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!

The Teacher Networking Center is expanding!

I am excited to announce that the Teacher Networking Center is expanding!

We just rented a spot on Eduisland 5 where we will be creating a virtual environment where we can have group meetings, presentations and trainings.

We will continue to have the main TNC building on Eduisland II with teacher tools (first floor), educational landmarks (second floor), fun freebies (second floor) and our calendar of events (entrance way).

Our new addition will be on Eduisland 5 next to the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE). We are gearing up and hope to be offering sessions soon!

As always we are looking for ideas. Please feel free to comment on things you would like to see at the TNC.