Wiki postings from day 4 of the PLC

SECOND LIFE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
HOMEWORK FOR WEEK 4

Today in the session, we took a tour of educational sites on the Main Grid. I asked the participants to envision that the interactive sites (not the professional development sites) were available on the Teen Grid and their avatar was also on the Teen Grid. Participants were asked to come up with three ways to use these interactive sites with students. They will be providing their SL avatar names in their post so you may follow-up with them in SL, we are using Google Docs to revise and edit this document, and I will be posting it to the blog when it is complete.

Kathy Schrock

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After spending a few hours on several of the sites we quickly visited in class, I could see lots of potential for student use. For example, I visited the Morocco site and was able to put on an Moroccian clothing, look at different items for sale, and visit the Mosque. I think students would find it not only engaging but also enjoyable and enlightening to be able to be emersed into any culture that could be created in this manner. They could participate in viewing a celebration specific to a culture, witness a religious or governmental event, or just view and participate in a family's daily life routine to learn about the various aspects of differnent cultures. I can see huge potential in the future in this area.

I also toured the Computer Museum and the NASA space center. I would love to see the Computer Museum have a walk through exhibit that students could actually see the inner workings of a computer. Sections could be added to allow students to learn about the various parts and how they all work together. The history piece at this point seems to be just a series of slides. I envision a timeline that students could touch and be transported to that point in history to see how the computer functioned at that time. The NASA site was the most developed in my opinion. With voice-media streaming, it allows the student to take a flight into space while learning about the suits astronauts have to wear and why. I enjoyed the teleport to Mercury, however, once there I could not move (perhaps that is due to lack of gravity? ) At any rate, I see great potential in this area also. Students could be asked to investigate the inner workings of the sun or a smaller star, visit a planet, discover gravity, etc. using their avatar. Students could also set up experiments for other students to try. The biggest advantage to Second Life is the abililty for students to be actively engaged, in a real sense, in their learning experiences.

Kimjoy Fizzle

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I have had to try to think like a teacher of high school or middle school due to the fact that the minimum age is 13 and I teach K-5 students.

A study of glaciers and climate change would be timely, especially with the melting of the ice in Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean and of the glaciers at places like Glacier Park in Montana. At the NOAH area in Second Life, the different phases of the glacier enables students to see what actually happens. Seeing what happens when sea level rises and relating it to what would happen to Cape Cod if the ice in the north were to melt would help children find relevance in the information they are looking for.

Students who are learning how to assemble computers and troubleshoot hardware at Cape Cod Tech could actually purchase the components necessary to build a computer at a teacher made electronics store. They could then "build" the computer in a sandbox reserved for the class.

Using the IBM sports place, have students create a virtual baseball game. Area could be set up that allows students to choose the speed and type of pitch and figure out how a variable such as trajectory and speed affects a batter's performance. This may be impossible to set up on Second Life but it would be a good physics project.

Babette Botha

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Kathy Schrock
Lighthouse Learning Island
Nauset Public Schools