Library2Play 2

11.5 More Things

2009-05-11T13:29:00.021-05:00

NOTE: THIS PROGRAM IS ARCHIVED FOR REFERENCE ONLY.
SBISD has NO plans to have a 2011 Summer session.

Welcome to more play. We have moved from the playground to the beach for a wider array of tools with which to play. The premise is the same. This blog outlines some activities designed to expose you to some tools, but the learning comes from your playing with the tools and reflecting in your blog how the tools can be used in education. We make no apologies that we approach all these tools from a Library perspective. We believe the Library is a big classroom connected to specific objectives in the classroom much like the water of the seas are connected to the beaches of the world.

11.5 More Things is an extension of the 23 Things you played at Library2Play. Whereas Library2Play was an introduction and overview to current web 2.0 and tools for student product creation, 11.5 More Things or Library2Play 2 is more applications of some of the more powerful cloud computing tools implied from the 23 Things. You NEED to create samples of many of the Things to be on application level.

Be sure to remember what you learned with 23 Things as you play with 11.5 More Things including commenting on other players blogs. See what they have learned in their play.

We have picked 11.5 More Things to learn that we think will be most useful in helping our students create and communicate their new learning. Many more new things exist that are not covered here. We have listed others at the More More Things Page. During the process or after you finish, be sure to explore the More More Things.

Summer 2010 Session
Start Date: Monday, June 7, 2010
All blogs posts must be on or after this date.

Completion Deadline: Monday, August 9, 2010 at 11:59 pm.

For Spring Branch Employees only -- If finished by August 9th Spring Branch employees will receive 12 hours off-contract PDLC credit. PDLC course # 1671.13480

For out-of-district players -- If you finish by August 9th, you will receive a certificate indicating the completion of the learning opportunity activities.

Face-to-Face (F2F) Sun Burn Clinics
Come and play together (for no extra credit) at the SBISD Media Center from 9;00-3:00 on these dates only:
Tuesday, June 22nd
Wednesday, July 7th
Thursday, July 15th
Tuesday, July 20th
Lifeguards and some Beach Patrolers will be available for help during these come-and-go sessions. Beachcombers will help each other as well!

From 23 Things we know that managing passwords can be difficult. You might want to consider a free account with a password managing website. One discussed on LM_NET (a national school Librarian listserv) was http://www.passpack.com/en/home/. Others can be found by doing a Google search on password manager.

Ready! Set! Jump in! Begin here.

Thing #1 = Inspiration and Registration

Thing #2 = Wordle or Wordshift, Glogster or VoiceThread, Animoto or Voki, and Bookr

Thing #3 = video web connecting (Skype or UStream or something) videoconferencing

Thing #4 = Posting to YouTube or TeacherTube

Thing #5 = Twitter and Facebook and Tinychat or TodaysMeet (microblogging/backchanneling)

Thing #6 = I-touch Apps

Thing #7 = TV sources, Hulu, etc…

Thing #8 = Screen capture - Jing, Camtasia type sites, but for free

Thing #9 = Sharing - SlideShare, iGoogle, and other similar sites for sharing slides, programs, etc.

Thing #10 = Virtual Worlds - Second Life, Gaming

Thing #11 = Digital Citizenship

Thing #11.5 = Evaluation

Other Information

More More Things

Thing #1 Registration

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Watch this video. We want our students to be able to create videos like this. We want our teachers to facilitate this kind of learning.

The Networked Student; The Movie
( http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=64972&title=The_Networked_Student___The_Movie )

For Thing #1 - Post you thoughts about the student, the video, and the teacher and her role. Can a Librarian play the role depicted in the video?

REGISTRATION:

Also, you MUST register your blog with the Library2Play 2 Team.
Email vaughn.branom@springbranchisd.com with:
1. Blog name/title of your blog. YES you may use your 23 Things blog or a new blog!
2. Your name as you are known in your blog--YOUR blog identity.
AND
3. Your blog address which will look like:

Until you do this, you are not officially a player and are not eligible for credit or certificate.

If you are a SBISD employee and wish to receive the 12 hours of professional development off-contract hours, you must be registered on PDLC. If you have problems registering on PDLC for this course, contact vaughn.branom@springbranchisd.com The PDLC course is # 1671.13480.

Remember:
You must record your progress on each of the 11.5 More Things on your blog. Clearly identify each THING in the title of your entries. Each Thing needs to be written in a separate blog posting. Please do not combine Things!

Your blog name is in the title bar.

Your blog address will have this form:
insertname represents the part of the address you created when you set up your blog.

******IMPORTANT Until you contact vaughn.branom@springbranchisd.com you are not officially playing and will not receive credit. The Lifeguards MUST receive your information for you to be added to the Players' roster. You will also receive an official "welcome" email to indicate that you are registered.

Next - Thing #2!

Thing #2 Image Generators 2

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Wordle or WordSift, Glogster/edu or VoiceThread, Animoto or Voki, and Bookr

All of the above are tools students can use to create products for assignments. Choose one of each pair plus Bookr to explore. Reflect on the questions asked as you post your blog Thing #2.

Wordle is a tool to create beautiful "word clouds". You copy some text and paste it into the Wordle page after clicking on the "create" button. Be sure to explore the edit tabs at the top to change the layout, color etc. Below is the Library Resources Page in Wordle. In addition to printing, you can always print the screen and then copy into a draw program like PowerPoint for editing and saving. The fact that the words most repeated appear larger would help a student to find the main concepts of an article or essay. How could a student use this tool? or
WordSift, like Wordle, takes text from any document or webpage and creates a word cloud. In addition, it gives you links to websites that might turn up if you did a search on those terms. So, the words become hot links. Again, how might students use this tool in their learning and creating?

