On Wednesday evening, Sept. 30, we had an in-depth look at the how-to’s of making Discovery Streaming accessible to our students. Smellslike Magic (rl Mike Bryant) went through the steps of setting up classes and adding students to those classes, whether you do a mass upload as an admin or add students individually. He also showed how this student access would be of great benefit for differentiated learning.
In addition, he gave a heads up regarding some upcoming changes when a student logs on, due to compliance with COPPA (Childrens’ Online Privacy Protection Act) and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) There will be a one-time different log in scenario for over 13 and under 13 years of age. More info will be sent out in the next few weeks regarding this procedure.
Those in attendance at 2DP also heard about the new DEN Guru program. Check out the blog for application requirements.
Thanks for the info, Mike!
Join us next week, October 7, when Shamblesguru Voom, aka Chris Smith in RL, leads us on a journey through SL Networking, Data Mining, Survival Skills…and Other Ramblings (Subtitle: Personal Learning Networks and Second Life) at 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Eastern)
This past Wednesday night Demb Oh ( aka Steve Dembo) shared his Discovery Student Adventure to South Africa. The trip sounded so exciting! Listening to Demb Oh, his passion and excitement were clear on how meaningful this experience was to him, the other educators and the students who traveled with him. The teachers and students visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, spent time with children in a South African school, swam with the sharks, and traveled through the Bush. They even helped relocate some of the animals.
Discovery Education has sponsored 3 trips so far, to Australia, South Africa and China with more being planned. Check out the student and educator blogs for first hand information, see photos and videos from their trips. As a DEN educator you can learn how you can go on one of the next trips for free here.
Technology is great, when it works. And when it doesn’t… flexibility and teamwork are key. Last night’s presentation by Geekybird Fanbridge (Matt Monjan, RL) in the 2 DP auditorium showed that where there’s a will, there’s a way. He delivered “Discover the Undiscovered” via the voice of Amadeo Writer (Joe Brennan RL) without missing a beat. Those in attendance were able to learn even more about the new interface and the amazing features of the revamped Discovery Streaming site.
He covered topics such as student access to the site, tips on using Closed Captioning, Discovery Student Adventures, the increase in the number of resources (not only videos, but over 20,00 images and even educational songs!), the Teacher Center and Atlas Interactive Map, and so much more. I know that I personally have viewed several presentations this summer on the upgraded site and I come away with something new each time! Matt shares his presentations at his Geekybird site in The Birdhouse. Thanks, Geekybird, (and Amadeo) for helping us to “discover” even more!
Be sure to catch the webinars during the week of August 24 on incorporating Discovery Streaming with Web 2.0 tools and additional webinars on the enhanced Discovery Streaming site during September.
And please join us next week, Wednesday, August 26 (5 p.m. SLT, 8 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central) in Second Life for “Pack Your Curiosity and Go! Part 2″ when Demb Oh (Steve Dembo) will share how 9 teachers and 36 students experienced the adventure of a lifetime. From Capetown to Johannesburg, to the African bush, come see what happened to STAR Discovery educators as they journeyed around the world and used technology to share their experiences in real time. And then learn how you can begin your own Discovery Student Adventure!
Last night was filled with information. So much so it was hard to fit it in to just 1 hour. Clio Jacobus , Jennifer Dorman in real life, gave us an evening of lots of great information that was helpful to people just starting out in building their network and also some great management tools for people who have a learning network. Take a look at some of the pictures from the event and then head over to her wiki.
Meanwhile I am heading over to one of the sites she shared with us, AtomKeep, to create a universal profile. Don’t forget to head over to http://edublogawards.com and vote for both the DEN in Second Life and Cliotech for awards.
OH! The possibilities! Last night it was our extreme pleasure to have Macsmom Alcott (Jennifer Wagner, RL) present at the DEN in SL. Macsmom covered so much territory let me try to hit the points that I took away from the presentation and conversation.
Be a joiner.
Projects can take as little time or as much as you are willing to give. Start small and work your way up.
Online projects are available in every shape and size. Meaning that there are projects that you can participate in for every grade level and every subject.
Make your own by talking to other educators at conferences, on discussion boards, chat rooms and even in Second Life. Setting up an online project with someone else is as easy as saying “Let’s compare pets between our two classrooms” to another teacher.
