Virtual Pioneers Article

Here is a link to a great article appearing in the Open Press about Andrew Wheelock and his Virtual Pioneers project on Lighthouse Learning Island!

Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach joins Lighthouse Learning Island!

Scott Merrick (Scottmerrick Oh/SL), in his role as the Teacher in Residence at the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach, now has a educational building on Lighthouse Learning Island. Scott will be utilizing the space for his in-life work with teachers and for extensions of projects the "outreachers" are working on in conjunction with the CSO.

The Vanderbilt CSO "is dedicated to enhancing scientific and technological literacy through the establishment of unique partnerships between University scientists, K-12 educators and students, and the local and global science community."

We welcome the new group to the island and look forward to lots of professional sharing and collaborating!

Virtual Pioneers

Spiff Whitfiled (SL), from the WNYRIC organization located on Lighthouse Learning Island, did a presentation for the DEN group last evening. The reviews are raving!

Lighthouse Learning Island PLC Presentations

Following is a video that contains three presentations by the members of the Nauset Public Schools Lighthouse Learning Island Professional Learning Community. These educators took the risk to learn this new environment from scratch and went from logging in for the first time to loading up a presentation board and presenting in Second Life in just 10 short hours!

If you are in-life, you can look up Babette Botha, Kimjoy Fizzle, and Dahling Carling (the three presenters) and the other members who completed the PLC, Raia Schmooz and Hilda Helgerud, and ask then about the experience.

We will be following up with getting the group ready to go to the Teen Grid with sessions on advanced building and scripting.

Nice post about Lighthouse Learning Island

Tom Werner, of the Brandon Hall Research blog, posted some thoughts about Lighthouse Learning Island that made me feel very proud to be part of the project!

Kudos to all of the educators involved and to our school districts who were willing to take a chance!

I am about to embark on phase 2, which involves continuing the Nauset professional learning community and teaching my teachers how to build and create. We hope to have word soon on the availability of funds for a Teen Grid island (Windmill Learning Island??).

Session 8: The In-life Presentations

This evening, four of the teachers in the PLC gave their presentations in-life. I applaud them for taking the risk to try something really new, and they came through with flying colors. In addition, the content of their presentations, mostly about SL sites, was pedagogically sound and they came up with some great ideas that they can carry to the Teen Grid once we make that leap! After a bit of follow-up next week, they will be adding their presentations to the whiteboard in the theater in the back of the Nauset Building on Lighthouse Learning Island.

Here are some photos from the presentations, and our holiday photo! The avatars presenting are Kimjoy Fizzle, Babette Botha, Dahling Cahling, and Hilda Helgerud. The other members of the PLC included Pia Klaar, Wang Wingtips and Raia Schmooz.



Holiday Photo

Presentations & Adobe Education Leaders

Five or six of the teachers that have been in the Nauset Lighthouse Learning PLC this semeseter will be presenting their 5 minute presentations in-life, with voice, this Wednesday (12/5/07) at 5:30pm SLT in the presentation area behind the Nauset building on Lighthouse Learning Island. We are hoping to get all the presentations done in the hour we have. Come cheer on some educators who took the risk to enter this brave new world of Second Life!

On another note, thanks go out to Dennis-Yarmouth Public Schools and Plymouth Public Schools (both on Lighthouse Learning Island) for agreeing to give up a bit of land and some prims to allow the Adobe Education Leaders to have a place in Second Life! I have placed another building on the island, and several of the Adobe Education Leaders have already been by to check it out! Look for exciting things to be happening there in the near future...

For those of you who are interested in finding out about the AEL program and reading the profiles of the very talented educators who are members, visit this page for more information.

Kathy

CNN enters Second Life!

Hey, let's be sure CNN gets lots of submissions from all the educators using Second Life to enhance teaching and learning on the Main and Teen Grids! Watch the video here to learn how to submit a CNN i-Report.

You can even pick up a CNN kiosk to place on your own land!

