Second Life…Hmmmm

Other than playing video games with my son, Second Life is my first foray into a virtual world. I’m not sure whether I’ll ever get back in but it was interesting. The learning curve is a little more difficult than I expected. There definitely is some appeal in being able to create a whole new you. New name, new identity, new body and clothes…and the ability to reinvent yourself over and over, all in a few minutes is very intriguing.

I wonder what kind of effects virtual worlds like these will have on the human race. There is the benefit of social networking and communities based on similar jobs or interests. But does the benefit out weigh the possible negatives? Will people use their free time to live in these worlds because they are unhappy with the lives they have? Will this type of social and business interaction become the norm?

My experience in Second Life was less than stellar. When I first got in and tried to change my avatars look there was a naked woman behind me. She was just standing there not doing anything. There was also a guy dressed like a Transformer who kept pointing a gun at my head…not a good advertisement for the place. On the positive side I enjoyed creating a new me, though I would have liked to have added wings. I did not spend enough time playing around before our class session. I should have as I had a terrible time moving around. Also something was wrong with my connection and I had to get back in twice. Orrtcloud had to keep teleporting me because my computer was working so slow that I even had trouble typing in words. Second life would only recognize some of the letters and people thought I was ignoring them. Maybe the next I get in I’ll have a better connection.

I am having a problem understanding the educational value of Second Life. I’m not sure about the age groups that I teach or the teachers that would use it as well. I don’t know what kind of security SL has but it can’t be secure enough for my students. I also don’t think the parents would be thrilled to see their children on SL for homework. I’m just not convinced that this form of virtual reality would be a valuable tool for my tech lab. I’m willing to get back in and try to understand it better and give it a chance…but my next experience better be an immediate improvement over the last one.

Evaluation of one or more intriguing educational Web 2.0 (or 3.D) applications.

There are so many new tools, widgets, gadgets and apps available in this world now that it boggles the mind. The ease of communications and speed of information sharing is shrinking our world. There is free online phone service that can be audio or visual. There are bookmarking sites, social networking, blogs and wikis, online picture storage, instant sending of documents and even the ability for multiple users to work on the same document at the same time. The collaborative possibilities are endless. Here are a few of the ones I like and/or have worked with.


Google Earth…It has the coolest maps and can take you to the moon, out into space, under the ocean, the Roman Coliseum, or your own house. I took a workshop this last winter that taught me how to use Google Earth to create a Lit Trip. This fall, the Librarian and I are going to teach an entire unit about the Iditarod. We are going to use Google Earth to create a virtual trip that allows the students to travel along with the mushers from check point to check point. Last year our Latin team used it with the middle school to study ancient Rome. It is an amazing educational tool. Not to mention that it can give you great directions to the nearest restaurant that lets you bring your own wine.

http://earth.google.com/


Skype…is a free phone service. You can call via your computer for free to anywhere in the United States…international calls have a fee. You can also make a video call so that you can show Grandma in California how cute the new baby puppie is. We used it in my lab last year to talk with two schools with whom we were collaborating on a global poverty project together. The schools were in California and India and the time zone issue was tricky. Still cool though!

http://www.skype.com/




SketchUp is an architectural software package that allows the user to create 3D models of
anything they want. It can be used for designing a new school, gymnasium, anything needing math equations to create and to help study architecture in general. We used it in tandem with Google Earth, last year, to study Chicago architecture and design our own houses. Like anything created by Google is has plenty of training videos and a huge community of users that are happy to help in any way.


http://sketchup.google.com/index.html


Pandora…is a personalized radio station that you create yourself. You choose a few songs and it starts to recognize the kind of music you like. It offers song suggestions and genre suggestions as well. It plays on your computer in the background so you can do your work and listen to music you like any time you want to. I use it to create radio stations for the different grades that I teach. We listen to everything from High School Musical stuff (bleck!) to classic rock to Linkin Park. We’ve used it for researching music and to expand the musical tastes of my sometimes narrow minded students. Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin ROCK!

http://pandora.com/

Resource depositories or lists with materials relevant to the candidate's interests; Movies!

I love movies…all kinds. They are such a great source of laughter, sadness, intrigue, fear, self-reflection, inspiration, suspense, history, knowledge,…I could go on forever. When I’m a little down I watch a comedy. When I just want entertainment I watch one of a million other genres. I chose this topic for my blog partly because of the new Harry Potter movie (Woo Hoo!) and partly because one of the instructions for this topic is to choose a personal interest. Did I mention how much I like movies?

I started looking for lists of movie types that I like the most; such as science fiction/fantasy, educational, and classic. I found a site with lists of movie genres from action, to musical, to war and beyond.

http://movies.amctv.com/movie-guide/genres.php

These are just a few that have personal meaning for me.

The Dark Knight

A Clockwork Orange

Planet of the Apes

Cousteau: The Great White Shark - Lonely Lord of the Sea

March of the Penguins

The Scarlet Claw

Unforgiven

Also, a TV series for kids called Amazing Animals is one of my favorite educational shows about nature. Unfortunately it is only shown on Canadian TV, though the VHS tapes might still be available.

