ISTE event with Tim Magner

I just finished at the ISTE event where we had a chance to tell Tim Magner (Director, Office of Educational Technology, US Department of Education) what we, as educators are doing in Second Life and what potential we saw for education. There were over 70 people on ISTE island for the event and individuals discussed what they were doing in SL with their students and about the professional development that is taking place in SL.

I had a chance to represent the Teacher Networking Center and talk about informal and formal professional development. Tim Magner asked a great question about what type of professional development opportunities are meaningful in Second Life. My experiences have been that simulations (because you are engaged) and informal collaborations (because the topic is relevant to those involved) are the most meaningful but it started me wondering what others think. What has been the most meaningful professional development, in Second Life, that you have taken part in? Please comment below.

I do want to say that I found Tim Magner to be very supportive of all of us and of educational technology. He is very well spoken and listened to each of us. It feels good to know that we have a voice in Washington that is on the same page as the classroom teacher. I believe that ISTE will be posting the video of the event soon. Once they do I will post the link for everyone to listen to.

A new week!

It is time for a Teacher Networking Center Update. This Saturday Faythe Fouroux gave a presentation on WebBlender and ePal’s SchoolBlog. If you have not attended a presentation by Faythe she does an outstanding job. Faythe is a DEN star educator and presents at the DEN. She discussed the benefits of having a classroom website and how a website has impacted her classroom.

I often hear people talking about ways in which to use Second Life with their students and I think they are missing something important. Second Life doesn’t need to be used with your students to be valuable. It is a wonderful professional development tool. There are so many educators with a variety of experiences in Second Life and everyone is willing to share. The knowledge base is HUGE! Why just focus on using Second Life with your students? Save it for yourself and your own learning.

With this in mind the Teacher Networking Center wants to hear from you. We are looking for people to present others. Presentations can be on Second Life topics or on other topics that classroom teachers benefit from learning about (previous presentations included WebBlender, Webquests and activities for the first day of school). What are you doing in your classroom that works? How are you using technology? What classroom management strategies have you started using? These are things we want to hear about.

Upcoming Events:

I have also seen notices for a Wed. evening DEN event. If you are a person "avatar" that is new to SL this Wednesday night at 5:00 pm SLT JessieMarie will be presenting a Second Life tips and tricks at the DEN on Eduisland II.

I also want to share that I was able to attend the Discovery Educators Network Streamathon and I learned so many new things. I hope to share these over time but, if you were not able to attend, the archives are suppose to be posted soon. I believe these will be posted on the blog http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/3rd-annual-streamathon/ and I am anxiously awaiting them. Hopefull we will here something soon!

Machinima

After taking a break for SLEDD last week we had a presentation on Machinima by Pia Klaar. She has also provided a slideshare of the presentation for anyone that missed it (see the left side of the blog).

Pia discussed camera controls, lighting, speech gestures, lip moving and the environment editor. She also provided us with important “hot-keys” to use when doing machinima since you use “Ctrl –Alt F1” to take away the menus.

M = mouselook
E = jump up
C = come back down
Escape from mouselook
Alt + clicking on something to focus to center of the screen
ALT+Dragging the mouse zooms the camera
ALT-CTRL + drag orbits the camera
CTRL-0 = Zoom in
CTRL – 8 = Zoom out
CTRL – 9 = Resent Zoom


Another thing you don’t want to miss this week is the PBS series that starts tomorrow (9/15) called “Where We Stand: Amercia’s Schools in the 21st Century” (http://www.wviz.org/index.php/WVIZ/features/13948/) . Check your local listings for times. On Thursday evening at 6pm SLT the ISTE will have a fireside chat discussing this program. http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/181/144/23

Saturday Workshop by Esme Qunhua

What an exciting presentation we had on Saturday. Esme Qunhua, Jane Wilde in RL, conducted a course for Marlboro College in Sl last year and showed us several interactive tools. She also explained how she uses these for teaching and learning.

We had 37 people attend this presentation and the tools she introduced were Mysti Tools, Opinionator, Sloodle, Give boxes, Whiteboards, 3-D presenter, Notecards and Scripts. Esme also talked about her thoughts on teaching and learning in SL. She has left a box at the TNC center in which you can get information about what she presented. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/142/27/43

Her wise words for all of us were not to be afraid of making mistakes in SL. She also explains that open spaces are the best spaces for teaching and learning in SL. Instructors should let students build and come up with their own ideas and learning spaces.

Thank you so much for this presentation Esme Qunhua. It was wonderful and we hope to have you present again! I also want to think Shailey Garfiled for transcribing the presentation for those that did not have voice. I know how difficult this is and she did a wonderful job.

Next Saturday we will not have a session since the SLEDD conference is taking place and we hope you will attend their events. To find out more about this conference go to http://www.rezed.org/events/event/show?id=2047896:Event:9418 and/or http://sledcc.wikispaces.com/

Then, on September 13, Pia Klaar will be presenting a workshop on Machinima at the TNC Conference Center. We hope to see you there!