Kathy

Day 7 of the PLC

Today was a real work day of the PLC group. We only had four attendees today, but I had them make a purchase of a whiteboard, set it up, load it up, put it away, and demo'ed how to save a PowerPoint presentation as jpegs and upload a jpeg to Second Life. Lots of info for an hour, but the group is very professional now, and are true Second Life users!

They will each be presenting a 4-slide show on the night of December 5th, and, if we do not get done, on December 6th. I will be helping them individually in the meantime if they run into snags.

Join us in SL on Lighthouse Learning Island at 5:30 SL time on 12/5 (GMT -5) and watch the PLC group present their thoughts about the use of Second Life to support teaching and learning.

Scott Merrick came by during the class today, and it was a little tough to keep him in the loop of the activities since I was not using voice in-life, and the others were all in the real same room with me. I do appreciate you stopping by, though, Scott!

Kathy

Day 6 of the PLC: Presentation by Kathy Dryburgh

This week, the PLC group came together, with many other guests, to the large presentation area on the Nauset plot on Lighthouse Learning Island. I had an ambitious 92 slides to get through, and I had re-uploaded them at the tiniest size possible so they would rez.

Well, things were moving along nicely, when, at slide 60, a notice from Second Life popped up that they were going to restart the region and we were all going to be logged off. Well, it happened, and, when logging back on, the island was still not available.

I found an nearby island (Eduisland II), where I happened to have rights to place an object, and sent a teleport message to all the participants who had re-logged in. I put out a whiteboard, had KJ and Clare round up the group, loaded up the rest of the slides to the whiteboard, and finished up the presentation. (I was told that things had not been rezzing well, although they were fine for me!)

Things learned:
1. Always have a back-up place to go in case this happens to you. Find a friend who will give you permission to place your educational tools in case the place you are presenting is re-started and disappears while you are presenting.

2. Remember to take your whiteboard with you if there is a note that the island is re-starting, so you can just place it in the new place and continue as if nothing had happened! :-)

3. Learn how to teleport groups of friends...it is easy to do, and I have used it a few times to teleport my PLC group, and it came in handy tonight! (I apologize to those who logged on late, made their way back to the island when it re-appeared, and could not find us at the alternate site.)

4. Remember to set yourself to "busy" when presenting, and, for those of you who are participants, try to find another friend attending the presentation to ask to teleport you or give you information. It is hard for the presenter to do that and present at the same time.

Thanks to all who stuck with the "mobile presentation" tonight! The URL to all the links and the show in PDF format, in case you missed it, is http://kathyschrock.net/web20/

Kathy

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New Life for K-12 Use of Second Life

I think of Second Life as an online collaborative environment that I am using to support teaching and learning in real life. The wonder of the interface is the low-cost and engaging one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many aspects.

There are a core group of pioneering K-12 educators who have been in Second Life for a while now. I am starting to notice a couple of things and would like to pose a challenge.

1. There is a core group of K-12 educators, but I am not seeing many new faces.

2. There does not seem to be a lot of real life K-12 professional development going in in SL (or I am not aware of it.) I think, in order to entice others to the venue, more emphasis needs to be placed on the professional development aspects instead of the social aspects.

3. There needs to be a central database (not dependent upon the group messages) of any open-to-the-public K-12 real life professional development taking place in Second Life.

4. Everyone needs to have voice chat enabled...they do not have to talk, but must be able to listen.

5. Group leaders should use the group IM process sparingly, and only minutes before an event is to occur. It is often problematic and annoying when users are involved in something else. I have taken myself out of many groups because of these interruptions. (I liken it to someone coming into a real life faculty meeting and yelling "There is a make-your-own sundae bar in the staff room!" The meeting kinda goes flat at that point.) We are professional enough to have the events on our own calendars, IMHO.

The challenge I propose to current Second Life educators.

1. Bring one new educator colleague into Second Life per month. Mentor them through the beginning tough times. Make sure they have voice chat enabled.

