Second Life ™

Wednesday, July 1, is a big day for the DEN in SL! First, there will be a BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) session at NECC conducted by several team members from the DEN in SL Leadership Council. The session is completely full, but you can still participate in-world and show your support for educators in Second Life. The BYOL will be at 10:30 a.m. EST (that would be 7:30 a.m. SLT) and will start at the DEN in SL headquarters (2DP). There may be bandwidth issues, so be prepared for last-minute changes!

Closing the day will be the second in the series of DEN Forums. The topic this week: Technology Must-Haves vs. Bells and Whistles. This forum will be facilitated by Celestia Cazalet. Come prepared to not only share your favorite technology tools, but ready to defend its use in your classroom. We’ll discuss what technologies are good, which are bad, and which might be being overused for the sake of technology. Through discussion, we’ll attempt to learn how to balance technology with other teaching tools. We’ll meet in Room 201 at 2DP.

Take a break from the NECC madness and relax with us at the forum!

Join Riptide Furse and others on Monday, June 22nd, who are from the Washington DC area and can help with your questions, concerns and general tidbits about how to make the most of your visit to the Nation’s Capital. We’ll go over last minute things to pack. A few hidden secrets of what to see, how to get around, and how to have the best time ever at NECC.

We will meet at the 2 DP roof pool June 22 at 5 PM SLT ( 7 PM CST, 8 PM EST)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/80/77/55

The DEN in SL hosted a party Wednesday, June 17, to reveal who the culprit was in the missing motorcycle engine mystery. Several people gathered in the DEN lobby near the scene of the crime as we listened to police radio communications which indicated the cuprit was being followed to 2DP. Everyone excitedly awaited the arrival of the perpetrator. Whodunit? Unklar Klaar rode in on his new, shiny motorcycle and revealed that he had not “stolen” the engine, but that Demb Oh had given him permission to use it in his new bike. Crime solved!

Unklar also made a great point “how can something be stolen in a virtual world?” Nothing exists! Winners include: Telos String, grand-prize winner of 2500L$. Telos was the only participant who had deciphered all the clues and determined that Unklar was the culprit. Two runners-up were drawn from all the names of the people who had been participating and sending emails to Celestia. The two who won 750L$ were Emilia Cornwall and Moriarty Finesmith.

Since there wasn’t an evil villain in our midst, we all adjourned to the roof, where music, dancing, and swimming in the pool commenced. It was a great way of relaxing after several weeks of solving the mystery.

Stay tuned: there is great interest in another IDiscover Sleuthing game, so watch for details soon! If you participated in the game and wasn’t able to be at the reveal party, you can still get your t-shirt by visiting the scene of the crime one more time.

UPDATE!!!

We’ll be doing this ‘NECC Newbie’ session with ISTE.  We’ll be meeting here.
Don’t forget to join us for a ‘NECC Newbie’ session.

If you’ve got questions or if you’ve ‘been there, done that’, then please join us tonight, Sunday, June 14th and Thursday, June 18th as the DEN in SL hosts a ‘NECC Newbie’ session.  This is not a formal workshop session, it will be more along the lines of asking questions and sharing tips to make your NECC experience a fabulous experience.

See you at 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST)

Can you believe that NECC 2009 is just a couple of weeks away?!?!  Are you packed yet?  Is your planner brimming with conflicting sessions (I know mine is!)?  Are you already hyperventilating from the thought of navigating the conference center?  And how and when will you get to visit all the exhibitor’s booths?  If you’ve got questions or if you’ve ‘been there, done that’, then please join us tonight, Sunday, June 14th and Thursday, June 18th as the DEN in SL hosts a ‘NECC Newbie’ session.  This is not a formal workshop session, it will be more along the lines of asking questions and sharing tips to make your NECC experience a fabulous one.

Please note the TIME CHANGE for Sunday ONLY!!!!!   6 p.m. SLT (8 p.m. CST, 9 p.m. EST)

Hope to see you there!  Gotta run, I’m off to buy a suitcase (my husband is wondering why one of the 15 under the stairs just won’t do.  Uhhhh, honey, ‘They’re NOT purple!” LOL).

Yesterday’s workshop presented by Augustine Writer was extremely colorful!  Green colorful that is!  The focus was on tips to make your technology ‘go green’.

Tip #1 - Try using Blackle instead of Google for your search.   Seems that the black background requires less power than a white background.  (Hmmmmm, wonder if that applies to PowerPoints as well?)  And while you’re exploring Blackle, check out their games.

Tip #2 - P-essays.  Don’t worry, when that name popped up on the screen I was clueless as well! LOL  They are actualy public service announcements in digital storytelling form.

Tip #3 - Got a great idea?  Use MediaShare at Discovery Education Network to get the word out.  No need to send your great idea to the copy & distribution center!

Tip #4 -  Have your students use Glogster (the education version) to show off their projects (and leave the construction paper in the closet!).

