I thought the SimSchool and VirtualU projects sounded fantastic for teaching new teachers. First of all, I never trained to be a college instructor! I was a product of an A.A.S. degree at the community college, and I went to work immediately – actually while still attending school full time! I saw that advancement in my company would necessitate me obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree, so I went back to get that. As I was finishing my last course, I sent in my resume for an adjunct teaching position, and ended up being interviewed and hired as a Department Coordinator and full time instructor. Although I had trained many users in my industry-related position, I never had any formal training in pedagogy or designing and delivering effective instruction. My orientation to the college left me in tears — literally!
How grand it would have been to have a mentor or a virtual mentor that would have helped ease the transition from industry to education! I would have welcomed the opportunity to have a role-based simulation to help me in the process. All I had was a textbook and old syllabi!
As I read the assigned reading, I thought about creating an interactive teacher orientation and best practices for new teachers simulation in SL. I think that would be a fun way to introduce new instructors to the college and to the process of teaching.