2. Create and present one real-life professional development session, using voice chat, every two months in Second Life. Those of you in Second Life are capable of using the tools and I know that you have a a huge amount of educational pedagogy to share. Enter the information about your event here. I will be the editor of the database.

With two recent prime-time televisions shows and many talk shows showcasing the non-educational side of Second Life, I think it would benefit those of us who feel this venue is valuable for teaching and learning to provide more professional content in-life.

Kathy

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Nauset Public Schools

Day 5 of the PLC: Presentation In-Life

Well, this was an experience! Tonight I presented, with voice, and streamed mov files on the topic of public service announcements for use in the classroom. (http://kathyschrock.net/psa/).

The presentation was to showcase the use of both a presentation board and a media center. Members of the PLC were in attendance, as were many other visitors including Hodgjazz, Dewey and some of his grad students, Westley, Ahlan, Kety, and Vinnie, to name a few. Although each announcement of the presentation went out explaining voice chat was to be used, some attendees showed up without the voice chat enabled. I did my best to present via voice, cut-and-paste the text for them into chat, and change the slides and start the movies, but I am not sure the whole thing came off smoothly. Most of the technology worked, even with the 20 or so attendees on site, so that is encouraging!

Next week I will be doing another presentation. I think it will be in the large presentation area in the back of the Nauset building. And I think the topic will be Web 2.0 applications for teaching and learning. Thursday night, November 1 (US day) at 5:30pm SL time.

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Nauset Public Schools

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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Lighthouse Learning Island
Nauset Public Schools

Day 4 of the PLC: A Whirlwind Tour

During our session this week, I teleported the entire group to places all over the Main Grid. These sites illustrated the different TYPES of sites that can be created in Second Life-- simulations, interactive sites, front-end to the Net sites, etc.

The teachers were asked, ahead of time, to pretend they were on the Teen Grid and had access to their students and to think about these sites with relation to teaching and learning. Their homework is to provide 3 ways in which they feel some of these sites may be used. They are posting that information to a wiki and I will add it to the blog once it is complete.

Next week, on October 25th at 5:30pm (SL)/8:30pm (EST), I will be presenting a real-life presentation for the group in the Nauset Public Schools building on Lighthouse Learning Island. The point of the presentation is to showcase HOW to present in Second Life. All are welcome, but make sure you have voice enabled so you can hear the presentation!

Kathy Schrock

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Day 3 of the PLC and a Fraps video

During day 3 of the PLC, the participants demonstrated, through their questions and actions, that they are ready to go in the SL environment. They can now easily navigate and are able to edit their avatar and change clothing. Most of this session was spent with the acquisition of personal objects and befriending others in the PLC.

If you would like to chat with any of them in SL, the newbie users are:
Wang Wingtips, Babette Botha, Raia Schmooz, Kimjoy Fizzle, and Dahling Carling. We also have a couple of SL veteran users in the group.

For next week, they have to locate 3 objects that they are able to transfer to the rest of us, so they begin to understand about permissioning of objects.

Each participant received a copy of Richard Mansfields "How to do Everything in Second Life". I have finished it myself, and it is full of tips and tricks and is very well-written.

Below is an embedded video tour of Lighthouse Learning Island. (Be gentle with the comments...it is my first attempt at using Fraps!)

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Lighthouse Learning Island
Nauset Public Schools

Movies of Second Life

The method of making movies available within Second Life is called "machinima" and it does not really do a great job. However, I have found a piece of utility software called Fraps($37) at http://www.fraps.com/ which allows the easy creation of videos from games and online environments like Second Life. You can see a short video from Lighthouse Learning Island here

For anyone who is planning to create movies that can even be brought back into SL if necessary for training purposes, I would suggest the purchase of Fraps. It is available for the Windows platform and there is a demo download that allows 30-second videos.

