Jill Nelson, assistant professor in the School of Education, Kimberly Desmond from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Clarrice Rapisarda from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, provided two presentations at the first ever Virtual Conference on Counseling, which was held in SecondLife on Sept. 16-18.

The first presentation was titled “Integrating Technology into Counselor Education: Bridging the Digital Divide" and was based on technology-enhanced classroom practices of the three presenters. The presenters provided information about video conferencing, podcasts, online courses, course management software and other ways of using technology to enhance student learning.

The second presentation was titled “Following Your Inner Compass: Suggestions for New Counselor Educators” and focused on the presenters’ experiences, current literature and data from Nelson's dissertation about the early career experiences of faculty in counselor education. The presenters provided the audience with tips for being successful in the first years as a faculty member.

There were registrants for the conference from 14 countries and presentations were offered on a variety of topics in counseling and counselor education.

According to Nelson, the conference was deemed such a success there are plans on having a second conference in 2010. Just like a “real world” conference, there were presentations, workshops and even time scheduled for networking and casual interactions with other attendees. Presenters still had the ability to show PowerPoint presentations, videos and include group discussions and provide handouts.

For more information, go to sl.counseloreducation.org/Conference/conference.html.