The Story of My “Second Life”

(see below or click here to watch on ISTEVISION.org)

Well in a few hours I’ll be flying down I-95 on my way to NECC, it’s going to be a great conference, so many friends to see (old and new), cool places to go (I’ve never been to D.C.!), things to do. Like most people, I’m pretty overscheduled, but tried to rectify that yesterday by dropping some sessions from my planner to make time for person-to-person conversations and connections. Heck, I can watch UStreamed presentations anytime, but how often do I get the chance to SEE the people who are so important to me outside of school?

As far as Second Life activities go, I’m very happy to be part of NECC’s Second Life Playground which is being run this year by my friends Lisa Linn (SL: Clare Lane) and Scott Merrick (SL: ScottMerrick Oh). The playground is a fun, relaxing place to learn and explore Second Life with personal assistance from experienced Second Lifers, many of whom are ISTE Docents. The playground is located in the convention center opposite rooms 143 and 144; it runs 8-4 Monday, 9-4 Tuesday, and 8-2 Wednesday. My “shifts” are on Monday from 10:00 – 12:00 and Tuesday from 11:00 – 1:00. Stop by and say hi!

In other news, Peggy Sheehy (SL: Maggie Marat), Bernajean Porter (SL: Bernajena Pinazzo) and I will apparently be doing some sort of brief daily inworld newscast for ISTE (hence the set above) while on-site at the conference. If all goes as planned, one of us will be “reporting” from Second Life before each daily keynote. Pretty cool, eh? As long as I don’t trip all over my lines … we don’t have teleprompters in Second Life!

See you in D.C. – in person or virtually!

-kj-

Good morning all,

Please accept my apologies for not posting much in the last few days – the last weeks of school are always hectic, but this year things seem to have been even crazier! Making matters worse, I’ve got two or three supermassive blog posts in my drafts folder, and until I churn them out, I’m going to be even more distracted!

But I digress … on to today’s post!

The inexorable march of gaming into education continues with this latest announcement from the Florida Virtual School (FLVS). “Conspiracy Code” is a game-based high school history course cleverly utilizing an immersive 3D virtual world. Available as a free download (PC only – sorry Mac!) the premise:

“High School students will develop a deep understanding of American History as they control Eddie and Libby; fictional characters in an espionage-themed adventure set in the fictional, near-future metropolis of Coverton City. In the game – or course – students must build their knowledge of American History in order to stop a vast conspiracy that is threatening to erase and change the course of history.”

Certainly sounds engaging. But what will they actually DO?

“Students test their knowledge during in-game challenges, engage in student-to-student collaborations and discussions, exchange information with peers (similar to group projects), and eventually use their knowledge to complete culminating mission assessments, each step eliciting a higher-order analysis of the material.”

This is no first-person shoot-em-up with a candy-coated history theme that might be fun to “play” in a computer lab for a couple of class periods; in fact, reading the course overview, one gets a sense of the massive scale behind this application, and the amount of time (online, offline, in school and at home) that will be necessary to finish it. Heavily influenced by research by FLVS subject-matter experts and researchers from the University of Central Florida, this is serious business, “hard fun” as Seymour Papert would say, though the people best suited to make THAT judgement are kids that actually play this game. Since it was just announced, we don’t have a ready supply of those people yet, so, we’ll have to wait!

What I find most interesting about this is that the game relies heavily on “real world” research and face to face collaboration; the “simulation” is merely an environment where that work can be assembled and leveraged, and, presumably, where connections can be formed, inferences can be made, and genuine learning can occur.

Pretty cool stuff. Might be ideal for a summer course on history or an after-school club for those schools not yet ready to integrate something like this into their curriculum, but who knows? How about an experimental elective? I’ve seen the course lists at my local high school; they do some pretty creative offerings. Why not design a history elective around this program? What have they got to lose?

Hope this helps,

-kj-

Find more photos like this on Atlantis Seekers

My dear friend and colleague Bernajean Porter is showcasing her innovative work on Atlantis Rising Campus in Second Life as part of Linden Labs’  Land Expo 09! What a terrific honor, so well deserved! Bernajean is not only one of the most knowledgeable and wise people I know, she’s also among the most approachable. No doubt this has helped her quickly establish Atlantis Rising Campus as an exemplar for online learning!

Over 60 lucky individuals were chosen to showcase their work in virtual worlds. Linden Lab has a full agenda here and the following SLURLs may come in handy:

• Presentation Stage: http://slurl.com/secondlife/LandExpo4/9/246/21
• Welcome Area:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/LandExpo4/53/194/33

Bernajean’s presentation at the Expo is on Saturday, June 13th at 4:00 pm SLT. For more information about Bernajean’s work, visit the Altantis Seekers Ning!

-kj-

photo credit: alicepopkorn

Time: May 18, 2009 from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm (SLT=PDT)
Location: Atlantis Paideia Colosseum
Website or Map: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%206/61/156/7
Organized By: Bernajean Porter aka Bernajena Pinazzo

Join engaging conversations and unique experiences with media literacy with renown colleagues Marty Keltz and Elizabeth Thoman. From dime novels and “the talkies” to i-phones and the Internet, educators have responded to new technology and popular culture in a variety of ways. In this interactive conversation with Marty Keltz, former publisher of Media and Methods magazine and Elizabeth Thoman, founder of the Media&Values magazine and the Center for Media Literacy, we will explore some of the steps – and missteps – in the 50 year evolution of media literacy education and identify what needs to be done NOW to ensure the envisioned transformation of learning and the empowerment of students in today’s global media culture.