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Day 2 of the PLC

Day 2 of the PLC had some frustrations...first, one must remember to visit the computers with the SL client the day of the workshop in order to update the software. Pulling down the update to all the computers at once really got us bogged down. Luckily, Pia Klaar (SL) did some of the installs so I could be free to demo some things.

The group is SO engaged and very fast learners. A few have left Orientation Island and were interested in editing their appearance, others are almost ready to leave, and the advanced users in the group are working on building. It is an exciting PLC, and I hope I can keep up with all of them as they continue to advance their skills!

I did purchase several copies of this book, How to Do Everything with Second Life, for all of the groups. It is really well done and has tons of information!

Their homework is to finish and leave Orientation Island, find their way to Lighthouse Learning Island, and find and put on a Lighthouse Learning Island t-shirt.

On another note, I presented our 5-year technology plan to my five School Committees earlier this week and filled them in on the Second Life Project. Of course, a few had seen the Law and Order episode the previous night in which a MUVE called "Another Universe" was presented in a negative light. It did not have an impact on how the project was received, though, since the committees see the project as a worthwhile one! w00t!

Kathy

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Nauset Public Schools
Lighthouse Learning Island

Day 1 of the PLC

The six members of my PLC had their first session today. I had provided them with a little "light reading" last week dealing with the aspects of synchronous and asynchronous online environments and the skills necessary to teach in such environments. We clarified some of the research as a group.

I then gave them an overview of the history of Lighthouse Learning Island and went online to show them what Second Life was all about. I just did a simple fly-over of the island and gave them an in-depth tour of the Nauset Public Schools building. I showed them a tiny bit about inventory and we registered one of the participants together.

They left with Beth Kohnke's great introductory packet and the promise to at least create their account by next week! (We have had to move next week's meeting until Wednesday afternoon due to a conflict.)

All in all, a packed 40 minute session! They did not appear overwhelmed or confused, and I tried my best to keep the SL jargon out of my presentation, since that is often a problem for newbies. I am looking forward to this PLC and working with these educators who are willing to take a risk!

(BTW, Kevin Jarrett (SL KJ Haxx) posted a very nice overview of the project on his blog earlier this week!)

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Nauset Public Schools
Lighthouse Learning Island

Skoolaborate

I took a jaunt over to the project I am involved with on the Teen Grid, Skoolaborate. I still do not have anything in my inventory or any Lindens, so I could only alter my avatar by making new clothing with what I had on hand.

Since the area of the world currently collaborating on the project is Australia and other countries in nearby timezones to them, it makes it hard for me to meet anyone in-life. I did get a chance to try out the new dance floor, but it is really no fun dancing alone! :-)

Kathy MLCAmicus (SL TG)

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Streaming Media

I have been trying to find MOV files online that would support teaching and learning to stream into the Media Center in the Nauset building on Lighthouse Learning Island. I have found that it is truly only MOV files that work by conducting some tests.

I did find submissions to student media festivals that were available as MOV files, so I have added them to the video library of my media center. I think the multimedia aspects of streaming video will make a big impact on the educators attending our PLC sessions.

Kathy

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Nauset Public Schools
Lighthouse Learning Island

Moving ahead....

Well, I am moving ahead with the PLC planning. Yesterday I purchased a bunch of Lindens and distributed them equally among the tech people of the four school districts. They can then mete them out to teachers as they are needed. For my PLC, teachers will need to purchase a whiteboard and upload JPEGS for the presentations they are doing later in the fall, so I will pass the Lindens along to them.

I have also prepared the reading packet for the first session, which contains portions of seminal articles dealing with online collaborative environments. My first goal is to get the participants to understand the pedagogical backbone of this type of environment.

Kathy

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Lighthouse Learning Island

PLC: Synchronous Online Educational Environments

My district's first foray into professional development on Lighthouse Learning Island is now planned and ready to roll. Up to ten teachers will participate in a 10-session professional learning community focused on the use of synchronous online collaboration to enhance teacher professional development.