Saturday August 23 Tour

Things are moving forward and we had a fun tour this Saturday. We started by going to the Occupational Therapy Center which provides training for graduate students. Their YouTube video is available to watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvhzHlrargU and they are located on Eduisland II http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/197/33/22

The second site we went to
was the Astronomy and Planetarium.

Not only can you explore the stars on this site but you can also purchase items to place at your own educational location. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Honawan/96/122/4212/421

The third site that we chose to visit this week as a fun site called Museum of Illusions http://slurl.com/secondlife/Enchantment%20Island/87/66/238 At this site we met Sallyanne Sak who advised us that you need at least 40 minutes to explore the entire Museum. There is so much to see. She also told us that the creator is currently making some new items that are being kept a secret. We will need to watch and see!




The final location we went to is one we have focused on before, The Tech Museum of Innovation at http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Tech/197/158/38 This site has many interactive activities as well as contests and chances to show the educational items you create.

For the next tour I hope to have some of our TNC members show off their educational places. I am trying to get 4 people who are willing to give us a tour (about 10-15 minutes) of the places they have created. Southern Georgia has offered to show us his educators Freebee Mall and I am hoping that Shamblesguru Voom will show us the International Schools Island. During our last tour someone provided me with a link to the a place at Microsoft and I am hoping this person will contact me and offer to add to our tour. Is there anyone else who would like to present?

I also want to remind everyone that next Saturday Esme Qunhua will be present some of the interactive tools she has created to use with students in SL. This event will take place at the TNC Conference Center at 10:00 a.m. SLT. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/150/67/22


Items you don’t want to miss in SL this week:

Wednesday, August 27th at the DEN:

Join us this Wednesday for the second in a series of workshops on ’Making Your Second Life ™ Easier’ presented by Celestia Cazalet. In this second workshop, Celestia will introduce you to free programs and websites that can enhance your Second Life(tm) experience. This week’s topic: Sculptypaint. Learn how to build those cool sculpted prims. Come prepared to share your own discoveries, as well.

NOTE: Please download the program before Wednesday.Here is the URL: http://www.xs4all.nl/~elout/sculptpaint/
SLT TIME: 5:00 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CDT, 8 p.m. EST)
We’ll meet in the Sandbox.http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/44/60/22

You may want to also checkout the SLED Calendar about upcoming events: http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/SLED_Calender

Back to School!

It is that time of year again when everyone starts to get excited about the new school year! It is interesting to read what everyone has to write on twitter and plurk. Some people are already back the classroom and others are just setting up and getting ready to start after Labor Day.

Last weekend we had a wonderful discussion about webquests on the TNC. We began by looking at some webquest that Pia Klaar shared and then we looked at a wonderful webquest that was designed by Faythe Fouroux and GeeGee Zerbino. I hope that Faythe and GeeGee will come back and tell us about their experiences once they are able to use their webquest in the classroom.

I have some things to announce that some of you may be interested in. This Wednesday, August 20th the Discovery Educators Network (DEN) will be celebrating their first anniversary. Dress up in your best tux or gown for this event. There will be dancing with a DJ, games and surprises! 5 p.m. SLT http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/57/80/22

September 6th is the SLEDDcc in Tampa so we are going to postpone our machinima workshop that is scheduled that weekend. We will keep you posted of SLEDD events that are happening in SL. If anyone has a list or knows where we can find information on this please let us know!

We have put posters at the TNC discussing the second annual Second Life Teen Grid College Fair which takes place on October 12th and the Virtual Worlds in Education Conference. The Virtual Worlds in Education Conference will take place in Second Life on November 10th & 11th and they are accepting proposals until September 11th (http://vwec.ecu.edu/).

Upcoming TNC events:

Saturday, August 23rd – 10 a.m. SLT TNC Tour
Saturday, August 30th – 10 a.m. Esme Qunhau will be presenting educational tools
Saturday, September 6th – 10 a.m. SLEDD Conference
Saturday, September 13th – 10 a.m. Pia Klaar – Machinima

* All events will begin at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%205/142/27/43

Presentation on Webquests

This Saturday at the TNC Conference Center we had a workshop on WebQuests. After the presentation Pia asked me if I was going to put the slide show in slideshare. I decided to take the challenge and created the slideshow presentation that is located to the left of this posting (it looks like chalk and a chalkboard). It was much easier to use than I anticipated. Slideshare takes you step by step through the process. I am starting to think about the different ways I can use this in my classroom. What a great way to provide my presentations to my students. To view and listen to the slide show click on the “presentation” link at the bottom of the picture.

Next week we will be having the second part our webquest workshop and I encourage everyone to attend. For this part of the workshop you are to bring the URL of a webquest you have created or one you feel you can use in your classroom. We will be discussing the different webquests and talking about how to manage your students.

I am also excited to announce that Esme Qunhua will be at the TNC Conference Center on August 30th to discuss some constructivist teach tools she has created for SL. These tools work to get students actively engaged in their learning when you are teaching in SL.

One last thing I want to post is that I want to make sure everyone is aware of the SLED calendar. This keeps track of educational events that are happening in SL and is updated often: http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/SLED_Calender

I hope to be able to update the blog more often this week. As all of you know this time of year gets very busy. School starts here on Friday and teachers go back on Tuesday!