College Fair in Teen SecondLife
Eye4You Alliance is starting to put together their second college fair on the Teen Grid and they are looking for representatives from colleges and universities to share information.

If you or a representative from your college would like to take part you will need to have a background check and approval to work on the Teen Grid so you will want to get started right away on the process. The college fair will take place Oct 12th. If you would like more information you can go to the Eye4You Alliance island blog (http://eye4youalliance.youthtech.info/?page_id=629) or contact BlueWings Hayek or Alice Burgess on the main grid.

Invitations to Aviary
One of the photo tools that Pia Klaar discussed during the Web 2.0 workshop was aviary. This is a program that allows you to manipulate photos. Since it is web based it allows you to have access on any computer! When we posted our Web. 2.0 list we were contacted by a representative from Aviary (see comments) and she set Pia up with an account with 5 free invitations. If you would like one of these invitations please post a comment below and Pia can send you an invitation.

Tour of Interactive Sites
I also want to remind everyone that this Saturday the TNC will have a tour of interactive sites in SL. We will begin at the TNC on Eduisland 5 at 10:00 am (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/142/27/43). Please come a few minutes early.

Other upcoming events*:
Wednesday, July 30 2 – 3 pm SLT: Sloodle 101. This will be an introduction to Sloodle tools http://slurl.com/secondlife/virtuALBA/197/165/30

Wednesday, July 30, 5 – 6 pm SLT: Streaming with SMARTboards: Do you currently have a SMARTboard in your classroom or district? Did you know that Discovery Streaming can be seamlessly integrated with your SMARTboard? During this workshop you will learn about ways to integrate Discovery Streaming, various funding strategies, be provided with resources for implementation, and information on programs that SMART Technologies provides SMART educators. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/57/80/22

Thursday, July 31, 6 – 7 pm: ISTE educators social. http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/90/80/30

Thursday, July 31 Shamblesguru Voom told us that one of the Lively guys will be giving a talk at a “Train for Success” session. If anyone knows more about this please let us know!

Saturday, August 2, 10 – 11 SLT: TNC Educational Tour. We will begin at the TNC on Eduisland 5 http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/142/27/43

Saturday, August 9, 10-11 SLT: Making a Webquest for your students. TNC Eduisland 5 http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/142/27/43

Wednesday, August 20, Save this date for the DEN’s anniversary celebrationSunday, August 31, 6:00 AM SLT: David Warlick is being interviewed at International Schools Island as a pre-session to a Shanghai Conference. I will have a link for this location as we get closer to the event.

* If you want your event posted on the TNC blog IM Tek Zeno in SL with the date and time of the event.

Web 2.0 Workshop

Did you miss this informative workshop?

Pia Klaar gave a wonderful presentation today on Web 2.0 tools . She discussed Professional Development Tools, Social Networking Tools, Blogging, Wikis, Podcasting Tools, Collaboration Tools, Online Applications, Photo Tools, Presentation Tools, Video Sharing tools, Utilities, Aggregators/Newsreaders, as well as other items. After the presentation she created a slideshare of the presentation. You can view this at http://www.slideshare.net/pia/web-20-in-the-classroom-529446/.

Below are the links to Web 2.0 websites that she recommends:

1. Professional Development Tools
· Web2Go: http://www.go2web20.net/
· AllMyFavs: http://www.allmyfaves.com/

2. Social Networking Tools
· Ning: http://www.ning.com/
· Classroom 2.0: http://www.classroom20.com/
· Ning in Education: http://education.ning.com/
· Lively (by Google): http://www.lively.com/html/landing.html
· FURL: http://www.furl.net/
· Del.icio.uos: http://del.icio.us/

3. Blogs
· Blog Basics for the Classroom: http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogbasics.cfmsfirst.com/content/blog/blogbasics.cfmsfirst.com/content/blog/blogbasics.cfm
· Edublogs: http://edublogs.org//
· Class Blogmeister: http://classblogmeister.com/
· 21Classes: http://www.21classes.com/
· ePals: http://www.epals.com/