Links that were mentioned by Macsmom and other people in attendance include:
Jen’s Projects http://www.jenuinetech.com Hats Off To Lincoln
PreK – 6th
Registration Opens:
January 5, 2009
Project Dates:
February 2 – 13, 2009 St. Patrick’s Day Project
PreK - 3rd Grade
Registration Opens:
March 1, 2009
Project Date:
March 17, 2009
As promised here is Macsmom Alcott list of project ideas. If you have project links or want to throw out a call for people to join your online project, put it in the comments.
Wowie kazowie! If you weren’t able to join us last night, you missed a great presentation that included field trips to places in Second Life that I have never seen before. Spiff Whitfield introduced many of us to The Virtual Pioneers. They are a group located on sim Lighthouse Learning in the Wnyric building. They focus on sites in Second Life that have historical realism. Whether it is accuracy in a sturctural layout or plan to role playing during a historical period, they have what must be the master list. We’re talking SOCIAL STUDIES in capital letters. We only stopped at a few places on a very big list of places. I, myself can’t wait to get back in and explore more of these places plus many of them had excellent freebie period costumes. Perfect for the DEN’s upcoming Costume Party at the end of the month.
Virtual Pioneers Presentation for the DEN in SL-18.png
Virtual Pioneers Presentation for the DEN in SL-17.png
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Virtual Pioneers Presentation for the DEN in SL-15.png
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Virtual Pioneers Presentation for the DEN in SL-8.png
I am thrilled to announce a new Book Talk series. During the month of October we will be discussing John Medina’s ‘Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School’. I’m giving you the ‘heads up’ now so you will have plenty of time to order the book and read it. We will be doing the series on the following MONDAYS (Note: this is not part of our regular Wednesday Workshop series, hence the change in day of the week): October 6, 13, 20, and 27. Each session will be devoted to specific chapters in the book. Please plan on joining us for some engaging conversations, and perhaps a surprise or two!
And for our auditory learners out there, you can purchase the book as an audio CD.
It was a small, but enthusiastic crowd that met beside the sandbox for this week’s Wednesday Workshop. Second in a series of workshops conducted by myself (Celestia Cazalet) to introduce SL residents to RL tools that make building easier.
This workshop covered the remarkable 3D program, Sculptypaint, which was created by SL resident, Cel Edman. This program allows you to build a 3D object in RL, then bring it into real life in the form of a sculpted prim.
What is a sculpted prim? Regular “prim” objects can sometimes actually be many prims linked together to create the desired shape for furniture, flowers, sculptures, stairs, you name it. With sculpted prims, the prim takes the shape of a map of sorts that has been created in an outside program and brought in world.
In this workshop, we started off by learning how to make a flower. You can see Knowclue Kidd’s beautiful creation here. Then we experimented with dropping random textures into sculpted prims and finding out what we got
Petlove had this dramatically beautiful prim lurking in a texture file in her inventory.
As always, you can download the powerpoint presentation I used below. It doesn’t tell you everything I said, but you may be able to work your way through the program with it. My goal for these workshops is to encourage everyone to run with it! Try making your own wonderful creations. Experiment with dropping files you already have in your inventory and see what comes of it. The picture below is the result of me dropping the file from one of my slides into a sculpted prim. Have fun with this awesome venue of creativity!
WOW Cal Kjeller is doing a great job showing people Moodle at the Discovery Educator Network in Second Life. Awesome job Cal! I want Moodle for my schools. posted by Riptide Furse on Eduisland II using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]
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On Wednesday evening, Sept. 30, we had an in-depth look at the how-to’s of making Discovery Streaming accessible to our students. Smellslike Magic (rl Mike Bryant) went through the steps of setting up classes and adding students to those classes, whether you do a mass upload as an admin or add students individually. He also showed how this student access would be of great benefit for differentiated learning.
Technology is great, when it works. And when it doesn’t… flexibility and teamwork are key. Last night’s presentation by Geekybird Fanbridge (Matt Monjan, RL) in the 2 DP auditorium showed that where there’s a will, there’s a way. He delivered “Discover the Undiscovered” via the voice of Amadeo Writer (Joe Brennan RL) without missing a beat. Those in attendance were able to learn even more about the new interface and the amazing features of the revamped 
Be sure to catch the 
