Second Life ™

Take a look at our booth at the SL Education Support Faire:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Faire/42/132/35

Also, on Tuesday, January 27th join us at the SL Education Support Faire at  4 p.m. SLT (6 p.m. CST, 7 p.m. EST) on ‘Presenting Best Practices in SL’.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Faire/2/237/40

Presented on the opening day of SL’s Education Faire.  Fairly impromptu presentation and it went off quite well considering that some of us kept floating through walls & flying off to never-neverland (thanks for teleporting me back to Ground Zero Beth!), others were in Philadelphia at the EduCon 2.1 conference, and others were not able to voice chat.  Regardless, the dialogue kept going in both voice and text-based chat. 

Look for the DEN in SL team to once again present on Tuesday, January 27th at 4 p.m. SLT (6 p.m. CST, 7 p.m. EST).  Be sure to check out the wiki with the schedule of events for this week.

This Wedneday we have a ‘double header’ as Augustine Writer (real life: Lance Rougeux) and Demb Oh (real life: Steve Dembo) talk about what’s new at Discovery Education and what we can come to expect in 2009.  What’s in store for the DEN in 2009?  Join Augustine Writer for an overview of the programs, events and changes slated for the the DEN as the community approaches its 4th birthday this summer.  We’ll also be joined by Demb Oh to take a tour of the enhanced DEN website that now features live chat, an interactive events gallery and Discovery Education Media Share. 

As always, we’ll meet at the DEN in SL HQs at 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST).

Below you will find snippes from the post on the SL blog about the Education Support Faire:

“The goal of the Faire is to bring together educators, academics, and students to explore the support mechanisms available to Residents who use Second Life to enhance real world educational efforts.

The Faire opens this Sunday, January 25th at the region Supporte, and will last through Friday, January 30th. A full list of individuals and groups with displays and/or presentations at the Education Support Faire can be found here.

In addition to booths and presentations that will highlight the support services offered by Linden Lab to educators, there will be the opportunity to learn more about 46 Resident-run Support Organizations that help educators succeed in Second Life . Explore the ecosystem of support opportunities with people from organizations like the New Media Consortium, ISTE, Languagelab, and the Discovery Education Network. Learn the best way to teach your students how to use Second Life from organizations like New Citizens Incorporated, Info Island, and Global Kids. Find out how people dealing with disabilities can access Second Life for educational purposes from Virtual Ability Inc. and the SLHealthy Wiki. And be sure to stop by between 9am-1pm SLT on Monday, January 26 to speak with Lindens who can help you learn more about what Linden Lab offers to educators in terms of support and strategies for success!”

As you can see, Discovery Education Network has a booth on the Faire sim (Faire 41/125/35), so please consider stopping by and visiting!

The DEN will also be doing two presentations during the Education Support Faire.  The first, is on Sunday, January 25th at 10 a.m. SLT (12 p.m. CST, 1 p.m. EST) on ‘Discovery Your SL Network’.  The second presentation will be on Tuesday, January 27th at 4 p.m. SLT (6 p.m. CST, 7 p.m. EST) on ‘Presenting Best Practices in SL’.

It keeps getting bigger and better (hence the larger 2nd image!).  Smellslike Magic (Mike Bryant - RL) started us off with the first of a three part series on ‘Getting Digitally Fit’.  2009 has just begun, we all set New Year’s resolutions, yet we tend to break them.  The DEN wants to help support you throughout the year so that you stay focused on your resolutions.

DEN ‘Get Fit’ program begins with ‘Checking Your Digital Pulse’ in which you review all the options that are available to you.  Did you know that the Discovery Education Network has a newly re-designed homepage that puts more resources literally at your ‘mouse click’?  Looking for an upcoming webinar?  No problem!  Right there on the homepage are the next three webinars.  The latest chats on the forums are also just a ‘mouse click’ away right there on the homepage.  But that’s not all!  Support is EVERYWHERE at the DEN!  Not only do you have fellow STAR Educators that you can reach out to (did you know that the DEN has OVER 4,000 STARs???), but most states have Leadership Councils (and if your state doesn’t think about starting one), and then we can’t leave out those wonderful, those unforgetable, those (drumroll please) DEN Managers! 

Next up in the ‘Getting Digitally Fit’ series is ‘Muscle Up with Media’ to help you stay on track.  The final part of the series will be ‘Weigh In and Share’ where you will have the opportunity to share what you’ve learned, what you’ve accomplished, and examples of what you’ve done.

So what are you waiting for?  Get out there and start those warm-ups! LOL

Thank you again Smellslike Magic for taking the jump inworld to present.  I hope you’ll spread the word that presenting inworld is not difficult and that the DEN in SL Leadership Council is there to help you every step of the way. 

And now a word from our sponsors:  If you’ve presented in real life, then we want you!  Please consider sharing inworld.  It’s A LOT easier than you think and VERY gratifying.  If you haven’t presented in real life, but have an idea for a presentation, then we’re the venue for you!  And remember, a presentation in Second Life counts towards your events to maintain your STAR Educator status.

Come on and join us as Smellslike Magic presents ‘Checking Your Digital Pulse’
posted by Laelia Laval on Eduisland II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Come join us this Wednesday as Smellslike Magic (our RL Mike Bryant) will be presenting ‘Checking Your Digital Pulse’.  The first few days of a workout can be the hardest.  Many quit, because they’ve set unrealistic or poorly timed goals.  It’s much easier to reach a goal when you have support.  Join us today to learn about the technology support team available to you through our Discovery Educator Network and how to connect to experts in media, PowerPoint, digital storytelling, Google Earth… the list is continuously growing. 

As always, we’ll meet at the DEN in SL HQs at 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST).

It’s odd to do a ‘wrap up’ of your own presentation, but here it goes.

One of my new passions is ‘Visual Literacy’ so I offered to do an overview workshop on the topic. I had so much to cover and so little time — as it was I went into ‘overtime’ (thanks to those who were kind enough to stay to the bitter end! LOL). Note to self & others: 50 slides for 60 minutes is just WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY too many! I was able to share a commonly agreed upon definition of ‘visual literacy’, address two of the skills (knowledge of visual conventions and visual reconstruction), briefly address the issue of copyright in the digital age and share some resources for copyright free images, and provide some ideas for image enhancement.

All the resources shared at the workshop (and many, many more) can be found by going to my Visual Literacy wiki. 

Did you know?  Research has shown that one retains about 20% of new information that is transmitted in an auditory manner, but one retains between 50-70% if that new information is transmitted via both visual and auditory channels.  Combine that with the fact that unless new information is reviewed in some way, shape, or form within 24 hours one will lose 80% of the information.  Well…you do the math…how much new information are our students learning and retaining if they are taught in a strictly auditory environment?

Join Laelia Laval (I guess that would be moi! LOL) on the topic of visual literacy.  The presentation is entitled, ‘Do You See What I Mean?  Visual Literacy in the Content Areas’.  Come join me as I introduce you to the concept of visual literacy and learn which *FREE* Web 2.0 tools can support, enhance, and enrich teaching visual literacy in your classroom.  As always, we’ll meet at the DEN in SL HQs at 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST).

I’ve been watching the growth of numerous 365/[fill in the year] groups.  In fact, I even administer one == EdTech 365/2009 and I thought this might be a great thing to have for all of us SLers out there!

To that end, I’ve created a DENinSL 12/2009 Flickr group and you’re all welcomed to join!  Since this is a ‘by invitation only’ group, please send me an e-mail to laelia [dot] laval [at] gmail [dot] com (or, if you’re like me, I prefer the old fashioned laelia.laval@gmail.com !!! LOL) and I’ll be sure to send an invitation your way.  The e-mail you receive will be from ‘Ed Tech Diva’ (my other aka) and you just simply click on the link and log in with your Flickr id (or create a Yahoo! id) and that’s it!

Rather than attempt a ‘365′ project (phew…..that WOULD be a ‘little’ daunting), I’ve made it a ‘12′ project — that’s one shot a month (something I believe we can ALL manage).  This will also help to build your photography skills in SL.  Snap away and when you’ve got the shot you’d like to submit just add it to the group.  Please be sure to include a SLurl and of course, we’re ALWAYS interested in the story behind the shot, or some information about the location or event.