The PLC will consist of 6 face-to-face meetings (using SL in these sessions) and 4 meetings held in SL. The schedule is as follows. All times are in EST (GMT -4 or -5 depending on the date of the meeting.)

Session 1: 9/27/07 3:30pm-4:10pm
Pedagogy of the use of online collaborative spaces and research discussion
(I am thinking of throwing on a headphone for this one and being in life, although my attention will be focused on the people in the lab with me. If you think this is a good idea, and have voice, let me know and I will do it. I will be in my office located in the Nauset Public Schools building on Lighthouse Learning Island.)

Session 2: 10/3/07 Wednesday 3:30pm-4:10pm
Intro to SL and orientation for the users (part 1)

Session 3: 10/11/07 Thursday 3:30pm-4:10pm
Intro to SL and orientation for the users (part 2)

Session 4: 10/18/07 Thursday 3:30pm-4:10pm
Taking the users on a tour of sites in SL. Starting at the geodesic dome on Lighthouse Learning Island. Most probably a tour of Eduisland II and ISTE island with the newbies.

Session 5: 10/25/07 Thursday 8:30pm-9:10pm
In-life PD presentation by Kathy Schrock in the backyard presentation area on the Nauset Public Schools land on Lighthouse Learning Island. All are welcome.

Session 6: 11/1/07 Thursday 8:30pm-9:10pm
In-life PD presentation by Kathy Schrock in the backyard presentation area on the Nauset Public Schools land on Lighthouse Learning Island. All are welcome.

Session 7: 11/8/07 Thursday 3:30-4:10pm
Instruction in the use of presentation boards within SL. Instruction will probably be held in the sandbox area of Lighthouse Learning Island. All are welcome.

Session 8: 12/5/07 Wednesday 8:30pm-9:10pm
In-life, PD presentation by half of the members of the PLC in the presentation area behind the Nauset Public Schools building. All are welcome.

Session 9: 12/6/07 Thursday 8:30pm-9:10pm
In-life, PD presentation by half of the members of the PLC in the presentation area behind the Nauset Public Schools building. All are welcome.

Session 10: 12/13/07 Thursday 3:30pm-4:10pm
Wrap-up and plans for the second PD PLC for the winter months. If there is a request, I will use voice in SL to share what is going on and our final plans. I will be in my office located in the Nauset Public Schools building on Lighthouse Learning Island.

SLURL for Lighthouse Learning Island:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lighthouse%20Learning%20Island/6/134/24

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Proceedings from the SL Education Conference 2007

Take a look at this great collection of articles from the SL Education Conference held in August 2007! Lots of great ideas, rationale, and exemplary practices.


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Lighthouse Learning Island

On the Teen Grid!

Thanks to Westley Field, I have finally made it onto the Teen Grid! I am joining the Skoolaborate project for a few months as an observer and helper, and then, hopefully, bringing in a middle school teacher and a class after the first of the year. The Teen Grid exploration is in preparation for the purchase of Teen Grid islands by our Lighthouse Learning Island consortium.

I loaded up a box of educational tools, my favorite clothes and furniture, and set the permissions to allow anyone to use the items once I get them onto the sim.

I am still working hard on Lighthouse Learning Island to get it ready for professional development, and hope to announce some upcoming events in the next two weeks!

Hope everyone's start of the school year (at least here in the US) goes well!

Kathy

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Lighthouse Learning Island

Design and Conquer Conference

On August 17th, I had the pleasure of virtually presenting an updated version of "Kathy Dryburgh's Guide to Second Life for K-12 Educators" for the TIES Design and Conquer: A Day of Social Simulation conference held in Minnesota.

Presenting in and with Second Life just adds another layer of complexity to the process, but TIES' own Troy Cherry and I had done mutiple tests using Skype for audio and video for the introduction piece and follow-up discussion. But who would have figured that solid, dependable Skype would go down for more than 24 hours? Troy and I went to plan B, with me utilizing the Mac side of the iMac (which I rarely use!) and using iChat for the video and audio feed. The presentation was given in SL, with Troy as my SL audience and using his mouselook as the view for the teachers in the RL audience. (Hint: I have learned to log-in early and run through all of the slides before the show, which allows them to quickly clear up when it is time to do the presentation.)

