Second Life ™

Here is a sampling of snapshots of last night’s DEN in SL Demolition. Stay tuned for a slideshow in the near future!

Now you see it…

Now you don’t…

And up with the new…

Not sure where to start….

Tonight at 5 p.m. SLT there’s gonna be MAJOR destruction going on on EduIsland II — it’s down with the old and up with the new.  Be prepared for a new look!  (NO, NO, NO — I’m NOT changing my signature hair color! LOL)

Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 13th at 9 p.m. EST the DEN in SL will take part in the WoW (Women of the Web) podcast.  You can join in on the conversation at http://edtechtalk.com/chat

And don’t forget to join us on Wednesday for our weekly workshop.  Hall Davidson (Apophene Singh - SL) will be presenting at 5 p.m. SLT (8 p.m. EST).  Be sure to join us for what is bound to be a great workshop.  I’d share more, but it’s still ‘under wraps’! LOL

Phew….just writing these into a post is tiring me out…off to a nap, then putting on my construction boots, hard hat, and grabbing my sledgehammer.  See ya!

As the sign says, ‘Stay Tuned for the DEN’s Stellar New Look’. Be on the look-out for some changes at DEN in SL. And it will guarantee NOT put you to sleep……
posted by Laelia Laval on Eduisland II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Hot off the press and fresh in my mind.  I’m sure I’ll be adding pictures over the next day or so to this post (I often rely on my LC members to add to my supply of pics) so check back.

The evening kicked off with Peyton Merlin sharing Flickr Storm — which, as far as I’m concerned, is the ideal photo assembling site (hmmm, wonder if that’s a new category? LOL).  Basically you’re searching Flickr (with Creative Commons attribution labels), selecting the images you want, collecting them in a ‘tray’, getting a url that is valid as long as Flickr Storm is valid and THAT’S IT!  You provide the students or teachers with the url, or post it to a webpage, or e-mail it out and there they have a perfect photo set for the project they are working on.  (NOTE:  IT people love this since you are not using up server space). 

Following Peyton was Faythe Fouroux who shared a half-dozen websites which she uses.  From preK-6 educational gaming site IKnowThat, to a now *FREE* e-mailing and blogging website e-Pals, to a couple of subscription based websites, such as NetTrekker (think of an educational search engine with read-aloud capability and readability levels listed) [NOTE:  wouldn’t it be GREAT if NetTrekker were to provide DEN STARs w/ a *FREE* one year subscription to their service….hint, hint, hint — in case anyone from NetTrekker is reading this!] to Study Island (a test prep website).

Faythe was followed by Thonalon Umarov who shared the notebook feature of Zoho.  Who knew?  I always thought Zoho was an ‘aka Google Docs’ type of application.  You know, a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation application.  I NEVER knew that Zoho also had a component that was very much like MS’s Notebook, or Google Notebook, or Circus Ponies’ Notebook (Mac).  I’m typing this post as fast as my fingers will let me ’cause I’m heading over to check this feature out before I head to bed tonight.  You can create different pages for different classes or grades/subjects, you can record audio and video, and embed audio/video.  You can check out more on Zoho notebook at Thon’s website.  If you’re currently using the notebook feature in Zoho, would you please leave a comment below as to how you use it and why you think it would be a great tool for teachers to use.  Thanks….

We rounded out our STAR-studded evening with Southern Georgia who shared information on graphic organizers and Thinking Maps from Intel.  I’m sure that Southern’s notecard will be placed in Google Groups in the Files section, so be sure to check that out in a couple of days.

Night all….I’m off to Zoho…..

Hope to see you this evening at 5 p.m. SLT (8 p.m. EST) for the STARS Shine Bright! Wednesday Workshop.  DEN STARS (Peyton Merlin, Faythe Fouroux, Thonalon Umarov  and Southern Georgia) will be sharing favorite tips, tricks, sites and more. Come learn from our STARS. As you know, ” we are our best resource” ! 

