[Recent update: March 17th, 2021]
In the quest for training in online education in 2009, Zingrone joined the International Society for Technology in Education. In those days, Hewlett Packard was sponsoring a series of interesting lectures on teaching with technology in partnership with ISTE. The only catch was that the lectures were being delivered in the Virtual World, Second Life. It took Zingrone three months of reading the summaries and watching some of the recordings to screw up her courage and take the Virtual World plunge, setting up a free account, and choosing a ready-made avatar so she could attend one of the lectures live.
In those first few moments in Second Life, she never would have guessed she would figure out how to sit or change clothes, much less make solid friendships, discover colleagues, learn to build, go on “dates” in Second Life ballrooms with Alvarado, or be sufficiently inspired by the universities, museums, and libraries to set up The AZIRE Learning Center in August of 2009.
The Visitor Counter gadget that was set up on the Learning Center wall and set to cover the double store front that came later (rented for 50 cents a week) has registered over 8000+ visits from that day to this, as The AZIRE itself changed, moved locations more than once, expanded outwards and upwards over the years. Now, while The AZIRE Library and Learning Center is above the “Always Spring Garden” on the northwestern edge of the Mahupak sim in the Chilbo neighborhood in Second Life. The library collection is being renewed and expanded over spring and summer of 2021.
The first expansion was the addition of a library space granted by the Alliance of Virtual Libraries on Innovation Island in Second Life that was never fully built out. But the opening day celebrations of that island occasioned Alvarado and Zingrone’ first lecture in Second Life.
From there, the Library and Learning Center merged with an additional bookstore with snack bar (because folks love to eat and drink in virtual worlds, go figure!) and a discussion room set up while the Library was being built. The composite site changed locations a couple of times, split up and re-emerged and then settled in a two-story building that has morphed and moved around the Chilbo Community lands from its founding in 2009 and until today.
The following is a tour of The AZIRE Library and Learning Center as it existed a few years ago. The tour was filmed for the students of the ParaMOOC2015.
Joining The AZIRE Facebook group will keep you up to date on the build out of the library and learning center in its new location.