For the love of teaching or money? *edited to comply with T.O.S.*

I'm just curious to know whether or not this new policy at TUI is due to the fact that there are now many 'classes in a box'...tutorials for sale now both inworld and on the various websites...maybe it's a case of 'if there's money to be made in education..then why not'.....

Nevertheless, I've been to a few classes and always found them to be informative...and I'm sure each instructor is different, but out of the classes that I have attended, the textures received were very freely available ones in SL and most definitely not custom.

I've no doubt that instructors spend many hours developing their class content and it's appreciated by a lot of students, but as other posters in this thread have said.....it's a 'Volunteer' position. [/qoute]

To some extent that's true... everything that we do in SL is voluntary, and it should also be fun. But teaching is also an 'in world job', just as dancing, escorting and camping are. The big difference is that it's an 'in world job' where you're helping people and advancing knowledge. It's a job which requires a lot of patience, talent and devotion, and for which you can get not only too little appreciation, but actual *abuse*.

But then I've learned that there are two type of "gamers" in this "game". Those who take advantage of the full range of potention within SL, which includes it's socio-economic model... and those who do not. Those of us who do so are the ones who 'work' to earn Lindens to keep the rest of the economy going (so that we can then 'buy' the things that you make and decide to sell, and so on, and so on.) Others who don't want to play that side of the game can be pretty abusive towards those of us who do at times, but we're playing by the rules just like you are... and Lindens are a part of the game, but they are hardly *real* money. When was the last time you worked for 50cents an hour?

I won't reply to either Sleven or Antec's points because at this point it's become more than obvious to me that they are both simply attention seeking and stirring up controversy for the sake of libeling TUi. Antec says that he pities me because I don't get his point. I "get" his point, it's just not relevant to the realities of the situation, it's only relevent to their libel campaign. He's comparing apples (lindens) and oranges (*real money*) and using the fact that we participate in the economic side of the game to imply that money is our motivation, which is not logical when you consider the exchange rate side of things - a point that he (intentionally, I have no doubt) wants you to ignore. Their obvious and clumsy ad hominim attacks really shouldn't fool anyone who has a grip on the fact that there are economic realities in SL just as there are in RL.

It would take days to impress upon you how much TUi, which I'm now given to understand was the first (or at least 1 of the first) Educational Institute in SL, contributes to advancing the game of SL. The fact that you do something because you love it doesn't mean that you don't also need or appreciate recieving some acknowledgement or recompense for the energy you devote, nor does it mean that you can't (or shouldn't) as for contributions to defray costs.

Dedication doesn't mean that you have to give people your blood, sweat and tears for nothing. And accepting money to defray your costs doesn't mean that you're not doing somethng for the love of it. Loving something you do, just like loving a person, also doesn't imply an all give and no take relationship. At least *healthy* love doesn't. So it's not unreasonable to expect to get back when you're devoting yourself to something that you love. But I were doing this "for the love of money" instead of the love of teaching, I wouldn't work for what averages out to less than $1/an hour (a point that Antec masterfully obfuscated and twisted out of context. So I have to give them that... they're very good flamers and griefers. But not really worthy of my attention and time. )

You, on the other hand, as one of our students, *are* worth my time... which is why I continue to give it to you as a teacher. I'm sorry if you (any of you, not you personally) see my asking you to respect my time and acknowledge it as being of value as being "money grubbing" (as our griefers would characterize it...) or see that as invalidating the fact that I do *indeed* "... do it for the love of teaching", but if you can't see the distinction and are so disrespectful of my dedication and contributions that you are swayed by that kind of propoganda, then I don't really feel that it's constructive to give you more of my time to try and convince you.

What is getting strange about this thread is the bashing of TUI.............and the promoting of those other locations. Frankly TUi has a better record then then the rest.

and then the TUi staff proceeded to bash me where they knew I had no power to respond.

But that is the whole *point* of that thread, Usagi... didn't you realize from Mr. Hathaway's original post?

He says he trained as a teacher at TUi, but apparently he dropped out of our training program before he completed it and rather than teaching here he decided to start his own teaching business. So he's a "competator" who apparently *is* in it for the money. He left TUi and decided to start his own business, and in doing so has decided that slinging mud at TUi is the best way to drive people to his new business.

and now Mr. Hathaway has decided that libeling us on the forums isn't sufficient... that he feels it's appropriate and a productive use of his time to cull the teacher names from our staff group and IM us all as individuals to drag us back into his drama and to continue to libel and harass us even when we've informed him we're not interested in hearing from him and would consider further contact a harassment. And laughed at the prospect of an abuse reports battle. In that exchange Mr. Hathaway showed his true colors and demonstrated to this experienced BBS Sysop & groups/lists/forums moderator all of the telltale signs of a griefer (what we used to call 'flamers' back in the day)...