The teachers in the audience asked great questions about the use of MUVE's with students, asked me to justify why I like this engaging format, and touched on many other topics. I so appreciated the ability to present and talk to them!

Here is the updated list of links to the sites I covered in the presentation.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

NOAA
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meteroa/177/161/27/
Online video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is8YX32GAyQ

Solar Eclipse Planetarium
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Midnight%20City/94/76/27/

Second Life Library
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/129/208/25

Second Life Medical Library
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/178/202/25/

International Spaceflight Museum
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/23/51/22
Web: http://slispaceflightmuseum.org/

Global Kids
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cincta/89/95/23

Literature Alive
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/181/237/23

Commonspace for Progressive Organizations
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Commonwealth%20Island/193/84/315
Web: http://www.envirolink.org/

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ISTE
http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/128/128/0
Web: http://iste.org/

Terra Incognita
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terra%20incognita/128/128/0
Web: http://profiles.slbuzz.com/decka-mah

Elven Institute
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City%20II/95/188/22

New Media Consortium Campus
http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Campus/184/101/33
Web: http://www.nmc.org/campuswiki/
Online video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9VZKTT6gZ8

Angel Learning Isle
http://slurl.com/secondlife/ANGEL%20Learning%20Isle/128/128/0
Web:http://www.angellearning.com/secondlife/

Genome Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Genome/127/129/49

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON EDUISLAND II

The Blogger's Cafe
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/234/146/22

Carl F. Spackler Hall
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/128/75/37

Discovery Educator Network
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/93/93/22

ISTE Emerging Technologies Task Force
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/159/146/23

Math Playground
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/31/88/22

Podcast Central
http://slurl.com/secondife/Eduisland%20II/129/76/47

Technospud
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/128/75/37
Web: http://technospud.com

Meg Writer
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/17/16/22
Web: http://techteachers.com

Teacher Networking Center (TNC)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/29/20/22

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ISLAND

Lighthouse Learning Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lighthouse%20Learning%20Island/
Web: http://nausetschools.org/lighthouselearning/

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Teen Grid Ideas for the content areas

I have been giving the year-two Second Life plan for our four districts some thought lately and many educators have been asking me for ideas for the use of the Teen Grid with students.

T.H.E. Journal just published a brief article about this topic, covering the Ramapo Island project.

I decided share my initial ideas and to search for some traditional types of classroom activities that might transfer easily to the Teen Grid content-specific islands we will be developing for the 08-09 school year. Since the Teen Grid age is 13-17, these ideas target the grade 8 through 12 grade levels and are intended to be formative assessments to demonstrate the acquisition of content knowledge. Hopefully this brief list of ideas will provide you with a springboard to the development of your own creative lessons and units. Please add any ideas you think of to the comment section!

Science

• 3-d models of everything from working volacanoes, to trebuchets, to scientific experiments


• In-life Invention Convention or Science Fair


• Reproduction of the rainforest environment or any environmental environment

Math

• Use of the Math Playground materials from Eduisland 2 for teaching "SL Logo"


• Use of the building shapes in-life to create geometric shapes (i.e. icosahedron, etc.)


• 3-D formula study guides (i.e. area, perimeter, etc.)


• Demonstration of the mathematics concenpts of ratios, fractions, angles, etc.


• Famous mathematician "presentations"


• Any interactive lesson utilizing manipulatives


• Golden Ratio (Fibonacci number) lesson (as demo'ed in the Operations Research office on Eduisland 2)


• Conduct a Google phrase search on "math manipulative lessons" to find more
  

Social Studies

• Role-playing simulations of town, state, or local government proceedings, including creation of the buildings, etc.


• Simulation role-playing of historic events such as the Mayflower Landing, Ellis Island immigration, etc.


