Second Life ™

Well, Riptide was at his peak on Wednesday night.  His questions are becoming more and more challenging and it wasn’t simply a matter of typing like a maniac to answer the question correctly — you actually had to ‘think’! LOL  Vita and DocL both tied as the winners, with Valaina a close second.  Congrats to all who managed to answer one of Riptide’s questions correctly!  I for one, was happy to have been unable to play because I was on the Leadership Council (I think that out of all the questions, which I believe numbered 50, I only was able to ‘answer’ one correctly!). 

Valaina upon learning that she answered a question correctly!

Following the hour of Trivia, we were pleased to host the Senior Project as they shared their project with us.  “Incorporating traditional and performance based teaching and curricula strategies that merge with a foundation of strong basic knowledge and skills requiring a real world application, Senior Project is a challenging student driven, teacher-guided culminating program. Senior Project High Schools require seniors competently to complete each of the following related 4 P’s - Paper, Product, Portfolio, Presentation.”  You can visit them in-world here.  They are located on EduIsland II right above SLolar Central.

Can you believe it?!?!  Tomorrow is June 1st!  I know that some of us are already on summer ‘time’ (don’t like to call it ‘vacation’ since most of us ‘work’ during the summer! LOL), others are about to, and yet others (like myself) have a WHOLE month to go before we reach that time!

In any event, whether you’re already on summer ‘time’ or winding down, I hope you’ll consider joining us for these upcoming Wednesday Workshops. 

DATE:  June 4, 2008

WORKSHOP: Discovery Education Assignment Builder

PRESENTER: Cal Kjeller

DESCRIPTION: Discovery Education Streaming is much more than excellent streaming videos! This presentation will take you step by step through using the Assignment Builder to create activities for your students to use both in and out of the classroom. Tips and tricks for customizing your assignments will be included.

SLT TIME: 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CDT, 8 p.m. EST)

*****

DATE:  June 11, 2008

WORKSHOP:  iStream, uStream, Live Streaming In Second Life ™

PRESENTER: Demb OH

DESCRIPTION:  One of the biggest trends in Web2.0 is live video streaming.  From uStream to Operator 11 to Seesmic to Qik, it is becoming easier and easier to broadcast yourself live to the masses.  So what about Second Life?  How can Live Video streaming be incorporated into SL and what can it be used for?  First learn practical ways to bring live video in-world and then let’s see just how far along the cutting edge we can surf!

SLT TIME: 5 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CDT, 8 p.m. EST)

*****

DATE:  June 18, 2008

WORKSHOP:  Your Camera: It isn’t Just for Taking Pictures Anymore!

PRESENTER: Celestia Cazalet

DESCRIPTION: Did you know you can visit places in SL without even leaving the DEN? You’ll learn how and so much more as you discover the hidden secrets of camera controls.

SLT TIME: 5 p.m. SLT ( 7 p.m. CDT, 8 p.m. EST)

*****

DATE:  June 25, 2008

WORKSHOP:  NECC Pre-game show

PRESENTER:  Cami Goyut (Camilla Gagliolo, RL, ISTE Board of Directors, Executive Committee At-large Member & Special Interest Group Representative)

DESCRIPTION: We’re getting ready for NECC, ideas to help plan, how to use NECC as a tool for your PLN. Informal discussion for those that may have questions as they prepare to head to NECC.

SLT TIME: 4 p.m. SLT (6 p.m.  CDT, 7 p.m. EST)

*****

And just a ‘heads up’, there will be NO Wednesday Workshop on July 2, 2008 since many of us will be at NECC in San Antonio.

Here are the May Trivia Questions presented as a My Studiyo quiz. Thanks to everyone who made this so much fun. We gave away nearly L$1000. If you haven’t tried My Studiyo already then give it a try.

During Teacher Appreciation Week, the DEN in SL had an automatic raffle ball going.  Requirements were that there be a minimum of 4 avatars on the EduIsland II and the raffle ball randomly chose avatars every 15 minutes.  We managed to get a picture of one of the lucky winners, Penelope Drucker — CONGRATS Penelope!

Good Morning!  Yes, I’m in a ‘chipper’ mood this morning….the sun is (finally!) shining, the forecast is for increasingly warmer temps over the next three days, there’s NO SCHOOL on Monday, I don’t have any ‘looming’ deadlines in front of me this weekend, and life is good!

Want to remind you of our upcoming Wednesday Workshop, ‘Spring Training Trivia’.  The DEN in SL is giving away Linden dollars again — well, not exactly ‘giving’ them away, you do have to earn them by being the first to get the answer to one of the trivia questions correct!  This is going to be a mixed bag of trivia so everyone can have a chance of winning some money.  The only thing is the fastest typer with the correct answer gets the money. So practice over at Typer Shark
or TypeRacer.  AND REMEMBER!!!  WE ARE MEETING AT 4 P.M. SLT (6 p.m. CST, 7 p.m. EST).

And plan on staying for Part II - the ‘Senior Project’, immediately following the trivia event.   DEN in SL will be playing host to Aspen Alexandria (SL)/Carleen Osher (RL), CEO/ Executive Director for the Senior Project Center Senior Project.  Here’s a summary of the Senior Project from their website:  “Incorporating traditional and performance based teaching and curricula strategies that merge with a foundation of strong basic knowledge and skills requiring a real world application, Senior Project is a challenging student driven, teacher-guided culminating program. Senior Project High Schools require seniors competently to complete each of the following related 4 P’s:Paper, Product, Portfolio, Presentation.”
 
You can learn more at: http://www.seniorproject.net

Please make plans to join Riptide Furse on Wednesday, May 21st at 4 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. EST) as he presents, ‘So You Want to Be a STAR?’.  Join us to find out what is all this talk about STAR Educators? Do you think you have what it takes to be a STAR Educator (OF COURSE YOU DO!!!  And Riptide will guide you through the process.). Set aside this hour to find out all that is required.  We will even have time for you to do your first event.

NOTE:  THIS WORKSHOP IS BEING HELD ONE HOUR EARLIER THAN USUAL.

SLip: (Second Life Tip)  Well, not ‘exactly’ a SLip, but it does pertain to your SL.  I’m sure you’ve tried Googling yourself (come on, admit it! LOL), but have you tried Googling your avatar?  You might want to do so.  You might find out that you were a ’star’ on other blogs without even being aware of it!

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…..