that story could be created and depicted in a 3-D environment?
Practical skills like job interviewing and appropriate dress can role-played in a virtual world. In fact, in Second Life one can shop for clothes, hair and make-up. Many possibilities exist especially with the creation of artificial intelligence in which scripted responses from another avatar become part of the dialogue.
The experience truly allows one to create one’s own reality, virtual as it may be.
And what are the disadvantages?
As I have discussed here before, keeping communication confidential is paramount.
In Second Life, communication is not encrypted. Other solutions have to be thought through like using an encrypted method that can be used simultaneously – like Skype.
Another disadvantage is the possibility of an avatar disclosing personal information too quickly or out of the blue, leaving the coaching or the counseling client feeling vulnerable, because communication online is often less inhibiting than communication that occurs face-to-face.
I am hoping this topic intrigues some of you to comment and question!
DeeAnna
www.deeannamerznagel.com
www.onlinetherapyinstitute.com
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There are 2 Responses so far...
DeeAnna,
Your post convinced me to take the plunge and voyage into the wild and fascinating world of Second Life, where, once I learned how to “walk” and “talk,” I also learned I could “fly.” The imagery and potential in this virtual world is indeed thought-provoking.
If coaches haven’t found their way to Second Life, they should know others certainly have. I visited your virtual office (waterfront, a duck pond, probably the coolest-looking therapy office you’ll ever “see”) and learned schools and businesses have set up camp in this world.
If business is there, can coaches really stay away? It’s an interesting question. Coaches? What do you think?
Mark
P.S. I didn’t know how things worked in Second Life when I signed up. The site asks for your first name and I entered “Mark.” It said my name was “no longer available.” So I tried “Coach” and was given a list of options for my last name. (People in second life have vivid, highly entertaining names) Oddly enough, one of the options was “Phelan,” which is the family name of my mother’s side of my family, and has been much on my mind as I prepare to make my first visit to Ireland. I took that as a welcome sign.
So if you want to find me in Second Life, look for “Coach Phelan!”
This conference starts today at noon EST.
If you do not have the Second Life platform downloaded but still want to view the conference, you may register and view the conference streaming live at no charge. http://www.eventbrite.com/event/433929896/fbnews
This is an opportunity to see how Virtual Worlds “work” if you are new to the concept. This is a 3-day conference so register and log on when you have time.
Real-time conference updates and information can be read and sent through Twitter http://twitter.com/ceinsl hashtag #ceinsl