Today (Dec 24 2006) the Eye4You Alliance Island on the Teen Second Life grid opened its virtual doors to teen visitors aged 13-17 years old!

The opening was an immediate success, with two eager teens arriving on the island within the hour even without publicity of the launch and asking “When will you be opening more islands?!”, and then a teen mentor venturing onto the Island shortly afterwards.

This pattern reflects earlier experiences when the island has been open publicly for a limited time during its development – as soon as it is visible to TSL residents then it becomes a magnet for the curious. And it seems likely that once we have caught their attention, they will stay and contribute to the community. In the opening day sessions I spent with those who dropped in, they expressed delighted surprise, even amazement, that adults would let them be in control!

“I can build here?? ”

The official opening of the Eye4You Island is planned for January 2007, whereupon the adult educator staff will provide a range of exciting events, classes and programs to the teenage userbase.

Eye4You Island is an environment driven not by adults but by the ideas of its young users; a place where growing minds can safely play, explore, create and socialize. It is a joint project of Imaginon (Charlotte, NC) and Alliance Library System (Peori, Il).

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 24th, 2006 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Teen Library. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.