A Bit Of Nostalgia .. Before We Announce What Is Coming!

By: Alas Zerbino - TLE Official Blogger

"Second Life just isn't the same without TLE," I've heard a lot in recent months, whenever I ran into someone I met as the result of a program or event at the TLE Educational Network.

It's a thought I often had myself. Even though I knew the TLE Educational Network was alive and still offering classes, I missed its huge presence in SL. With TLE's virtual education builds reduced to a single (though still quite active) building, I found myself at a loss without being able to:

• Make near-daily visits to the TLE Sea World to bask in the sun and listen to the squeals and croaks and chirps of all the fish and animal life there.
• Stand among the stars and explore the otherwise inaccessible outerspace of the real world via the TLE Interactive World History Museum.
• Hang out with animals from around the world, yet in their own habitats, at the TLE Interactive Zoo.
• Stroll through the fantasy worlds of my childhood storybooks at the TLE StoryBook Land.
• Take fun and often educational breaks from work and the humdrum of my daily "real" life at all the fascinating builds at TLE.
• Remember the importance of life and the meaning of friends in quiet contemplations at the TLE War Memorial Wall.
• Meet incredible people from all over the world, brought together by TLE's virtual education programs and artistic performances.

So it's with incredible joy that I received the news that TLE is now beginning the process of rebuilding those and many more of its interactive educational and fun installations in Second Life. Within a week of when you read this, we'll all be able to congregate back at the new initial build of a much bigger and even better TLE.

I consider myself privileged to have been part of the TLE Educational Network almost from its start. The whole enterprise wasn't so much planned as spontaneously invented. Kitviel Silberberg, TLE's founder and owner, and the awesome visionaries on the TLE Board of Directors, would see a need or a possibility and make a solution happen with amazing speed and value. A few examples:

• Live stage plays presented in SL
• Free college-level classes
• Exhibits like the "Religions of the World" and "Holidays of the World" that helped the international community in SL to better understand the many world cultures
• Publishing opportunities for creative writers

After an amazing year of serendipitous growth and lots of work (and occasional hear-tearing), the TLE Educational Network Board and staff had to pause and decide where to go from there. I'm glad to say it chose to build on its successes, but with careful planning that will ensure its commitment to "Where Knowledge and Education Are Always Free" is successfully maintained.

I'll be updating you a lot in the near future about the exciting new and renewed programs and activities that are coming soon. In the next week, I'll share some of the amazing new features of this virtual education network that will cross over the boundaries between the virtual world of Second Life and the rest of the Internet. And with one entire sim opening up in the next week and plans for about 14 more sims in SL, there's lots of excitement in the wind! So stay tuned.

Finally, kudos and much gratitude to Aris Ametza, TLE's vice president of education, and Eagle Himmel, TLE's outstanding building and design instructor, who kept the class schedule running, despite having only a single small classroom building and sandbox in SL.

One of my favorite classes was this college Intro to Philosophy course I took at TLE. That's me in the lower-left corner.