Tip #5 -  DE Streaming – check out the ThinkGreen Writing Prompt and the Greensburg clips.  If you’re not familiar with Greensburg (I wasn’t before last night), it’s about Greensburg, KS and what happened when the town rebuilt itself using green practices.

Tip #6 -  Use Google Earth to create tours that show green locations, you can also search through the layers in the ‘Global Awareness’ section – where you’ll find layers from Arkive, Jane Goodall, etc.  all already created for you.

Tip #7 -  www.thinkgreen.com/classroom - partnership between waste management and Discovery Education; you can find lesson plans, with activities, extension activities, etc.  LOADS of content to peruse; it also has virtual labs.  (They also have a widget you can throw into a blog/wiki……you really need to take a look at the widget as it translates how much you’ve saved and what you can now do with the saved energy).

Tip #8 -  Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge; national sustainability challenge; this year it’s elementary and middle school students.  Next year high school will be added; get teams of 2/3 students work on a project to help change their environment locally.

Tip #9 - Apply for funds at DonorsChoose.   It appears that if your ‘wish’ has a ‘go green’ component it’s a BIG PLUS when applying for funding.

Tip #10 - MediaShare, MediaShare, MediaShare — I know I’ve said it before, but I’m saying it again…..MediaShare….the place for you to not only distribute (paperlessly) your content, but also for you to find content for you to use in your classroom.

And here are some links that were provided by members of the audience:

Treehugger.com - it’s the ultimate blog portal on all things environmental, a going green blog.  Earthhour (thanks to TheGilch String for that one).  The Green Guide.

Here’s a shot of the ‘front row kids’ (you remember those, always sitting in the front row, impressing the teacher with their attentiveness, probably always got ‘A’s in class…..LOL)

And here’s Unklar showing his support for ‘Going Green’:

And don’t forget!  The DEN in SL iSLeuth continues.  You have less than a week (June 17th) to solve those clues and figure out what the heck is going on!  I kept my distance from Riptide last night.  He was swinging one mean pair of crutches everytime he chatted!  And even though we spent quite a while talking, he never really quite explained how he ended up in a cast.  Hmmmmmmmmmm…..

Augustine Writer (Lance Rougeux - RL), presents ‘More and Muir Tech Tips for Teaching About a Greener Tomorrow’.  Let’s face it, the green revolution is here and our students are helping to lead this movement.  Sustainability is an engaging topic for every grade level and subject area.  Join us, this Wednesday, to find out how you can help your students change the world during the course of a school day using the digital tools they love.  Customized placemarks in Google Earth and digital posters with Glogster.  Virtual labs about alternativeenergy sources and digital storytelling projects with a green screen.  You’ll learn a new idea for every day of the week.  We’ll also discuss the free resources available through the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge – the first of its kind national K-12 student sustainability competition.

As always, we’ll see you at 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST).  And if you don’t know where by now, check out the SLurl tab at the top.

And of course how is the sleuthing going?  Look for more iDiscover clues at 2 DP, twitter, and our blog.  Have you guessed  ”who dunnit?”  - Find out at the big reveal party on June 17th!!

You’re going to want to join us on Wednesday, June 10th as Augustine Writer (Lance Rougeux - RL), presents ‘More and Muir Tech Tips for Teaching About a Greener Tomorrow’.  Let’s face it, the green revolution is here and our students are helping to lead this movement.  Sustainability is an engaging topic for every grade level and subject area.  Join us, this Wednesday, to find out how you can help your students change the world during the course of a school day using the digital tools they love.  Customized placemarks in Google Earth and digital posters with Glogster.  Virtual labs about alternative energy sources and digital storytelling projects with a green screen.  You’ll learn a new idea for every day of the week.  We’ll also discuss the free resources available through the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge – the first of its kind national K-12 student sustainability competition.

As always, we’ll see you at 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST).  And if you don’t know where by now, check out the SLurl tab at the top.

And of course how is the sleuthing going?  Look for more iDiscover clues at 2 DP, twitter, and our blog.  Have you guessed  ”who dunnit?”  - Find out at the big reveal party on June 17th!!

Join us Wednesday night as Smellslike Magic  (Mike Bryant - DEN Manager RL)  presents, “Discover the UnDiscovered”.  We’ll get a quick look at recent additions to Discovery Education streaming and a preview of the many exciting additions happening this summer.

As always, 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST)

Come and join us as we begin our Summer Series of Wednesday Workshops!  We’ll be kickin’ off the season with Smellslike Magic  (Mike Bryant - DEN Manager RL) as he presents, “Discover the UnDiscovered”.  Smellslike will give us a quick look at recent additions to Discovery Education streaming and a preview of the many exciting additions happening this summer.  (Laelia’s Note:  Hmmmm, this will give me a head’s up on the new school year and I’ll have the summer to process this information.)  Think flash, interactive and student ready.  Join us as we dive in and discover the undiscovered components of DE streaming.

As always, 5 p.m. SLT (7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST)