Interactive Builds: Part II

We had the follow up to last week’s interactive build presentation this week. It was fun to see the different items everyone shared:

Calms Xue showed us a Tuingo game. This is a networked matching game that Calms built for fun.

Shamblesguru Voom brought the Manbo dance. This works by making everyone who has is holding the maraca dance when the word “manbo!” is typed in the screen. This can be used as a reward for answering questioning, an icebreaker, or for teaching second life skills.

Shambles also brought an image changing cube. This puts pictures from the cube in everyone’s cache. If you put the pictures for your presentation in the cube and rezz a small version of it in the area in which you will be presenting this will put the pictures in everyones cache and will make your presentation slides rezz for everyone. Also, you can use it to give out your slides.


Cae Sands showed us a color changing box that helps the viewers to learn colors in German
Gruen = Green
Rot = Red
Blau = Blue
Schwarz = Black
Weiss = White
Gelb = Yellow

We also discussed other areas that have tools to use in SL. One of these was Salamander project by Wainbrave Bernal. A search of the Salamander project tells you that:

The Salamander Project aims to develop a collaboratively determined portfolio of Education Projects in Second Life. Simulations, models, scaffolds, tools, communications, journals, etc. will be exemplified and "tagged" within SL for the purposes of surveying and expanding the developments and discussions taking place between teachers and students in Multi-User Virtual Environments.

Shamblesguru Voom mentioned that he has some tools on his website. http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/sltools/

We then received a notice about the Aldrich Chemistry Game Launch and ended our session there. This may be something of interested to others in SL. Here is a copy of the notice in case you want to check it out:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Aldrich%20Chemistry/24/148/23
Aldrich Chemistry is launching an interesting educational game about chemistry where players create chemical reactions at stations as they progress from lesson to lesson. Educators have an opportunity to come and learn how Second Life can be applied to make learning more fun and engaging.

We think Zotarah for a wonderful presentation on Interactive Builds that sparked each of us to think about the way information is presented in SL.

We are still looking for presenters at the TNC.

If you have an idea for a presentation IM Tek Zeno or Pia Klaar or post a comment here!

Interactive Builds Presentation

Zotarah Shepherd, a student at Sonoma State University, gave a wonderful presentation on Saturday on interactive builds. She gave 6 aspects of interactive builds:

1. Visualization of the subject


2. Sounds about the subject


3. Manipulate it: Relevant clickable animations, editable or physical moveable parts or building


4. Literacy: Reading and/or writing. Questions to answer


5. Notecard or signage explaining the education a purpose and goals of the build


6. Some sort of logical ordering: color, number progression, so the visitor/student will be assured that all the points are accomplished or experienced
   

The first interactive build we went to was one she built on Multiple Intelligences. This is displayed at F/Xual Educational Services http://slurl.com/secondlife/Koru/49/219/23

Next we went to Cave Literature Alive http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cevert/123/88/50 and saw another wonderful example on an interactive build.

Zotarah left us with homework for the week. Now it is out turn! We are to see what you can come up with that you use like a tool that you could use in SL. We will show these at the TNC next week (10/25) at 10:00 am SLT. We hope to see everyone there!

She also provided us with a list of builds and information on building:

