Camera Based Excercise

Introduction Video
I was finally able to use the video on my tablet and learned quite a bit. 
By the way, it was potato pearls not real pearls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ogUe8XygQ8

Virtual World-Ed Tech Island

Moving around in Second Life if a bit easier after practice.  I went to EdTech Island and found there are so many places packed in a little area.  I went to Observation Cave, AETC, Descriptive Cave, ICT Library, Western Town, a Protected Beach (looked like it was underwater), iNACOL bat cave and amphitheater, and many more.  The art museum was really quiet.  I saw several PowerPoints on teaching in a virtual world.  The Undersea Observatory was interesting, it even had jellyfish.  I like to have never found the sandbox.  I tried to build a box in several places but there are restrictions to building in some areas.

Practicing building a box but not at the correct place.

Good at boxes now.

Correct place but not sitting yet.

Finally a box at the sandbox.  I could not figure out some of the bags that were sitting around.  I tried to pick up one but I was not able to.

When I returned later, there were more items on the beach.  My computer is slow loading everything so I wonder what else I am missing.

The most thought provoking part of the tour was the PowerPoint on how other countries are using technology and virtual learning.  Even some of the countries with lack of technology seem to be ahead of the United States when it comes to using technology in the classroom.  It is enlightening and scary at the same time.  I hope that we can find better ways to educate our teachers to the importance of not just using technology to teach the same way we always have but rather to give it to the students to learn with and be immersed into 21st Century Learning.

Nature Walk with Pixlr

Pixlr-o-matic is a program that can be used with or without downloading that gives many different effects to your pictures.

Here are before and after pictures of some of mine that were edited using http://pixlr.com/o-matic/

Senior Pictures at Cave

Getting braver on changes

Barn at Grandmas

Grandma would like this

Bridge at Mr. Zion

Subtle changes

Easter Sunday

Small changes give it depth

Senior pictures at cave

Love the softness

Sunset from porch

Sunsets are peaceful

Just a bench

Better looking bench

Moving and Viewing in Second Life

I was practicing my camera shots while sitting in the amphitheater.  I had to rest from running around like a MadWoman and running into several things including the trees.  

This is at the end of my journey on Eagle Island.  I was exhausted but at least I am moving around better.  I like having instructions of where to explore so that I don't feel like I am walking around lost.  I have been surprised that I have not run into more people.  I thought some of these places would have more visitors.

I went to the egg processing facility and could not find my way out.  My favorite part was learning about the virtual chicken because I had just candled some real eggs yesterday and that part was not interesting.  

Really cool to look into the microscopes in the Eagle Island Micro Lab.  I enjoyed visiting.  This is e. Coli.

Here is me trying to figure out how to sit down and use the microscopes in the Micro Lab on Eagle Island.  This was my favorite part, except for laying in the hammock at the beach.  

I went to the poultry museum and it was interesting.  When it came time to leave, I tried to fly out and it did not work.  I finally found the green arrow to transport me back to the beginning.  

Playing with the camera and the different views at the Poultry Pride station.   I could not figure how to get the words back on that blank screen then I realized I needed to wait longer.  It is slow loading all the graphics when I transport from one place to another.  

This was viewing the video of how the egg is developed in the chicken.   When I worked at the diagnostic lab at Snead State, I had to do autopsies on chickens and trace their egg ducts to see if I saw any problems.  It brought back a lot of memories.  I liked doing the autopsies on the chickens but I did not like doing autopsies on cows because I was the Lab Rat and it was my job to look through stomach contents(all 4).

This is me flying above Eagle Island.  I can walk and run better but I am still not flying well.  I keep landing on top of buildings, the rocks, or in the water.  I am also still belly floppy and having to get up off the ground.

I am sitting in the Eagle Island Amphitheater, after this picture was taken I watched a video on poultry.

Walk and Move in Second Life

This is Ed Tech island for teachers that want to teach in the virtual world.  They have games, seminars, camps, and several learning tools for teachers.  I am still learning how to navigate and still not doing too well but it is a place that  I marked to remember.  