The money is secondary. As others have said, SL is a voluntary activity, something most of us do with our free time. If teaching wasn't fun, I wouldn't do it. I enjoy sharing knowledge. I love it when someone goes, "Wow! I get it!" I'm a teacher; that's what I am, who I am. I can't NOT be a teacher, whether I am paid or not.

I've taken free classes, and tipped generously when they taught me something new. I haven't attended for-fee classes, but if one comes up on my radar that's offering something I need, I certainly will.

I don't begrudge TUi, or any school, making money. Nobody who puts the time and effort into creating and running a school ought to have to do so out of pocket. There's nothing wrong with selling knowledge for money, and TANSTAAFL is a fact of life. I wish TUi and its faculty and staff all the best. But I do think that Sleven has a point...your motto ought to be congruent with your policies. Maybe you should change it to "Offering the Best Classes in Second Life" or "More Learning for Your Linden", or something.

You accuse me of talking about all of you behind your backs...yet, after my thread got removed from the officialt TUi website by First Page, the person that told me to post it there, HappyHolly Grigges came to this forum, coppied my original post, edited it to how she saw fit.

http://www.tui-sl.com/phpBB/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=334

Still there on the forum. No power? He still can post there, but he knows, that people on the TUi-forum know TUi

Some things, Sleven told us in his posts here:
- He was student teacher at TUi, but dropped because he has more profitable venues

- He promoted his own little school here

- He tore apart every paragraph from my post (one paragraph in every post), but he didn't said anything to, that he invented the money-part on his own

- His shop do sells classes and tools

- In the student-channel he freely offered TUi-class-notes, not notes from his own school

- His original thread on the TUi-forum (and his thread on this forum) was deleted by the admins, because he violated #5 of the Community Standards: http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php , not more, not less.

http://www.tui-sl.com/phpBB/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=334

Still there on the forum. No power? He still can post there, but he knows, that people on the TUi-forum know TUi

Some things, Sleven told us in his posts here:
- He was student teacher at TUi, but dropped because he has more profitable venues
- He promoted his own little school here
- He tore apart every paragraph from my post (one paragraph in every post), but he didn't said anything to, that he invented the money-part on his own
- His shop do sells classes and tools
- In the student-channel he freely offered TUi-class-notes, not notes from his own school
- His original thread on the TUi-forum (and his thread on this forum) was deleted by the admins, because he violated #5 of the Community Standards: http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php , not more, not less.

CatDeville Llewellyn is right.

*** "In the student-channel he freely offered TUi-class-notes, not notes from his own school"... ***
Oh, now... *that's* a new one! So he's guilty of copyright infractions as well? Why doesn't that surprise me? And I would not be at all surprised to see that the "classes" sold in his school were plagerized. (I'm not claiming that they are - I haven't checked and wouldn't pay him a Linden if my life depended on it... but people who will give away other people's intellectual property without their permission have the lack of ethics which would allow them to plagerize and sell the works of others... so I can easily suspect it of him.)

And people wonder why we have to do thing like make our scripts and notes for class "no trans" to try and at least *deter* other people ignoring our intellectual property rights. {sigh!}

While Sleven's TUi post may not have violated the TOS - his post here on SL's own forums and on MySpace did - thus why ARs were filed.

Many TUi teachers are also SL Mentors, thus they could not let such a blatant violation of the TOS go unreported.

As to the rest of this - all I can say is my personal slogan is . . .

Where students come first!

While Sleven's TUi post may not have violated the TOS - his post here on SL's own forums and on MySpace did - thus why ARs were filed.

Many TUi teachers are also SL Mentors, thus they could not let such a blatant violation of the TOS go unreported.

As to the rest of this - all I can say is my personal slogan is . . .

Where students come first!

http://www.tui-sl.com/phpBB/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=334

Still there on the forum. No power? He still can post there, but he knows, that people on the TUi-forum know TUi

<3<3 Thank you all for taking the time to read and reply to this thread <3<3




I left TUi for, "The Love of Teaching!" back in October of 2007. Now I don't say this to defame TUi's spotless reputation. I say this because I am generally concerned that the subject of Education is constantly compromised by ego and social exclusiveness.