• Use of the American Memory Collection materials (such as America Dreams) with appropriate assessments completed within SL (Webquests often include role-playing and role-taking so take a look at a lot of them)


• Conduct a Google phrase search on "social studies simulations" to find additional material

English Language Arts and World Languages

• I love the idea of bookclubs being held in SL, which many of the public libraries in-world do, whether held during school or at alternate times


• Author visits, from real-life authors or role-playing RL authors


• Honing the presentation and communication skills of students within SL by moving some of the traditional classroom presentations into the engaging SL arena


• Re-creation of spaces from literature or geographic areas of the world (i.e. olde Salem Village, the Louvre


• Streaming of student-created movies, PSAs, etc. into SL

Drama and Music

• Acting out of scenes from plays and books is a natural use of Second Life (Angel Learning Isle's Educators Tool Gallery in SL has a free box of clothes for "classroom productions" that includes some useful period costuming items but take the time to examine the contents and get rid of some things)


• Building the period sets for these productions in-life


• The purchase of a media center in SL (I use the DCE Media Center) would allow streaming of student-produced movies (in mov format) and audio productions (in mp3 format) so one could host a media festival (I am planning on doing this on Lighthouse Learning Island this fall, so join the "K-12 Eduators" group in SL if you would like to know when it is happening)
  

Family and Consumer Science

• Creation of objects in SL with notecards and links to URLs about all aspects of family and consumer science from hand-washing to the food pyramid to babysitting tips and tricks


• Theme-based food creation with links to recipes online for healthy foods and snacks

Physical Education and Health

• Wellness activity demonstrations in-life


• Creation of content that demonstrates rules of games and physical education activities


• A health-link for teens area with notecards and outside links to supporting sites
  

Computer Education

• I used to love the giant computer at the Computer Museum in Boston, which allowed you to walk on its giant keyboard, peer inside at its parts, and rolling the giant trackball. I could see this being reproduced again and again in SL as technology changes


• Creation of in-life tutorials via notecards for applications, technology literacy skills, and SL skills and processes
  

Library and Information Literacy

• The aspects of copyrighted materials and adherence to intellectual property use within SL is an important component of teaching the Teen Grid users
  

Visual Arts

• The creation of an art gallery is easy to do in SL. With changing exhibits, visitors would come back again and again.


• Creation of 3-d models in-life would also be something that could be explored


• Students could also create original artwork and 3-d models for others to use in decorating their on-line spaces
  
  

Please add some additional ideas that you think will work well in SL to support teaching and learning in the comments!

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SL Teen Grid
Kathy Schrock
Lighthouse Learning Island

Introduction to SL Handout

Beth Knittle RL (Beth Kohnke SL), from Barnstable Public Schools, has written a useful introduction to Second Life handout in preparation for a training she will be doing in August. It will be very helpful for newbies as we begin our Lighthouse Learning Island journey!

Introduction to Second Life for K-12 Educators

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Beth Knittle |
Kathy Schrock |
Lighthouse Learning Island

Object Bonus

I discovered, as the estate owner, that I could give more prims to each of the parcels of land on the island, altough the total can still only be 15,000. This is a setting in the estate owner's menu system (object bonus), and will work in this case since I will monitor the common space to keep the prims down, thus allowing more prims for each district.

Each school district now has 2966 prims on their parcel and the sandbox has 840, thus leaving 2296 for the common area (which already houses 1164 prims).

However, I will still be the prim monitor for the island! I know that numbers of prims have been a problem in shared spaces before, so I will be watching! :-)

Kathy

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Kathy Schrock |
Lighthouse Learning Island

Building Discoveries

I had created a simple map of the island that is located at the main telehub for the island. Today I decided to add individual teleports to the locations on the island to the map board. I do not really like those little teleport "balls" that hang next to teleport boards.

I came up with an interesting solution. I created a series of thin, transparent overlays to place over each of the areas of the sign, and put the teleport script in each transparent object. Now it looks like you are clicking directly on the sign to teleport!