ABC Island Welcome Area: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ABC%20Island/130/137/42
Alliance Building: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/115/65/33
American Library Association: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ALA%20Island/179/134/29
Angel Learning Isle: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ANGEL%20Learning%20Isle/67/148/25
Aretao and Moodlerooms NH: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sibine/245/215/73
Blue Angel Poets’ Dive: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Windermere/221/192/34
Center for Water Studies: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Better%20World/55/211/22
College of Scripting, Music and Horsa: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Horsa/46/243/85
Dreams Sandbox and Tutorials: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dreams/106/161/26
Free Math Tutoring: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meyonohk/120/150/50
Hell room Demo ISTE Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/240/184/17
Info Island Machinima Institute: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ALA%20Island/184/152/29
International Spaceflight Museum: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/70/131/25 International Technology Expo: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tuatha%20de%20Flanagan/97/66/32 Lighthouse Learning Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lighthouse%20Learning%20Island/6/135/24
Multi Media Arts Center: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Somerset/230/220/67
Mystic Academy: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Immortal%20Woman%20He/87/147/42
NCI International Classroom: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dream%20City/218/172/51
NMC Conference Center: http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Conference%20Center/68/191/23
NMIT Garden of Learning: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland/94/218/24
Ohio University without Boundaries: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ohio%20University/20/39/25
Oyster Bay: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Oyster/49/128/91
Pyramid in Cairo: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Laurel%20Arts%20Isle/148/73/302
Rockcliffe University: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/199/193/60
ROMA Humanism Garden: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ROMA/231/241/32
Science School: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Science%20School/120/167/26
SJSU School of Library and Information: http://slurl.com/secondlife/SJSU%20SLIS/91/208/35
Talis Cybrary City: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City/124/157/25
Tasneem Project Research Centre: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Xenia/160/217/28
Texture Tutorials: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Benten/25/115/29
The Abyss: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Blekinge/161/26/477
The Cave Literature Alive!: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cevert/131/87/51
The LitAlive! Collaboration Stat: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Norcott%20West/44/37/34
The Magicians: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Abracadabra/214/178/32
The Symposium: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Abitibi/119/6/49
The Whitehorn Memorial Library: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Victoria%20City/128/128/26
Trinity College: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dublin/234/146/26
Vassar Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vassar/111/113/28
Vistor Center, Sprott Shaw College: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sprott%20Shaw%20College/231/51/27
Willow Springs, Montclair State: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montclair%20State%20CHSS/216/154/23
Annenberg Amphitheatre: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Annenberg%20Island/186/89/27
ELVEN Institute: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City%20II/196/188/23

Week of October 13th.

We have an exciting event for next week (10/18 at 10:00 SLT)!

Zotarah Shepard will present “Teaching in SL with Interactive Builds”. Make sure you arrive a little early because Zotarah will take us to some interactive builds that will spark your imagination. Then, the following week (10/25 at 10:00 SLT) it will be your turn to show us what you have made or you can stop by and see the builds of others. This should be an exciting event that we are looking forward to.

I also want to take some time this week to share some resources that you may find valuable.

Do you have students present in your classroom or create digital media? You may find this free teleprompter worthwhile: http://www.cueprompter.com/ cut and paste your student’s paper in the quick start area, pick how you want it displayed and then chose “start prompter”.

Are you looking for some interactive activities to use for your classroom? Try http://www.fossweb.com/ These activities are setup by grade level.

Did you miss out on NECC 2008? Did you know that you can access videos and podcasts of the event at http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/collection.php?collection=2956?

How about the DEN Streamathon? http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/3rd-annual-streamathon/ This site has resources on using digital media in the classroom.

What’s happening in SL this week?

Discover Educators Network:
Monday, October 13th, 5:00 SLT: Book talk: Brain Rules
Wednesday, October 15th, 5:00 SLT: Faythe Fouroux will present Going Green 102: Green Schools

ISTE:
Tuesday, October 14th, 6:00 SLT: Cyrus Hush will present Blue Skies: Education in Second Life
Thursday, October 16th, 6:00 SLT: New Avatar Social at the ISTE Headquarters
Thursday, October 16th, 6:00 SLT: NETS-A discussion at ISTE Discussion Skypark

Teacher Networking Center:
Saturday, October 18th, 10:00 SLT: Zotarah Shepard: Teaching in SL with Interactive Builds


Open call for presentations:

The Teacher Networking Center is looking for presenters to present at the TNC on Saturday’s. If you have something that you feel would be valuable to educators please contact Pia Klaar or Tek Zeno to schedule your presentation!

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!