This is Oasis Zoo.  I forgot to get my free balloon.  They have many animals and you learn about the animals and how they live and interact.  I like to fly above the places to get an overall view but I am still landing face first.  This virtual world takes practice and patience.

Researching Virtual Worlds

Pfeil, U., Ang, C., & Zaphiris, P. (2009). Issues and challenges of teaching and learning in 3D virtual worlds: real life case studies. Educational Media International, 46(3), 223-238. doi:10.1080/09523980903135368

            Virtual Worlds in education are not unlike real world teaching.  There are issues and challenges to teaching in both worlds.  The key points are that students have to be trained at the beginning in order to know the rules and procedures of the class.  Keeping students engaged and involved is another challenge in both worlds.  The teacher has to choose the most effective tools to use in order to deliver content from the curriculum to the students no matter which world they are teaching from.  There are costs associated to teaching in both worlds.  This article details some specific challenges to teaching in the virtual world.  Having the students sign up and learn how to navigate in the virtual world is the first challenge with the students.  Before classes begin, the teacher has to plan what formats to use and what tools to use to introduce a subject, what projects to assign, how to evaluate students, how to instruct students on working in groups, and how students are to complete and submit work.  The one big advantage that was noted in this article was the ability to train students on certain activities that are hard to create or recreate in the real world such as architectural digs.  Another benefit is to visit different places without actually travelling thus reducing field trip costs.  There are many advantages to teaching in a virtual world and as in the real world, there are obstacles to work through and overcome.

Twining, P. (2009). Exploring the educational potential of virtual worlds-some reflections from SPP.  British Journal of Educational Technology,  40(3), 496-514. doi:.10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00963.x

         One major criticism that the educational system receives is that it is not meeting the needs of the individual students or the society by creating life-long learners that is needed for the 21^st century.  This criticism is coming from all sectors of society.  This article is reviewing the Schome Initiative (school-home) that is being used in the UK but it has several real points to virtual worlds in education.  The biggest point they research is the fact that you can do things that are impossible in the real world or that are not a reality because of the cost.  Another concept is the motivation of students especially in high school to participate in and attend classes.  Schome Park was created for students from grades 4-12.  The students learned by doing tasks, becoming someone else, role-playing, reflecting and self-analyzing.  The conclusion was that students became more involved because they were not bound to a classroom and they were not as afraid to make mistakes in the virtual world.  The concluding question pondered the use of virtual worlds in education, will teachers use virtual worlds to the fullest possible potential or will they use it to simply reflect a traditional classroom in a virtual world. 

    

Getting Started in Second Life

This is my avatar in the video game, Second Life.  I started out very slow and learned the controls while watching a tutorial video.  Easy enough, especially when you can walk through things and people.  I ended up in a Freebie shop and found where I could change my avatar.  The only thing I really changed was my shirt color.  Everything moves too slow for me but I think it may be my computer even though I downloaded the suggested drivers that was suggested after I downloaded second life.  While I was at the first freebie place, I ran into a couple of avatars that were saying some very nasty and sexual comments.  So I quickly left there by searching "educational" places.  I wound up transporting to Rescue Island for sheltered and homeless animals.  This was better and I was able to see some boards that were related to rescued animals.  This was still too slow moving around.  My graphics are alright, my patience is not.  So here goes, as a third grade teacher, I would not use Second Life in any shape form or fashion.  I would not have to worry about getting hooked into Second Life because of the profanity and sexual encounters going on.  The tattoos, clothes, and hairdos that they were "selling" are way too far off what a person should wear.  Overall it is slow and a waste of time.  I could learn about rescuing dogs and animal shelters by using Google or even visiting an animal shelter.  I did not like Second Life and see no educational gain.

Gamification Presentation

Researching the topic of Gamification can be overwhelming, there is an enormous amount of information available.  For a teacher that is new to the concept, it can be too much and the interest to start a classroom based on gaming will quickly dissipate.  This presentation will give clues as to where to begin.