Here are a few more directories and lists of cool movie type stuff.

http://www.dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Education/Film_Schools/

This one is a very large list of schools and organizations for all things acting, film, television and radio. I don’t think I’ve ever come across such a comprehensive list for this topic.

After researching movies themselves I tried a tighter search for movies about educators. I found a few lists about men as teachers and women as teachers.

http://www.menteach.org/resources/movies

This one features movies like Dead Poet Society and Pay It Forward; two of my favorite films ever!

http://www.amazon.com/Inspirational-Education-Movies/lm/R1NBROPOIRM8RG

Amazon has a small list of movies that include some with women as the inspirational teachers.

I guess I just feel that movies are such a part of our culture that they should be used to inspire our students whenever it is appropriate. I certainly wouldn’t use Dead Poet Society to teach my students how to behave in the classroom; however I would use it to teach them about taking chances and being true to themselves. Pay It Forward demonstrates the ugliness of bullying and the beauty of love and self-sacrifice with no personal gain. The Sherlock Holmes movie The Scarlet Claw, and pretty much all his movies, demonstrates awareness of your surroundings and being able to put clues together to solve a problem.

All of a sudden I feel inspired to design some lessons based on TV shows or movies. I’ll need to do more research…Duh, Duh, Duh! Exit stage left…fade to black.

Say goodnight Gracie…

Criteria for the Evaluation of Web-based Materials

When I started the position as Technology Specialist at my school I thought I knew everything there was to know about finding the right websites for my classes. Boy did I have a lot to learn. While doing the research for this blog entry I discovered many methods of research with differing criteria. Some of what I found I was already familiar with and some I was not, yet happy to find.


I found a great site for explaining a most interesting method… the old stand by, who, what, when, where and why. It never occurred to me to apply this method to the internet; at least not all 5www’s and not in this particular way. Some of what I have written about this are my words and some came from this site I found.

Who wrote/published the information on the site? Who is the author and can he/she be contacted? Does the author have good credentials and is any sponsor credible?


What information and resources does the site provide? This is all about the content. What is the purpose of the site and does it realize that purpose? Is there bias in the writing and is it accurate? There is so much more

When the site was created /last updated? Where does the site live? Why should I use this site? Here is the url for this site. It has a ton of interesting information and looks valid to me.

http://www.classzone.com/books/research_guide/page_build.cfm?content=web_eval&state=none

Here is another site I found very helpful. It is a Google directory for website evaluation including a number of hoax sites to be aware of.

http://www.google.com/Top/Reference/Education/Instructional_Technology/Evaluation/Web_Site_Evaluation/

Wikipedia is a good example of a web site that has a bad reputation for inaccuracy as visitors are allowed to make changes to posted information. However, it does have a large staff whose job it is to fix any incorrect additions made. Interesting that this method of updating web-based materials is much faster than reprinting print based materials.

There are so many criteria to keep in mind when evaluating anything on the web…depth, format, accuracy, ease of use, appropriateness, links to other sources, and more. There is so much to know, so much to keep in mind as we teach. After researching for evaluation information regarding web based materials I feel the need to dig further and maybe create a unit for internet research for the higher grades in my school. It would be very helpful for the middle school students who have many large projects that require intense research. I feel inspired to create lessons on this subject for each grade I teach. Students are never too young to learn about internet etiquette, safety and appropriate use.

The Value of Internet Resources for Education

The internet…what a huge source of knowledge, entertainment, depravity, danger, and frustration it can be. How are we as educators, already over taxed for time, supposed to find the most engaging and safest resources for our students? Once we’ve found the appropriate web sites, if we are classroom teachers, how do we integrate that information into our curriculum? If we are Technology Specialists how do we teach the skills our students need while collaborating with those same classroom teachers?

Every minute there are millions of megabytes being loaded to the web and it is increasing exponentially. The amount and types of information out there is staggering. Unfortunately students who have little guidance from inexperienced teachers can find the wildest things. A few years ago the movie Men in Black came out and I wanted to know more about the man who composed the music for the movie (Danny Elfman). I typed in meninblack.com and was sent to a sado-masochistic web site for men.


I believe the value the internet provides far out weighs the negatives. Schools can collaborate on global projects with countries all around the world. Students and teachers can work on the same projects together all editing at the same time. The sharing of information is almost instantaneous! Skype and chats can allow quick communication and less need for telephones. Anyone can go online and give a poor person in another country a small business loan needed to start a business to feed their family. You can also play a game and feed the hungry. The possibilities are endless. It boggles the mind at the idea of finding exactly the right piece of information for your particular need.

The biggest problem I have with using many internet resources is getting the faculty and staff on board. There are many teachers who don’t see the value for their classrooms and don’t want to go through the training to be able to use it. They have a difficult time seeing the connection between what they do and what I do. It’s pretty obvious to me!

I think that with proper safeguards the internet is a very safe place to do research and have fun. As educators we have a certain amount of power that requires an equal amount of responsibility. As long as we teach our students to respect the internet for it’s reality they will do fine as they journey along their academic careers. Today’s technology lays the foundation for students to be able to transition into new technologies that they will use for the rest of their lives. It is a very exciting time in which to live!

Hey Everyone,

Welcome to my blog!

Hope you all have a great 4th!

See you Tuesday.

Anne