Then I learned two new things. I wanted to move a copy of the sign to other spots on the island so I linked the 8 parts. I moved the sign, but the teleport scripts no longer worked. I figured out that you may not be able to link objects with different scripts (makes sense) so, once I unlinked, and just locked the parts, the teleport scripts worked again.

However, I then found out the teleports on the new signs no longer TP'ed to the correct location! Since the locations are absolute locations, I could not figure out why. I opened the scripts, tried the "reset" button, and all was well! So, I guess the teleport script takes into consideration where the sign is located, and the locations I typed in are actually relative to the location of the sign.

I am betting this is already written down, step-by-step, in the SL Knowledge Base somewhere. But I enjoy experimenting, making mistakes, and most importantly, getting it right!

Kathy Schrock

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Kathy Schrock |
Lighthouse Learning Island

Interesting read...

Came across these two sample chapters from a new book entitled "A Beginner's Guide to Second Life". I learned one new thing (my goal for each day), so I decided to go ahead and buy the e-book version to read on an upcoming cross-country plane ride. Take a look at the chapters and decide for yourself. You can also purchase the print book from Amazon.

Today I worked a bit more on Lighthouse Learning Island and decided to add a relaxation area on the Nauset Public Schools land for the teachers after a hard day of professional development-- beach towels, picnic tables and a grill, a hammock, some beach balls to play with, and some deck chairs. Gotta have down-time even in SL!

I am almost done with my plot of land, and have to start ramping up my ideas and methodologies for getting my teachers comfortable enough with the environment and navigation so they can attend and collaborate in SL on a regular basis.

More to follow...

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Kathy Schrock |
Lighthouse Learning Island |
Nauset Public Schools

Reflections on Days 1 and 2

Things I have learned that might be of help to another school district or consortium trying to share an island.

1.
Terraforming land is easy, once you know how to do it. (Read the Knowledge Base!) Of course, as one who ALWAYS consults the Second Life Knowledge Base, I made the mistake yesterday of editing the terrain of the island, much of which was way underwater, by "raising land" piece by piece. Do not do it this way! There is a simple way to get most of it done quickly and then tweak it to your specific needs.

2.
We have four school districts on the island, each of which wants (and needs) to be able to control their own parcel of land and objects on the land. For example, if one district is having a professional development session that is closed to everyone else, they want to be able to allow access only to their teachers. This is all done through the creation of multiple groups and some new roles within the groups.

I am the estate owner, which makes me all-powerful, so it was hard for me to try out the permissions I was granting. Thanks to Majen Hammond (Pia Klaar SL) and Beth Knittle (Beth Kohnke SL) for working with me on the testing. I have created 5 groups, one for each of the school districts and one for the on-island sandbox where our teachers can learn to build. I am the owner of all 5 groups, and have created a teeny bit lesser role, called Tech Director, which gives each district at least one super-user to set permissions, return items, manage the parcel access and ban lists, and more. We will see if this set-up works. I have to keep activating the specific group when I want to move something across parcel lines so I guess I did it right!

One tip for those of you who may be thinking of doing something like this. I left the outside edge and along the walkways, between the parcels, as part of the original estate. This greatly helps when I need to place something for the good of all in the common areas.

3. I have learned as much new stuff in the past two days as I have in the four months I have been in Second Life. This island adventure is not to be taken lightly!

Please come visit:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lighthouse%20Learning%20Island/6/134/24

All professional development opportunities, come September, will be posted as notices in the "K-12 Educators" group in SL, so please join that group if you are interested!

Here is quick photo thus far:

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Kathy Schrock |
Lighthouse Learning Island |
Nauset Public Schools |
Barnstable Public Schools |
Plymouth Public Schools |
Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District

Overview of Lighthouse Learning Island

Interested educators are asking about our idea and plans for Lighthouse Learning Island. Following are a few slides which outline our plan.