More information: http://atlantisseekers.ning.com/events/event/show?id=2695201%3AEvent%3A1201&xgi=6F1H7Fu

Atlantis Paideia Colosseum

Time: April 13, 2009 from 5:30pm to 7pm
Location: Atlantis Paideia Colosseum
Website or Map: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%206/61/156/7
Organized By: Bernajean Porter aka Bernajena Pinazzo

Join us in Atlantis’ Underwater Paideia Colosseum @ 5:30 PM SLT for conversations with Diane Lewis aka K9 Kidd AND . . . contribute your own creations to the Spring Bonnet Parade Contest. Diane, Director of Seminole County Schools, FL and her colleagues will first share their journey, strategies and conniving outcomes being developed for their county-wide schools professional development. They expect to use virtual worlds as alternative medium to counter the economically stretched system as well as the increasingly high-stressed / low-energy teacher cultures with RENEWED passionate and rigorous learning across their system. What are the barriers? What are the opportunities? What are the unexpected benefits?

Wear your BEST Hat — prizes awarded! Also bring your own questions and experiences with migrating professional development into Second Life.

More information: http://atlantisseekers.ning.com/events/event/show?id=2695201%3AEvent%3A941

Peggy Sheehy (SL: Maggie Marat) is presenting at an Atlantis Seekers inworld event tonight, Monday March 16th, 5:30 PM, at Atlantis’ Paideia UnderWater Colluseum in SL (SLURL). Here’s the event description:

Join Peggy Sheehy (Maggie Marat in SL) for conversations on curriculum and teens in Second Life. Maggie will share one or two of the presents curriculum projects that her middle school students on Ramapo Islands are making come alive in Second Life.  Bring questions, ideas, and curiosity tonight at 5:30 PM SLT.  Meet in Atlantis’ Paideia Colluseum -> http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%206/61/156/7.

For more information, visit AtlantisSeekers.ning.com! Hope to see you there!

-kj-

Inworld last night for docent duty @ ISTE HQ, there was a pretty typical crowd of newcomers, most were either brand-new to Second Life or returning to it after creating avatars a long time ago. All educators from different parts of the country, we spent time getting to know each other, sharing ideas about the use of virtual worlds in the classroom, and helping the newest among us get their bearings. The photo below isn’t from last night, but it was a similar scene. I’m the dude in the center wearing the tie. ;-) Sharing with new people is one of the best parts of my SL experience; it never gets old. It’s the most fun when I can get people excited about its educational potential.

The conversation was light and easy. I passed out Fleep Tuque’s excellent educational landmark collection while we discussed some of the basics of SL, made sure they were all members of ISTE in Second Life, then talked up some other great educational groups like Jokaydia, Discovery Educator Network in SL, the Teacher Networking Center, K-12 Educators in Second Life, and more.

Before I knew it, my docent hour was up, and I’d logged off, only to realize I forgot to share the single best wiki about Second Life in education, JoKay’s amazing wiki (though I did give everyone a SLURL to Jokaydia). It features this terrific, current slideshow of educational spaces inworld:

It does a terrific job highlighting many of the best educational builds available today. But what if you wanted to go deeper, and really “see” what learning in Second Life is all about? As it turns out, on Friday I came across two excellent videos made by Chris Flesuras from Pacific Rim Exchange, now a part of the Skoolaborate project. The blog post is here, but I really want to link to these two outstanding videos, Jidaimatsuri Part 1 and Part 2. I think these are amazing examples of Second Life being infused into a global, collaborative curriculum. And, the production values of these videos are truly world-class, to boot.

Turns out we’ll be featuring Chris in an upcoming ISTE Eduverse Talks event later this month, along with my dear friend and colleague Peggy Sheehy of Suffern Middle School’s Ramapo Islands Project, and Aesop Thatch, a recent Teen Grid graduate, as we talk about how learning in Second Life impacts teens in real life relationships. Stay tuned for more!

-kj-

Bernajena Pinazzo (RL: Bernajean Porter) and friends are ramping up quickly at AtlantisRisingCampus.us. Have you been to either their website, Ning or inworld location yet? I’m a huge fan of Bernajean’s, that’s no secret, I have a tremendous amount of respect for her and her work, having seen her in action myself, I know that she brings warmth, passion, rigor and incredible skill to all she does.

So, I’m proud to help get the word out about her upcoming inworld six-week course, The Art of Digital Storytelling, running April 12th through May 29th in Second Life. Here’s the description I just got via email:

Gather round the campfires as the ancient art of storytelling is being revived into an emerging communication mode called digital storytelling! Stories are as old as humans and more important than ever for our minds, spirits and human progress. Telling stories together about things that really matter has an extraordinary effect on people even more so when their digital storytelling is distributed quite literally to a world community through the World Wide Web. What an experience to guide a new generation into becoming 21st Century StoryKeepers™ knowing their personal narratives will endure for others long after the fires die down! Participants will be introduced to the joy, processes, elements of good storytelling, and technical tools along with viewing memorable examples from kids of all ages – creating digital storytelling that brings together voice, graphics, animation, and sound in artful ways.

You can click here to register now, or browse the course syllabus, or even contact Bernajean directly with any questions!

-kj-

Maggie Marat (RL: Peggy Sheehy) and Bernajena Pinazzo (RL: Bernajean Porter) are hosting an inworld event tonight, Monday March 2nd, at Atlantis’ Paideia UnderWater Colluseum in SL (SLURL). Here’s the event description:

Join a world of imagination thru conversations and teleported tours with Maggie Marat and Bernajena Pinazzo. Enjoy experiencing the creative expression of literature and storytelling thru 3D emotional and participatory story spaces in SL crafted by middle school kids and others. Ramapo’s Frost Theater; Thursday’s Fiction, Dante’s Inferno and MacBeth will be featured. Conversations about process and stepping into the new media making will hopefully launch other ventures.

For more information, visit AtlantisSeekers.ning.com! Hope to see you there!

-kj-