NECC Continues: Tuesday's Events and Workshops

Events on Tuesday at NECC included an advocacy march to Capitol Hill in support of continued funding for educational technology. However, my primary focus on Tuesday was Second Life, a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) that I believe offers a glimpse at the future of professional development and perhaps online learning in general.

Second Life (SL), created and managed by Linden Labs, offers a free basic subscription. To begin, a user must register and create an avatar, a 3D character that will represent that user while "inworld," or inside Second Life. In this way, Second Life is similar to other MUVEs used for gaming. One example would be the popular World of Warcraft, in which players assume a role in order to participate in the game.

Creation of an avatar is a serious event . . . okay, well, maybe not. Users are allowed to select a first name and then choose from a list of last names provided by the application. Then, users go through the process of creating the visual representation that will meet other avatars in Second Life. Many, like me, choose an avatar that closely resembles their real-life (RL) appearance, but others (with, perhaps, more creativity?) take on fabulous shapes and characteristics. This means that my avatar (Sue Delvalle) might sit down to a serious discussion about technology literacy with a dragon or a cat!

Once the avatar is created, users begin the somewhat complicated process of learning to navigate inside Second Life. The world is organized into islands, real estate that must actually be purchased with RL dollars (translated into Linden dollars, the currency in Second Life). ISTE, the sponsor of this conference, has created ISTE Island, a safe haven that can be a first stop for newbies (new users). ISTE provides docents to assist in mastering basic commands, including how to find professional development opportunities inworld.

Of course, just as in RL, there are places that an avatar probably shouldn't venture. SL is an adult world, and there is a strictly-controlled Teen World for younger participants. However, many universities are utilizing SL for the delivery of classes. In fact, the University of Alabama has commissioned a SL architect to recreate its campus on its island. Student avatars enter mock-ups of the same buildings they would enter on campus, and they can participate in activities, lectures, and discussions from any physical location.

So, are you wondering why I'm interested? Here's the hook: Traditional online professional development is largely text-based. Yes, we can have asynchronous conversations in Blackboard's Discussion Boards in text, and we can have synchronous conversations in text or voice in Blackboard's Virtual Classrooms, but it's still limited. We can't SEE each other.

Second Life feels like a real classroom, providing the human element (for lack of a better term!) that is missing in other learning management systems. I can offer or attend a presentation, have a discussion about it, talk privately with some group members. I can take a virtual field trip to NASA or "feel" what it's like to be buffeted by a hurricane. I can fly.

NECC Continues--Slam Dunk Lesson Model

Slam Dunk Lessons are based on a framework designed by Dr. Jamie McKenzie (see previous posting). Meghan Jothan and Meshia Sutton from Baltimore County Public Schools presented the Slam Dunk Lesson model, a single- to multi-day research lesson using Microsoft PowerPoint. The benefit for students is that it might keep them engaged and challenged; the purpose for teachers is that learning can be scaffolded to make teachers comfortable with creating and facilitating these activities.

Using McKenzie's PowerPoint template, teachers are led through the steps for creating a research lesson. Here are the steps used in the model:

1. Create a Question (must be relevent and higher-order--analysis, synthesis, evaluation)
2. Provide Information Source (s) (picture, text, video--anything that is relevant)
3. Describe What Students Will Do (step-by-step, providing organizational charts or graphic organizers if needed)
4. Provide an Activity Assessment (What should students give you to prove mastery?)
5. Suggest Enrichment (What can be done to extend this lesson? What will students do if they finish the project early?)

Slam Dunk Lessons can be used as a presentation for early adopters of classroom technology, but the template can also be used by students creating their own investigations. The wiki (linked from this post's title) provides many additional examples.

The Playground: Twitter and Go2Web2.0

There are hundreds of Web 2.0 tools out there waiting to be explored. I really wanted to Twitter with you during this workshop, but after speaking with many of you, I discovered that we didn't quite have the knowledge base to use Twitter yet. Therefore, I'm posting some very basic information about Twittering so that we can experiment with this form of social networking, too.