4. Wikis
· Wikispaces: http://www.wikispaces.com/ww.wikispaces.com/ and http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers100Kcom/site/for/teachers100K
· Wet Paint: http://www.wetpaint.com/category/Education--Ad-freeetpaint.com/category/Education--Ad-free
· PBWiki: http://pbwiki.com/education.wiki
· WikiSpaces: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers100K
· Jottit: http://jottit.com/it.com/

5. Podcasting Tools
· Gcast: http://www.gcast.com/
· Odiogo: http://www.odiogo.com/

6. Collaboration Tools
· Google Docs: docs.google.com
· Skrbl: skrbl.com
· Bubble.us: bubbl.us
· Giffy: http://www.gliffy.com/
· Mindomo: http://www.mindomo.com/
· Voo2do: http://www.voo2d.com/
· JotSpot: http://www.jotspot.com/


7. Online Applications
· Zoho Creator: creator.zoho.com http://creator.zoho.com/
· Peepel: http://peepel.com/
· Thinkature: http://www.thinkature.com/

8. Photo Tools
· Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/
· FlauntR: http://www.flauntr.com/
· Aviary: http://a.viary.com/
· PhotoShop Express

9. Presentation/Video Tools
· Animoto: http://animoto.com/
· Animoto Education Program: http://biz.animoto.com/education/overview.html/education/overview.html
· Voicethread: http://voicethread.com/
· Ed.VoiceThread: http://ed.voicethread.com/
· Bubbleshare: http://www.bubbleshare.com/
· ImageLoop: http://www.imageloop.com/en/index.htm
· Slideoo: http://www.slideoo.com/
· One True Media: http://www.onetruemedia.com/
· Jaycut: http://jaycut.com/

10. Video Sharing Tools
· Blip.tv: http://wwww.blip.tv.com/tv.com/
· Jumpcut: http://www.jumpcut.com/
· Teacher Tube
· YouTube

11. Utilities
· CTC Audio Mixer: http://audiomixer-d.oddcast.com/php/ctc
· Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
· Vixy.net: http://vixy.net/
· Web Resizer
· Skype
· Media Converter

12. Aggregators/Newsreaders
· Bloglines: bloglines.com
· Yourminis: http://www.yourminis.com/main
· Pageflakes: http://www.pageflakes.com/

13. Others
· Calcoolate: http://www.calcoolate.com/index.html
· Create a Graph: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/
· Stained Glass collage: http://www.stainedglasscollage.com/
· Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling: http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/
· ArtRage: http://www.artrage.com/artrage.html
· Common Craft: http://www.commoncraft.com/
· Captioner –Flickr Toys: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/captioner.php

Other sites that were recommended by our participants are:
http://www.schooltube.com/
http://www.mogulus.com/
http://www.zamzar.com/
http://www.kerpoof.com/
http://www.cameroid.com/
http://www.techsmith.com/
http://www.shambles.net/web2
http://www.thinkfinity.net/
http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp
http://www.classtools.net/

Resources:
· Brown, John Seely. (JSB) in Educause Magazine, "Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0". : http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0811.pdf

· Freedman, Terry. Coming of Age: an introduction to the new world wide web.: http://comingofage.ning.com/

· Hargadon, Steve . Web 2.0 is the Future of Education: http://www.stevehargadon.com/2008/03/web-20-is-future-of-education.html

· Judy’s Web 2.0 Notes: http://judyoconnell.wordpress.com/

· Kyrnin, Jennifer. What is Web 2.0: Going Beyond the Hype of Web 2.0: http://webdesign.about.com/od/web20/a/aa021306.htm

· Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press: California.2006


Other upcoming events*:

Wednesday, July 30 2 – 3 pm SLT: Sloodle 101. This will be an introduction to Sloodle tools http://slurl.com/secondlife/virtuALBA/197/165/30