Just to respect everyone involved I will not name names. I will use the entity called TUi as the representative of my concerns.

I was told I could not work at TUi and teach at other schools. Actually I was told that TUI frowned upon it. While I was employed the decision to not allow us to teach at more than one school was then posted after a survey. Not a vote. Which I was completely un aware of. I appealed in writing the subject of not allowing us to teach and was promptly responded to.

I was told by my mentor this was because TUi has a expectation of Loyalty. Which perplexes me because in the real world instructors have the ability as adults to teach in many schools with loyalty. I did this type of work in the real world and in Second Life I have a handful of avatars telling my avatar how to live in the virtual world. Last I checked I wasn't a teenager, I'm not into peer pressure and I am a defected TUI instructor. My mentor was part of administration and has defected as well.

I was told because TUi was on the verge of starting the process of charging student teachers to train them for a fee they wanted to keep the group exclusive and competitive. I was also told students would get a partial refund if they stick with TUi and teach at TUi with their certification without teaching abroad. I was asked to be involved in this by going on tours and generating build ideas for new student teachers. Quickly the signs of peer pressures and social exclusiveness begins.

I am very curious about the legalities of this subject. Contractual work without being paid forcing avatars to exclusively teach at one organization. The concept certainly isn't the "Linden Way." The concept certainly does not support education in Second Life at large.

When I showed interest and began teaching in other schools I was honest about it to the administration. Because I generally care about being honest and not compromising myself for it. I then in turn was told to choose TUi or the other schools. I chose education. I was immediately removed from the TUI teaching group, mentors and forum space. Upon making my decision of being an educator.

I could not convince administration how wrong it is to force an avatar to only work at their school. (If there were such a thing as Better Business Bureau of Second Life.)

I felt I was in a situation of forced competition. Which has nothing to do with the misnomer of "For the love of Teaching." Now I am involved in several open, honest and supportive teaching platforms without needing to use TUI as a reference at all.

TUI:
IS The Best
Doesn't Support Other Schools
Does have a Educator Training System (For a fee)
Doesnt Represent all of its Educators
Doesn't Support Co Teaching with other Schools
Welcomes previous teachers at TUI back on their own terms (Read the fine print)
Is A gratuitous organization
Promotes generation of avatars to teach abroad
Has a repuation

A wise friend said: "TUI made the mistake of choosing that logo."

Currently I am teaching as this avitar in 3 schools and I have the ability to teach in 6. All of the schools know I am a fond support of education at large. None of them expect me to compromise my avatar. Not for the love of money, not for the love of ego and not for the love of teaching. For Love in general. and respect and to model the "Linden Way." I model the support of all schools that have positive work ethics focusing on supporting teachers with education tools, open source resources and as an equal opportunity avatar. I think being an example moves mountains. I hope it becomes contagious that others can share that "Linden Way." Too. Value to me is not in the form of lindens on second life. Value to me is to inspire others to teach and provide the tools for anyone to build successfully on their own.

I am actually willing to state this opinion in a court of Law in the real world if needed. My opinion is not open for debate in this forum. Have a wonderful day teachers! If you can inspire others to teach, successfully get a whole class to complete your activity. Thats all that matters. Who you work for is moot. You represent teaching at large.

I appreciate the tools provided at TUI's training. I dont use any of them in teaching at the other schools. I never had to. Thank you First Page for all that you do!

Blessings,
JeZeBeLe Dagger, SL Teachers without Borders

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” ~ Jimi Hendrix

I'm just glad I'm not the only person trying to teach in SL.

The Particle Laboratory is nearly four years old. Every month I pay another $125, half the time that comes right out of my own pocket.

Time & Space costs money, and both are needed to teach.

Not everyone can be completely altruistic and charitable. (I'm only 50% of the way there, the scripts are free, the textures are not. )


As far as the TUI matter in this thread... it sounds like mis-communication and different idealisic viewpoints escalated into full-blown drama, which is unfortunate... and time wasted that could have been spent on... well... teaching. =)

Don't the Lindens fund the Ivory Tower? I wonder why they wouldn't also fund the Particle Laboratory? When introducing new residents interested in making stuff besides the wiki, the Ivory Tower and the Particle Lab are the first two places off my lips.