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I just got a chance to listen to the podcast on Podcast: Using Second Life for Immersive Learning.
It was really interesting to hear how Cynthia Calongne, she is using secondlife. Her students meet and collaboratively work on projects and exchange information.
I really liked when she said she has an underwater office and she has sharks on the island. (WOW)She mentioned she goes to her office for relaxation.
She also talks about the avatars and how they represent the inner you. I know mine does. I would have to agree when she says there is a strong sense of community in this virtual world. The meetings we have in second life are great. We all have an opportunity to explore a "WORLD" without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
Hey guys,
I think I am getting better at second life.
Knowledge Share
Knowledge Share™ is a powerful place to share your Knowledge. It is a place were businesses have a uniform place to access all the organizations databases. I can see myself using knowledge share in a company I work for. I feel it would bring about a sense of community among people who work together. The employees would be able to share ideas and brainstorm new ones. I like the fact that you are able to create a project register within the program because everything is in one central location.
Knowledge share was designed by ICS which is an intranet knowledge management framework. Knowledge Share™ is a cost effective, flexible and user friendly solution.
create information domains
easily access documents
Knowledge Share provide an easy front-end to the organizations databases and let individuals and departments publish information they need to communicate and collaborate with the rest of the organization, partners and customers in the context that suits.
What can I say about secondlife?
I know it is a community working together to build a new online space for creativity, collaboration, commerce, and entertainment. I joined secondlife today. I am in the process of doing the tutorials. I am still on the beginners island. Can some rescue me? It is very interactive and interesting. It was funny looking at avatars walking into things and trying to fly. I guess I am not the only one struggling.
Jeff Mao Coordinator of Educational Technology manages professional development workshops. He makes sure things are headed in the right direction. He works in a school district with 4400 laptops for students. One of the teachnologies used is Studywiz. It is an online learning system. Once you log in everything is there from all of your classes, it is different from blackboard where you have to go into each class separately. It is teacher-student centered. The teacher can set up chats for a certain number of students at one time. I think this is a really nice way to integrate technology. The student have an opporunity to engage in the classroom from there home just as college students do.
Noteshare- is a digital notebook. I like the way you can drag files into noteshare. You can organize digital resources. You can download it for free. You must have Mac os x 10.3.9 here is the link http://www.download.com/NoteShare/3000-2267_4-10620729.html
The laptops are deployed to 7 and 8 grade students. The district will work on 9-12 deployment next year. I also like the fact that there are professional development workshops for teachers and principles. The district ulitizes 4 levels of technology integration. The workshops for principles has an emphasis on how to become an effective leader and how to look for technology integration in the classroom. I like the fact that the principles are the only ones in the room and they have group work and discussions on how to improve.
Mao states “technology can be used as a solution to make the schools run smoothly". I would have to a gree. Because everything is at the tip of your fingers, it is less paper work, and the students are totally engaged in learning.
To listen click here Ed Tech Talk: 21st Century Learning Podcast.
I just finished listening to the podcast of Vicki Davis of Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia and Adam Frey of Wikispaces who sat down for a brief interview at NECC to discuss how Vicki is using wiki technology to support her award-winning Flat Classroom project. I feel it was really interesting. I was wondering how would the students be assessed? As I listened, she stated that rubrics are used and the students have to post to the discussion area and make edits to show they have been collaborating. She also stated, she looks in the history to see who has been doing what. I never thought about using wikis in a k-12 setting. I thought it was too technical. I guess I was wrong. Here is the wiki link to her classroom's wikispace westwood.wikispaces.com.
I think that emergent technologies are needed in today’s classrooms. As a child, I sat in classrooms that were very boring. All my teachers used drill and practice instructional methods. My grade school teachers would always stand in front of the classroom and lecture to me. As a child, I thought it was how the classroom should be run.
Once I graduated from college, I became a mathematics teacher. My thoughts and beliefs on what instructional methods to use in the classroom shifted. I believed it was my duty to make sure my students were engaged in the classroom. My instructional methods had a variety of learning styles. For example, my students would have an opportunity to get on the computer and engage in mathematics games. One of the sites was funbrain.com. There are games for students in grades k-8 in any subject. There is also a section for teachers. I hope you enjoy.