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 5 – 6 pm SLT: Streaming with SMARTboards: Do you currently have a SMARTboard in your classroom or district? Did you know that Discovery Streaming can be seamlessly integrated with your SMARTboard? During this workshop you will learn about ways to integrate Discovery Streaming, various funding strategies, be provided with resources for implementation, and information on programs that SMART Technologies provides SMART educators. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/57/80/22

Thursday, July 31, 6 – 7 pm: ISTE educators social. http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/90/80/30

Thursday, July 31 Shamblesguru Voom told us that one of the Lively guys will be giving a talk at a “Train for Success” session. If anyone knows more about this please let us know!

Saturday, August 2, 10 – 11 SLT: TNC Educational Tour. We will begin at the TNC on Eduisland 5 http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/142/27/43

Saturday, August 9, 10-11 SLT: Making a Webquest for your students. TNC Eduisland 5
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/142/27/43

Wednesday, August 20, Save this date for the DEN’s anniversary celebration

Sunday, August 31, 6:00 AM SLT: David Warlick is being interviewed at International Schools Island as a pre-session to a Shanghai Conference. I will have a link for this location as we get closer to the event.

* If you want your event posted on the TNC blog IM Tek Zeno in SL with the date and time of the event.

Web 2.0? Scuba Diving in Second Life?

We are getting ready for our first official workshop at the new TNC conference center. Tomorrow (Saturday, July 26th) from 10:00 - 11:00 SLT Pia Klaar will conduct a Web 2.0 workshop. This will use voice. Please plan on arriving early if you need help with voice. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/142/27/43

Have you ever wanted to Scuba dive with sharks? Then don't miss a chance to take part in the scuba diving event at the DEN Monday, July 28th at 5:00 pm SLT. You need to preregister by Saturday July 26th if you want free scuba gear. You can find out more at http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/secondlife. Registration is filling up quickly!

If there are other educational groups out there that want me to showcase their upcoming events please let me know! IM Tek Zeno and I will place them on our blog.

Web 2.0, Machinima, Slide Shows, Social Networking, Upcoming SL Events

When I started this blog I thought to myself “what I am going to say”. Now I find myself excited to share things each week!

Web 2.0
I want to start by reminding everyone that this Saturday (July 26th) from 10:00 – 11:00 SLT Pia Klaar will be offering a session on Web 2.0. This will take place at the TNC Conference Center on Eduisland 5 and will have valuable information for the classroom teacher http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/142/27/43 . I have also become aware of a free online book called “Web 2.0 Project Book”. This book contains projects that were shared by teachers who are using Web 2.0 in the classroom http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/2008/07/web-20-project-book.html You can download this book and save it for future reference.

Machinima
Are you interested in Machinima? Pia Klaar has created a wonderful slide show that is a “how-to” tutorial on Machinima for Second Life http://www.slideshare.net/pia/machinima-how-to-in-second-life-in-second-life . She has also setup a Machinima area that is full of useful tools at the TNC on Eduisland II http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/23/11/23 .

Slide Presentations
Pia also introduced me to slide presentations this week and I was excited to make the sidebar slideshow that is on the left of the blog. These are pictures that were taken by Pia at the Expansion Party and put into Flickr. Next http://www.slidoo.com/ picked up these pictures and all I needed to do was supply the blog address and slidoo.com attached it to my sidebar. I am now thinking of getting my own Flickr account since I am starting to see a reason to post my pictures. Another website for making slideshows that is recommended by Pia is http://www.imageloop.com/. I have not used this yet but I hope to have time to try it out later this week.

Are you on Plurk or Twitter?
Lastly I wanted to find out if anyone is using Twitter or Plurk. I am on both social networking sites under my avatar’s name TekZeno. I try to post different TNC events as well as other events. Feel free to follow these postings.