As this is Teacher Appreciation Week, the DEN in SL would also like to show their appreciation to our teachers.   A raffle ball has been set up in the DEN in SL HQs which is paying a random person on Eduisland II $L5 every 11 minutes.

Thank you for all that you do!

Blame it on the workshop!  That’s right!  I’ve been so immersed in the websites that Geekie shared at Wednesday’s workshop that I TOTALLY spaced out on updating the blog!

Poor Paul Revere!  He was the ’subject’ of image editing on Wednesday.  Needless to say, I hope he’s looked better in real life! LOL  Geekie shared two online photo editing websites, Picknik and Phixr, and even if you were familiar with the websites Geekie managed to show us some ‘advanced’/'creative’ features that many of us weren’t aware of.  Once you’ve editing images you going to want a place to highlight them, and what better place than Scrapblog, an online scrapbooking website.  But, by far, the BESTEST (yes, that’s a word! LOL) part had to have been her sharing Big Huge Labs, which is the cause of this delayed post.  Think of a playground, no wait, think of an arcade, no wait, think of the LARGEST game park around…multiple it by 10, and you’ve got what Big Huge Labs is to images, and to those who want to ‘play’ with those images.

Do you recognize the avatar????  Hint:  She’s on the DEN in SL LC.

Shopping Tip:  Head over to Tesla’s at (Tesla 42, 59, 74) for a *FREE* pair of shoes, ‘Shiny Red Felicity Slingbacks’.  They’re definitely worth the trip from anywhere!

A bunch of us are enjoying Geekie Kidd presenting on photos, editing tools, and photo toys. Stay tuned for more!
posted by Laelia Laval on Eduisland II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

OMG!  Can you repeat after me? ‘M’…’A'…’Y'…that’s right!  It’s going to be MAY in two (2) days!  Where did the winter go?LOL  Not that I’m looking for it!  Though in SL, the weather is always just perfect.  Anyway, get your calendars out, get the pen ready, turn on your PDA, sync the info to your computer, I don’t really care how you do it, but get these dates down!

DATE:  May 7, 2008

‘STARS Shine Bright!’ presented by Peyton Merlin, Thonalon Umarov, Faythe Fouroux  and Southern Georgia

DESCRIPTION:  DEN STARS will be sharing favorite tips, tricks, sites and more. Come learn from our STARS. As you know, ” we are our best resource” !  Do you have something to share? Let us know!
*****

DATE:  May 14, 2008

‘Stay Tuned & Stay Connected’ (that’s my motto…thought I’d throw that in while waiting to hear back from Hall on the title, figured that regardless, the title would be appropriate to anything Hall will present!LOL) presented by Hall Davidson

*****
DATE:  May 21, 2008

‘So You Want to Be a STAR?’ presented by Riptide Furse
*****

DATE:  May 28, 2008

‘Trivia Spring Training’ presented by Riptide Furse

As always all times are 5 p.m. SLT (8 p.m. EST)

You too can join the DEN in SL Den Guide program! As you can tell, the work isn’t all that difficult (thx Unklar for modeling!LOL). You meet, greet, and answer any questions that visitors may have. It’s a great way to hone your SL skills as well. Contact Beth Kohnke in-world.
posted by Laelia Laval on Eduisland II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Don’t forget to join us this Wednesday at 5 p.m. SLT (8 p.m. EST) for another fabulous workshop!  This week it’s  ‘Get Creative with Images! Online Photo Editing for Education and Fun!’ presented by Geekie Kidd (Charlene Chausis - RL).  Geekie will share ideas for editing, annotating and/or enhancing digital photos — either from your camera, or from the
thousands of images available at Discovery Streaming! We will explore free web tools such as Flickr Toys, Picnik, Phixr, and Scrapblog.

Don’t forget to bring your virtual camera and ideas to this workshop!

Workshop will be held at the sandbox outside of the DEN HQs.