Second Life ™

Just got done with Thanksgiving and on my way to a month filled with birthdays and holidays, as well as, great events at the DEN in SL Wednesday Workshops!

Unless otherwise indicated, all times are 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST)

Date:  December 1st (NOTE:  THIS IS A MONDAY!!!)

Workshop:  Newbie 101

Description:  DEN LC and guides will be available to ask questions, get help, ideas, suggestions for landmarks. This will be an informal gathering in front of the DEN in SL HQ.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/75/100/22

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Date:  December 3rd

Workshop: Online Project Possibilities  

Presenter: Macsmom Alcott ( aka Jen Wagner)

Description: Come and hear how Online Projects can easily enhance your K6 classroom!!  The why’s, what’s, when’s, where’s, and how to join’s will be shared!! http://www.jenuinetech.com

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DATE:  December 10th

Workshop: Power Up Your Professional Learning Network

Presenter: Clio Jacobus (aka Jen Dorman)

Description: Wouldn’t it be just awesome if all teachers had a “Magic Eight Ball” that we could turn to every time we had a question about instructional practice, technology or learning theory? It would provide resources, anecdotal experiences, practical application, and much more. Through the connective and collaborative power of online technologies we have access to a vast and vibrant network of educators that are infinitely more qualified than a Magic Eight Ball to provide ongoing, timely support and encouragement. Learn to Power Up your professional learning network with customized and interactive Web 2.0 applications.

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Date:  December 17th

Shhhhhh….it’s being ‘wrapped’ up as we speak!

If you have been on the courtyard side of the DEN HQ lately, you may have noticed a new addition. We’ve placed a few “blank canvasses” to build a Thanksgiving Garden. These canvasses are set so that anyone can change the texture - what we would love to see is our great DEN members adding pictures of things they are thankful for to the garden. Just make a Powerpoint slide, save it as a jpeg, upload it to SL, and you’ll be able to use it as a texture on a canvas.

If you need help getting your texture added, im me, Celestia Cazalet, and I’ll help you out!  All of us on the DEN in SL Leadership Council hope that all of you have a wonderful time of sharing and thankfulness with your families next week! We will not be having a Wednesday Workshop because of the holiday, but stay tuned for exciting happenings in December!

Tonight was a first at the DEN in SL. We FINALLY got JessieMarie Flanagan (Anne Truger in RL) to present at a Wednesday Workshop. Tonight’s topic was ‘Google School’. And an appropriate topic it was for JessieMarie who is a recent graduate of the Google Teacher Academy.

JM shared her top 10 favorite Google Tools: iGoogle, Groups, Goog411, Gmail, Blogger, Alerts, Maps, Mobile, Notebook, and
Docs

Be sure to check the Google Groups within the next week for a copy of her presentation slides.

Join us this Wednesday as JessieMarie Flanagan (aka Anne Truger, RL) presents on Google Schools. 

School is in session! We know that Google is an amazing search engine, but it does so much more than that. Come and explore the Google Labs and more.

As always, we’ll be meeting at 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST)

Brad Draken (DEN’s very own, Brad Fountain) did a virtual leap and came inworld tonight to present ‘Understanding Your Students’ iBrains’ to a full house. 

You can see the slides of this evening’s workshop here.   

In the past, our brain was exposed to television, social interactions, reading, and music; today, we have YouTube, iPods, Facebook, Twitter, cellphones, etc.  Our students are used to ‘communication = instant gratification’.  Students today are ‘trained’ to expect immediate gratification and feedback, yet we don’t offer that in schools; in fact, we’ve often heard the comment that our students have to ‘power down’ when they come to school.  Our students want to create, engage, and interact.

Constant exposure to technology makes our brains continually evolve and create new pathways.  This is especially the case among our students.  As students create these new pathways we as teachers need to adapt to facilitate our students’ journey in learning.

A student’s brain begins as a simple computer with only a simple OS.  As they learn new activities they create shortcuts, which when repeatedly used strengthens the ability to retrieve information more readily.  For students multi-tasking creates new neural pathways; technology’s effect on the brain is that it alters those neural pathways.  Our challenge:  How can we use these tools in our lessons to take advantage of the neural pathways in our students’ brains to maximize their learning potential?

Some points to ponder:

1.     10 minute rule: You have 10 minutes to get a student’s attention, the next 10 minutes you need to do something to reconnect to re-engage those students.

2.    Repetition is the key to retention.

3.    We need to rethink the ‘mile wide, inch deep’ method of teaching.

For more information, please the reference section at the Brain Rules website and the Brain Compatible Learning website.

Join us on Wednesday for ‘Understanding Your Student’s iBrain’ presented by our very own Brad Draken (aka Brad Fountain in RL).  The increased use of technology by students at all age ranges is having a profound impact on our brain physically. Neural connections are being made that prior to now did now exist. What does this mean for teachers, students, and parents? Is it possible for digital immigrants to ever catch up?

Meet us at the DEN Amphitheater at 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST)

HOT OFF THE PRESS!  Just got out of Second Life to post this.

What’s a collaborative tool?  OneNote!!!

What’s an organizing tool?  OneNote!!!

What’s a screen capturing tool?  OneNote!!!

What’s an audio capturing tool?  OneNote!!!

What’s a video capturing tool?  OneNote!!!

What’s a drawing tool?  OneNote!!!

What’s a web clipping tool?  One Note!!!

…and I’m sure I MUST have left something out there!

Celestia Cazelet did an excellent job (as always) of presenting.  This evening the topic was OneNote 2007, a Microsoft (yes, PC) application that comes in the Student/Home Microsoft Office Suite.  She discovered it as she was looking for a ’sticky note’ type of application and found out that it was much, MUCH more powerful than just mere ‘removable adhesive’.

For those of you not familiar with OneNote, think of it as a loose leaf binder (aka notebook)….in fact, think of it as a shelf full of notebooks.  These notebooks can be divided into sections (tabs/dividers) and those sections can have separate pages.  That’s JUST the beginning.  You can easily place a OneNote icon on your Internet Explorer toolbar and as you scour the web and find pages of interest, just click on the icon, and VOILA! the page (the entire page) is placed on its on page in your OneNote ‘Unfiled’ notebook along with (now this is the best part) the url and date stamped.  Moving the page to the correct notebook & section is as easy as a ‘click and drag’.

Tempted?  You should be!  If you’re a PC user, you can get a 60-day trial of OneNote.

If you already have OneNote on your computer (lucky you!), check out the Microsoft website for more information and templates.

If you have OneNote, please take a moment and share how you use it in the ‘Comments’ section below.  (That was the assignment Celestia gave us, so I’m passing it along! LOL)

So what’s my FAVORITE ‘paid for’ PC application?  OneNote!   Yes, there are online versions, but I’m not always ‘connected’ (yes, I know, surprising!) 

Wonder if this app is for you?  Come join us this Wednesday as Celestia Cazalet hosts ‘OneNote for Teachers’.  OneNote has been around for awhile, but OneNote 2007 has lots of features that teachers can use. It’s a screen capture program, a research and organization tool, a drawing tool, a web-conferencing tool, and more. If you use Microsoft Office 2007, come see what this often neglected program can do for you.

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