Upcoming events in SL to take part in:
Tuesday, July 22 (3:30 SLT): SL Education Roundtable http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montclair%20State%20CHSSSouth/129/156/22
Library Services in SL

Wednesday, July 23 (5:00 pm SLT): Discovery Educator Network
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/57/80/22
The first of a series of workshops in which Celestia Cazalet will introduce you to free programs and websites that can enhance your Second Life(tm) experience. This week's topic: QAvimator. Find out how to make your own animations. Come prepared to share your own discoveries, as well.

Thursday, July 24 (6:00 pm SLT): ISTE
http://www.slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/90/80/30
Social networking event for educators

Saturday, July 26 (10:00am SLT): TNC Conference Center
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/142/27/43
Web 2.0 Introduction

TNC Expansion Party and Other Information

TNC Expansion Party
Wow! What fun we had at the opening of the TNC Conference Center on Eduisland 5 and the renovated TNC Eduisland II. I have attached some pictures for everyone to see but I didn’t think to start taking them until the party was half way over! If you couldn’t make it we have left the games available for you to play and we want to invite you to come by and see the new facility.

Web 2.0 presentation
Next week, Saturday, June 26th Pia Klaar will be giving a presentation on Web 2.0 tools for the classroom from 10:00 – 11:00 am SLT at the new TNC Conference Center and we hope everyone will be able to attend.

DEN Newbie 101 Session
In other news the DEN had a fabulous turn out for their Newbie 101 Session that was led by JessieMarie Flannagan http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/secondlife I think it is wonderful we have so many new educators trying out Second Life this summer.

Virtual Environments to Interact in Classroom Management Scenarios?
I know this may be old new to some but I am just getting around to listening to some old podcasts and an eSchool news podcast was talking about the work that was being done at the University of Central Florida. They are using a virtual interactive environment to give teachers experience in classroom management. Educators and pre-service educators are able to take part in a virtual classroom and take part in various scenarios http://www.ist.ucf.edu/nlarchive/spring08/spring08.htm#lockheed .
This had me thinking….. Wouldn’t this be something fun to do in Second Life. We could setup scenarios where a group of us would be “students” and then one would be the “teacher”. The scenario could be acted out and then there could be a discussion about the way the classroom management was handled.

PBS Teacher Connect Site
Is anyone here looking for a new social networking site in which teachers collaborate by subject? PBS has opened the PBS Teachers Connect website and this may be of interest to you. Subjects include the Arts; Health & Fitness; Math: Reading & Language Arts; Early Childhood Education; Technology; Science & Tech; Social Studies; Homeschooling; and Library Media. This just opened June 30th and it looks like it could become an exciting new community for teachers http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/

TNC Expansion Party!

Mark your calendars!
TNC Expansion Party
Saturday, July 19th 10:00 am – Noon SLT

We are excited about our new place and we are going to have a party. There will be dancing with DJ Kedryn McMillan, games, and prizes. Come by and see what all the excitement is about!

The TNC on Eduisland II is being updated and is almost ready. We are excited to have a new Machinima section and to make it easier to see the teaching tools we have available . Both places will be highlighted during the expansion party.


I also want to let everyone know about the Newbie 101 Workshop that is going to be at the DEN on Wednesday, July 16th at 6:00 pm SLT. JessieMarie will take you on a tour of the functions of the various menus and toolbars. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions. More information is located at: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/secondlife

The DEN is located on Eduisland II a few doors down from the TNC.

Two great events in one week!

Sites that may be of interest to you

I have come across these sites that may be of interest to members of the Teacher Networking Center Community:

Webcasts from NECC: http://www.kzowebcasting.com/necc/

Free Web 2.0 Project Book: http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/db/web2/doc_page4.html

PC Design Competition Finalists: http://www.nextgendesigncomp.com/finalists.aspx

ReadWriteThink interactive resources for the K-12 classroom: http://readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp


ENJOY!

Upcoming Educational Events

I am sorry this is last minute. Here are two wonderful events that may interest you. One is tonight (Monday, July 7) at ISTE and the other is Wednesday, July 9th at the Discovery Educators Network.

