By Bixyl Shuftan
Last weeked was the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in
Education conference. There were a number of talks and other events, including a few discussions by the Lindens. Near the end they gave out their Thinkerer Award.
This was at the closing ceremony in which a number of people such as
Pooky Amsterdam, Lorraine Mockford, Elli Pinion, iSkye Silverweb,
Olivetree Lighthouse, Beth Ghostraven, Heike Philp, Serena Offcourse,
and others were given thanks (and the Newser was also thanked as well
for it's coverage).
Then came the award, which is given to "for outstanding contribution in
the promotion of learning, community, and educational practices, and who
exemplifies the spirit of cooperative development within immersive
environments." And this year, it went to Wisdomseeker aka Lissena
Resident (Lynne Berrett in real life).
Elli Pinion described
the reasons, "Lynne began her educational career with an MA in English
and doctoral fellowships in the Humanities. She was an English
instructor at universities in New York and Michigan. She joined
Manhattanville College in the New York City area as Director of the
H.E.O.P. College Skills Center for at-risk students and held many other
positions there for almost 30 years. Concurrently, she established a
private psychotherapy practice for adults and couples after getting an
MSW in Clinical Social Work at New York University.
"In
semi-retirement Lynne trained as a coach with MentorCoach, a program
based in positive psychology. She was on the leadership team of the
Alliance for Positive Psychology there for almost 10 years.
"She
says that her experiences as a caregiver, with her husband, first for
her mother and again for her brother in law and his wife, led her to
search out new ways to help others. Because both women had developed
dementia, she began to study brain health in depth to learn how to delay
and even prevent the onset of dementia.
"Lynne first
encountered Second Life at a Positive Aging Conference and was
immediately attracted to the imaginative power of Virtual Worlds. She
recognized the potential for learning through virtual experiences
(turning theory into action) -- learning that could transfer to a
person’s life beyond SL.
"In 2013 she founded the Whole Brain
Health Group in Second Life. She established Inspiration Island, which
now has 4 full levels of activities, as official home of Whole Brain
Health. It is a 'public' region where over 40 volunteers, members of the
island Collective, are given free parcels to create self-guided
activities and offer hosted programs. Everything is designed to help
visitors learn by doing.
"Over the years she has presented her
work in Second Life at many conferences around the country. When she
presented at the National Center for Creative Aging Conference in
Washington D.C., Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir in SL) came along
to stream Second Life into the event so they could be joined live by
Thinkerer Selby and members of the Collective.
"Lynne is active in
many virtual worlds educational and nonprofit groups such as Virtual
Worlds Education Roundtable, VWBPE, AvaCon, OSCC conferences, and she
was a founding board member of Nonprofit Commons. She also developed a
course for SL entitled ‘New Frontiers in Brain Training,’ which uses
activities on Inspiration Island to guide students to design
personalized action plans for well-being.
"Her latest
accomplishment is building Virtual Learning Village, a grid in OpenSim
specifically made for lifelong learning and professional development.
She and her group of volunteers have created a beautiful environment
with many innovative tools for teaching and learning.
"To find out more about Lynne’s work, she has multiple websites:
https://agelessmindproject.org
https://virtualinspirationisland.org
https://virtual-learning-village.org
https://www.facebook.com/VirtualInspirationIsland
"It
is for all these reasons, and more, that the VWBPE Organizational
Committee proudly confirms Lynne Berrett, our Wisdomseeker, as the VWBPE
2021 Thinkerer Award recipient."
After much applause,
Wisdomseeker went forward from her place on the stage to speak, "I want
you all to know you have saved my marriage. My husband is watching this
and has promised never to ask me again what I am doing in Second Life."
She paused as a few chuckled, then resumed, "I am so honored to accept
the 2021 Thinkerer Award -- not just for myself but also on behalf of
the Whole Brain Health Team and the Inspiration Island Collective. I
could not have done any of this work without their dedication and
expertise and imagination over many years. There are so many people to
thank!
"First of all, the award winners who came before me. Every
one of you has contributed to the success of our learning projects in
Second Life and OpenSim through your example, advice, encouragement, and
concrete help. I plan to thank people privately, so I won’t subject you
all to a long list of names tonight. But of course the members of the
Inspiration Island Collective are at the top of the list. Every year
since 2014 we have taken a group photo of the Collective. Most of the
original members are still with us—which is a source of great joy to me.
Each year we have added new members to the photo. You can see the
latest one in the Lotus – which is a miniature Inspiration Island – at
our Exhibit here at VWBPE. It was made with loving care by Katsii Tennen
(Catseye), Fran, and Tooyaa.
"If you attended our presentation
this morning, you can guess whom I DO want to thank publicly. From the
very beginning, Thuja Hynes (Tooyaa) and Francisco Koolhoven (Fran) have
been essential partners in producing the rich experiences Whole Brain
Health offers. Our long, fruitful collaboration has been absolutely
central to WBH’s development and my own growth as a virtual worlds
educator -- and as a leader. Their creativity, technical skill, and
willingness to try anything I come up with have repeatedly made the
impossible possible for us.
"I also want to shout out to
Maximillian Merlin, my chief creative and technical partner in a newer
venture, Virtual Learning Village. After creating our drone security
system and a lot for Inspiration Island, Max brought his Buildwerk team
of volunteers to OpenSim, where we have built a beautiful grid for adult
learning of all kinds.
"Our Whole Brain Health logo is a
manifesto for all this work: it’s a simple circle with the three words
INTERACT INSPIRE INNOVATE embracing the central word, CHANGE. The
more we can INTERACT and INSPIRE each other through our collaborations,
the more we can truly INNOVATE – creating new forms of learning in
virtual worlds and beyond, for people of all ages... because well-being
is directly related to flexibility – the ability to CHANGE.
"As
one of my role models, Seth Godin, just wrote on his blog: “The world is
going to change and resilience is our best response. 'Resilience is a
commitment to design, an attitude and a system that works even when
things don’t turn out the way we planned. Especially then. …
Flexibility, community, and a sense of possibility can go a long way.
That doesn’t make it easier, but it’s our best path forward.”
"So
my last thank you tonight goes to the VISION of Best Practices in
Education that is illustrated year after year in this conference. And
most of all, thank you VWBPE, this year, for illuminating the value of
lifelong learning for adults in virtual worlds with this award. "
The award itself, which resembled the classic statue "The Thinker," when presented was very large, almost twice her height. Someone
joked "The real test is if Liss can carry the trophy 20 meters."
Another commented, "That award is going to take a heck of an anti-grav
trolley to be taken away."
Following Wisdomseeker's speech, people started to head out to the last official event, the farewell party. She and several others would engage in a group hug, then depart.
Past recipients include Renne
Brock / Zinnia Zauber, Barbara Truman / Delightful Doowangle, Valerie
Hill / Valibrarian, Cynthia Calogne / Lyr Lobo, Andrew Wheelock / Spiff
Whitfield, Alice Kreuger / Gentle Heron, and Selby Evans.
Bixyl Shuftan