Direct Links
http://www.screencast.com/t/SUnNPo3R97S
or
http://youtu.be/2AXcfAAZs7Y

Gamification Presentation

Infographics with Piktochart

My first InfoGraphic was exciting. You may notice a rocks and minerals theme for several projects because it is part of the third grade science curriculum. During this unit, we visit the Virtual Geology Museum from Cochise College. I can't get off that website and the students (most) enjoy it also. We also add in bar graphs by studying birthstones and then taking a count of the whole third grade including teachers. We do a bar graph for each class and then we do one big graph for the whole third grade. We learn that you can also find fractions in our bar graphs. 
Birthstone Facts and Graph

<iframe width="1280" height="3961" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="overflow-y:hidden;" src="https://magic.piktochart.com/embed/1700349-birthstone-graph-per-class-copy"></iframe>

Games Can Make the World Better

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world

While watching the TED talk video from Jane McGonigal, first impression is that this lady is insane.  When she says that the World is already playing 3 billion hours of games a week but that statistic needs to multiply 7 times to 21 billion hours per week, I almost stopped watching.  In the background, you can hear people laughing at this fact lending to the realization that I was not the only person that thought she was insane. She also mentions this in context of solving the major problems of the world.  When she starts to lend the facts of gaming possibilities, the realization is that she may actually be on to a breakthrough to actually help the problems of the world by combining learning and gaming.  

The first rationalization that she uses to defend her stance is the face of the epic win.  She used an example of a boy that is playing a video game on the verge of making a win of some sort and then her face looking defeated from the everyday problems of the real world.  I looked at both faces and compared them to the faces of the children in my classroom.  I see a lot of smiling faces most of the time, sometimes I see faces of deep thought, sometimes I see the face of defeat, sometimes I see faces of light bulb moments, and not often enough I see faces of problem solvers that just saved the world.  Epic win is the face of a student that has gone beyond what they thought they were capable of doing, worked hard to discover something amazing, something that they will remember for the rest of their life.  

The second rationalization that she uses is that gamers spend over 10,000 hours in their lifetime playing games and at the same time students spend over 10,000 hours going through grade school to high school.  They have become virtuosos, or professionals at something, but what have they become good at?  

Jane gives us four items that gamers are becoming virtuosos of and these include urgent optimism, social fabric, blissful productivity, and epic meaning.  

Urgent optimism is self motivation.  Gamers never think that they can't overcome some obstacle so they keep on working hard at winning.  Social fabric shows that people trust other people they have played games with because they spent their time with them, played by the rules, have the same goals, and stayed until the game was over.  Blissful productivity states that people are more satisfied when they are working and doing something meaningful instead of relaxing.  Epic meaning is the fact that gamers are hooked on the attachment feeling of something great.  All of these together have created people that feel like they can so they do take on the world and won't stop until they have saved the world.  Why can they not transfer that to the real world and actually save the world? 

I know the hesitation.  Just like I have been afraid to put time into my FNDS6223 class because I don't like online games.  I like to put puzzles together and work the crossword but not online games like "World of Warcraft."   Real life obstacles combined with the fear of playing online games have made it easy for me to put off playing "The Game" in my class.  Students that have grown up in the digital age are not afraid of these games and game developers along with educators should take advantage of that fact.  

Jane has created some games that give real world problems and the test gamers have actually put some of the solutions into their everyday activities.  Most third graders now learn their multiplication facts better using game applications.  In 'World without Oil," gamers learn to live without oil by changing their habits.  The habits that were learned in the game carried over to real life.  It may be possible to use games as an educational tool that lends change and solutions to real world problems.  

Instead of laughing at the possibilities of 21 billion hours of gaming, I have started wondering how I can use gaming and project-based learning combined together in my classroom.  Parallel learning may be the key to the question that teachers ask everyday, "How can I keep my students motivated?'