From ISTE:

Hello fellow ISTE members in Second Life!With memories of NECC still fresh, and summer in full swing, the ISTE Speaker Series is ramping up in July with three very special events. Here is the scoop on our first, on the very last day of the Second Life 5th Birthday (SL5B) celebration:

Please join us Monday, July 7th, at 6:00 pm SLT/PDT (click here to calculate your local time) at the brand-new ISTE Island Auditorium http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island%203/17/237/25 for an Education Spotlight Roundtable featuring:

Sarah Robbins (SL: Intellagirl Tully)
Suriawang Dapto (RL: David Warlick) from http://davidwarlick.com/2cents
Kathy Dryburgh (RL: Kathy Schrock) from http://nausetschools.org/lighthouselearning
Maggie Marat (RL: Peggy Sheehy) from http://ramapoislands.edublogs.org
Bernajean Pinazzo (RL: Bernajean Porter) from http://www.digitales.us
Eric Reuters (RL: Eric Krangel) from the Reuters bureau in Second Life
Westley Streeter (RL: Westley Field) from http://www.skoolaborate.com

This will be a voice presentation. Please be sure you have a working voice setup prior to the event!See you there!


From the Discovery Educators Network:

Creating your class website with WebBlender:

Creating and maintaining a class website doesn't have to be hard and scary! WebBlender makes it easy and fun. Come learn what WebBlender can do for you. WebBlender is a Tech4Learning product and you can learn more about it at http://www.tech4learning.com/webblender/index.html
SLT TIME: 5:00 P.M. SLT ( 7 PM CDT, 8 PM EST)

TNC Update

Pia and I met up today and started discussing the renovations to the TNC and the progress on the TNC Conference Center.

Updates have begun at the TNC on Eduisland II. The picture to the right is of the new area for teaching tools. You will click on the pictures to recieve the item that is displayed. All of these items are free.

While we are changing things around please be patient with us. It will take a little time.

We also worked on the TNC Conference Center which is just about ready. This is located on Eduisland 5. We should have teleports between these two buildings early next week.

We are also excited to announce the following schedule of events. We will be having sessions on Saturdays at 10:00 SLT.

Saturday July 19th - 10 - Noon SLT: TNC Expansion Party

Saturday, July 26 10-11am SLT: Web 2.0 Session

Saturday, August 2 10 - 11am SLT: SL Tour

Saturday, August 9th 10-11am SLT: Using Webquests in the Classroom

Saturday, August 16th 10-11 am SLt: Webquest Followup

We hope everyone will mark their calendars for these events! I also want to remind everyone of our database of names located at http://creator.zoho.com/tekzeno/tnc-names/view/1/. This was created to help people in similar specializations to find each other in order to collaborate and exchange ideas. We currently have 155 names. Is yours there?

What a day!

Today was the last day of NECC and the closing keynote address was streamed into SL at ISTE. The technology that made this possible was amazing. The video was very clear with some stuttering but, since I couldn't be there, it was very impressive to me.

Watching this live stream made me wonder if the future of NECC will include more streamed sessions. Is this the reason behind the new streaming regulations? Maybe virtual "paid" sessions will be in the future. This will open up NECC to a much larger audience but it will also cut into the amount of people who attend the physical conference. It will be interesting to see to see what the future brings.

I also spent most of the day getting the new TNC conference center ready. I have "fenced" off the area and placed the building that will be our conference center. I thought about building the structure myself but then decided to look around for ideas and found a building that I thought would work just as well as if I made it myself.

It is an open environment which has 2 floors and a roof. The floors will have small collaboration and experimentation areas.

The roof has a conference area which allows people to fly in for presentations.

The plan for the rest of the land is to have areas for collaboration and to spotlight other educational areas in Sl.

The TNC Conference Center will have sessions for K-12 teachers about "real life" classroom issues. Topics will include teaching strategies, classroom management, lesson plan sharing and project exchanges.

Keep watching for announcements concerning our open house!