First, let's start with this video from YouTube (which you will have to watch at home since this is currently blocked due to student protection issues).

After reviewing Twitter and the other Web 2.o tools, how might these be used in classroom lessons?

NECC Continues--Jamie McKenzie

Today is Monday, June 29, and my first workshop today was with Dr. Jamie McKenzie, well-known author and rabble-rouser who focuses on rethinking professional development for teachers. He maintains an educational journal called FromNowOn, which may validate some of your opinions about problems with PD and with classroom technology integration. In fact, in one of his early books, Dr. McKenzie objects to the use of the word "training" for use with teacher. "Training," he said in his 1998 book Professional Development That Works, "is what we do to dogs and pigeons."

Dr. McKenzie today warned about jumping too quickly into social networking with students (see handout at http://fno.org/sum08/synergy.html). While blogs and wikis can be very useful classroom tools, he reminded the audience that we will continue to get mediocre results if insufficient additional attention isn't paid to teaching students how to question, invent, collaborate and write. He recommends the work of Edward De Bono (Six Thinking Hats) as a framework for encouraging divergent thinking and Michalk0's ThinkerToys for supporting creative thought.

The Playground: Google Squared

According to the site, Google Squared is a search tool that creates a grid, allowing you to collect facts about any topic you select. You can modify or remove the squares (attributes), and do further research on the sites that provides the information. For a test, do a search for "countries." I think that application will require teachers to be MUCH more creative in their assignments!

Please add your thoughts about this post or about Google Squared?

NECC Continues--School 2.0

Today, I was able to attend a workshop with Chris O'Neal, a Louisiana boy who is currently teaching at the University of Virginia, and Adam Garry. The workshop was entitled "Strategic Planning Using School 2.0," but the session was actually an introduction to the School 2.0 website.

The site contains resources for planning for a change from the present school structure (School 1.0) to a new structure that, perhaps, takes advantages of the best of both worlds--the traditional and the digital.

The Playground: WolframAlpha

And now, for something totally different . . .Although it looks like a search engine, Wolfram Alpha seeks to answer computational questions using all means possible for locating answers--to be a "knowledge engine" that provides clear answers. To become acquainted with what it does, try clicking the "Examples by Topic" link in the right frame menu.

I'm impressed. Let me know what searches you do that impressed you?

Also, while we are on the topic, what should School 2.0 look like? We are planning for it now, whether or not we admit it. What elements from School 1.0 should be retained (if any)? How will new technologies shape the face of our schools? I'd love to hear your thoughts . . .

National Educational Computing Conference (NECC)

Saturday, June 27: My first day at NECC in Washington, D.C. It is a pre-conference day when most activities consist of fee-based workshop. However, there is so much to do to take advantage of the thousands of offerings at this giant conference! After I registered and collected my packet of conference materials, found a quiet corner, and began using the NECC Planner to organize myself. It's a little more difficult this year because the Bring Your Own Laptop events (my favorites because they are all hands-on!) now require pre-registration, intended to thwart over-attendance by enthusiastic participants. Once I decide which BYOL events fit into my schedule, I must visit the nice lady in the booth and request a ticket for that session. Then, I'll send my conference planner to my iPhone calendar and voila! I'll know where I need to be for the next four days.

Also, you can join us through live videofeed if you have time.

The Playground: Etherpad

As promised, I will be sharing with you ideas and applications as I see them, and here is the first: Etherpad. This is a free Web 2.0 application that allows users to participate in real-time collaborative editing--seriously! A chat window can be opened, allowing editors to "talk" about the editing process, and the changes made by each participant appear in colored text. This is the functionality that Google is attempting in Google Wave (which is not yet ready for release)--Etherpad has it NOW!

Please play with this application with a friend or two, and let me know what you think. Can we use this application to help our students learn important curriculum concepts? How? Let’s share some ideas here to begin building our plans for the new school year.

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