Second Life-Breathing New Life to Education?

This week's discussion centered around Second Life and it's effectiveness in education. Second Life is a free virtual environment where users can interact with others users in virtual 3D worlds. Anyone can use basic functions, like attending classes, viewing rooms, chatting with other members. Additionally, users can create their own environments and customize them for personal interests. Second Life Website states, "Second Life is a free online virtual world imagined and created by its Residents. From the moment you enter Second Life, you'll discover a fast-growing digital world filled with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity."

As I visited several environments, I came to the quick realization that this is not for my elementary students. While a teacher may be able to control the environment students visit, from my experience, it would be very difficult to manage who students interact with, and what they are actually chatting about.

Ahh, this is the Web 2.0 conundrum...

At some point must we let go of these restrictions and let students explore and think for themselves? Let them make decisions about right and wrong, and let them succeed without an adult standing over their shoulder to make each decision for them? Maybe, however, I for one have a hard time doing this. Every nurturing bone in my body wants to protect my students from the negativity of the outside world. Given the way we've pushed the boundaries on social media and social interaction, I may be part of the problem! Here are some other thoughts from members of the class:

The ISTE International Society for Technology in Education has an island. On this island, I was I greeted by someone who gave me all of the information I needed to navigate the island. I found a board with all of the sessions offered, including the time.

Second Life is really engaging, and I agree that the younger kids don't have the media literacy skills they need to make this a safe place for them.

Once I discovered how to search properly and teleport, Second Life showed its potential and I had a lot of fun.

I spent most of my time in SL on NASA’s Island. I explored the planets and learned bits and pieces about some of the space shuttle explorations.

Whether we like it or not, it looks like Second Life is here to stay. Only the future know whether Second Life will be better suited for professional development or student learning or both as the Web 2.0 clock turns.

Click here for more information on Second Life!

You may want to see a video introduction of Second Life like the one below.

Educational Gaming - Friend or Foe?

It doesn't take long to find games with an Internet search. There are a multitude of results, from arcade style gaming to, what some may consider, educational games. The discussion this week centered around technology gaming in schools, friend or foe?
Whether you are in support of them or not, there is no question kids love them.

• Some educators believe there are negative implications of gaming in the classroom.

"While there are concerns like violence in games, simply being aware of different games canreduce the chances of students using these types of games."

"Some even have the flashing "you've just won ____" and my kids really think they've won that free laptop or million dollars! I guess I can look at it as an opportunity to educate, but it really is annoying."

" I would not want to see students/children become so involved with technology, that they no longer understand how to interact face to face with other individuals. "

• However, many educators made substantive arguments for gaming in the classroom:

"I agree with your thoughts that even kids with attention problems can play video games for hours on end. I would love to be able to motivate these kids to learn as much as they are motivated to play games. "

"In the same way, the game might also be a hook to get students interested in the topic to begin with. I see a big cross over between the fantasy games kids are playing and their interest in medieval history. "

"The nice thing about technology, is that it has allowed the learning to deepen with morecomplex ideas and increased exploration into a particular subject. "

I like how Jenn sums up this discussion for the week,

"The most important thing, is that no matter how the games are delivered, that if they can support classroom lessons, students will be encouraged to subconsciously to understand and learn more deeply about subject matter. Games do indeed make learning more fun."

I would tend to agree with this stance on the subject. As long as the classroom technology games can support the curriculum/standards of learning in a meaningful way, games should become a new tool in the scaffolding of student learning.

For sites with educational games, try these links:
Simple online Java applet for fractions
Visual Fractions: A tutorial that models fractions with number lines or circles.
Quia. This is a pay site, but there are some free resources and games available for trial.
Fun Brain and Fact Monster
The game, Lure of the Labyrinth, is a product of a US DOE grant, LG2G, Learning Games to Go.

Social Networking

I found this week's conversations full of resources. There was a conversation about blogging that I was particularly interested in because I have just started using them in my own classroom. I am not going to give out my blog address for security reasons, but I will give you my email in case there is a class that would like to "network" with my class using our blog site.

jdaniels@kpbsd.k12.ak.us

My students each have their own blog. I have started to give students assignments to post in their blog. This is similar to what Jason Ohler has asked his students to do for his ED632 course. I sometimes ask for a reflection about a topic we have discussed in class. I have also asked students to write a story and post it on their blog. In any case, it has become a valuable part of our classroom culture. Student like to use it. They are naturals at using their blogs, and have found innumerable ways to use it's functions to communicate ideas and preferences.

I found the the conversation this week was positive toward blogs, and I believe that blogs are the easiest of the Web 2.0 tools to implement in the classroom. Among other Web 2.0 tools, social networking tools include:

• MySpace
• Facebook
• Wikis
• Blogs
• Voicethreads

Here is a video from my favorite source for Internet tools "in plain English", The Common Craft Show. This video comes in an unbranded "presentation quality" version that can be licensed for use in the workplace at http://www.commoncraft.com/store-item/video-social-networking




I will continue to improve upon my skill at using blogs in the classroom. I believe there is a great deal of untapped potential here.

The next step in technology?

This is an interesting video about what the next generation of computer might look like. I'm not sure about this. It looks innovative and powerful at first. What if you spill your soda on it? See what you think... :)

Wiki Fever!

Many teachers vigorously defend the use of Wikis in education. They say wikis are collaborative, safe, and promote an ongoing pursuit of learning. This may be true, but through a full week of discussion, I am still not convinced that wikis are the most effective online collaborative tool for elementary classrooms. They recommended 3 wiki Websites for use in the classroom:

• http://pbwiki.com/
• http://www.wikispaces.com
• http://www.wetpaint.com

This video explains what wikis are in plain English



In my opinion, and in the opinion of other teachers on the Ed 632 blog this week, There are risks and obstacles in using wikis.

Dallas writes, "As for risks, by giving my students user names to use the private educational wiki at Wikispaces.com, they also gained access to creating their own wiki. I don't have total control on these particular accounts. I'm sure that the Wikispaces business profits by the exponential number of members they get by offering teachers free private wikis."

Lindsey writes, "Some of the risks with wikis are that information that is published may not be correct." She also stated, "The one frustration that we had was that they all wanted to edit the page at the same time and they couldn't if someone else was editing the page. "

Trevor states, "My largest concern is the "blind leading the blind," grammatically speaking. Students may make suggestions that don't improve a paper, and the author may not be sharp enough to realize it."

Sarah reflected on a previous attempt as she states, "I have tried to establish a class wiki, but about half of my parents were not ready to let their children have email accounts. "

There were an assortment of positive student projects as well. My alternative for the "wiki phenomenon" is the use of Google Docs. Google Docs can do the same thing and has other features that make it more user friendly. Features like speadsheet, powerpoint, and document sharing and editing all in one place. In Google Docs students could have their own account where they can upload, share, customize, and edit their projects. Distant students can be invited to edit and share as well. Since Google is a well established and multimedia rich suite of applications, there are many ways to collaborate and integrate other features of the Google suite. Additionally, Google Docs has a "Windows" look to it's navigation scheme. Since my students are working on Windows machines, this makes Google Docs all the more enticing.