Glogster/edu "poster yourself" or a poster online! Glogster is a tool that allows picture manipulation and mashups and adding hot links to parts of the pictures. Scroll down and play some of the tutorials. If you want to create a personal Glogster account before trying a classroom account go to Glogster homepage. Would there be any different thinking a student would have to do to turn in a poster online as opposed to a cardboard poster? If there is different thinking, is it better or worse, more or less, or how is it different?
or
VoiceThread--digital storytelling made simpler with 5 ways for the authentic audience to comment. Click on the K-12 at middle right. Then click on Learn More in middle. Watch Overviews. Then click on "Visit our K-12 pricing page". Then apply for the third or free column. What situations might this be the most appropriate tool for students?

Animoto - surely you have seen an Animoto! If you have not made one, now is the time. Be sure to explore how music with different tempos effect the changing of the pictures. Be sure to notice how the size of your picture effects the quality of the finished product. Be sure to re-arrange the sequence of the pictures to create a different effect. Be sure you can save, send, and post an Animoto. How can students and/or educators use this?
or
Voki - a talking avatar. Click get started. Be sure to click on all the possible buttons to see the various editing features you have. The students love to use the voice spoken typed text. Avatars could be used for other things than just to pretty up your blog. What would happen if a Voki was sent in an e-mail. Might the recipient get a stronger message than just text?

and

Bookr - a tool to create your own photobook. Visit the archives first and get an idea what the possibilities are. Using the cursor, you turn the pages from the top right corner or the bottom right corner. Explore but watch your cursor so you know when things are possible. Students could use Bookr instead of what other tools to create products for what assignments?

Thing #3 Like Skype

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Skype and things like Skype.

Almost all the articles referenced below have a sentence in them that tells about a service that is "like Skype". So, read and try lots of tools that are like Skype or try Skype!

Skype - At the Skype site, scroll down and click on the various tutorial videos. Explore. Click on the links. Read. Click on links in the right sidebar. When you are ready, click the "Download" tab at the top left. If you have any trouble downloading (for example you do not have administrative rights) consider using the home login you received when you got your SBISD laptop.

Check this post out by The Edublogger: Quick Start Tips for New Skype Users.

For other support articles and lists of other resources like Skype:

Keeping in touch by Library Web Chic talks about Skype for personal and professional use.
10 Disruptions that could transform your class by 2 cents worth - all are interesting , but read #4.
The Best Sites For Making International Telephone Calls by makeuseof.com These many options may even be better than Skype. Be warned, when the makeuseof site opens there is about a 15 second commercial with sound that may startle you. Click on the speaker in the upper right hand side to mute the sound.
A new Librarian wrote a manual about how to use Skype in her district. it can be found at her blog The Learning Librarian.
Instant Conference Calling, with Gizmo5 again by makeuseof.com Gizmo5, like Skype let's you call and video conference from computer to computer free.
Share Your Screen With Others Using Mikogo by makeuseof.com is a free way to share screens and conduct a web meeting.
Skype-based Reference Service by Library Voice
Tools for Schools: Live Online Conferencing by Kathy Schrock's KaffeeKlatsch
50 ways to use Skype in the classroom

How might Skype be used in the Library or classroom?

Thing #4 Video Hosting (YouTube)

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No doubt you have viewed videos for personal reasons and used educationally sound ones in class from YouTube and/or TeacherTube. You probably have had to use a conversion program like Zamzar in order to see the the YouTube videos in district.

YouTube has an Education channel where you can see what other educators have uploaded videos to be shared by others. There is a U.S. Government channel as well

But the availability of streaming video in a 2.0 world is unquestionable. It's everywhere!
Now it time for you to learn how to upload videos of your own.

For YouTube, you do have to register to upload (and use some of the other special features .)
Here is a video from the YouTube staff on how to upload a video.

NEW VERSION of this video

Important things to remember:
1. No more than 10 minutes.
2. No more than 1 GB
3. Must be in acceptable movie format including (but not limited to)

.AVI (windows)
.MOV (mac)
.MP4 (ipod/psp)
.MPEG
.FLV (adobe flash)
.SWF (shockwave flash)

Here is a nicely organized set of instructions for uploading to YouTube.

YouTube even has its own blog full of ideas and help.
Here are some more articles that may help you with this activity.

Interesting facts about YouTube

One specially nice feature of TeacherTube is the arrangement of subjects and topics into channels. For instance, if you need teaching support for math, you can click on the Math channel and see everything that has been tagged with math and other related tags.

To upload to TeacherTube, you also must register and create an account.

Here is some help in using TeacherTube. Included in this information is the list of formats accepted by the site. For videos, they are similar to the ones listed above in the information about YouTube.

Here is a video on how to upload to Teachertube. And some help pages that can answer your questions.

Try uploading to one of the sites. Use something you have already created (you may have to check the format) or create a piece like an Animoto to upload.

Include your thoughts to these questions in your blog post:
What would be some advantages of having teaching/learning videos available on online at sites like these?
What about student created work -- would there be advantages to having it uploaded?

P.S. Did you know there is also a School Tube site?

Thing #5 Microblogging

2009-05-11T13:24:00.043-05:00

Microblink states:

Microblogging [mahy-kroh-blŏg-ing] verbA small-scale form of blogging, generally made up of short, succinct messages, used by both consumers and businesses to share news, post status updates and carry on conversations.

Wikipedia states microblogging is a:

form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user.

The key components of microblogging are the short length, the simpler format, and the multiple ways it may be conducted.

Both Facebook and Twitter are forms of microblogging.

By now you should already know how Facebook played a roll in the 2008 presidential campaign. The district's Accountability & Reseach Department requested Facebook be opened so that graduates may be tracked -- a "going where they are" philosophy -- because email is an antiqued form of communication to young people!

You will need to create an account before you can investigate all the features of Facebook. The simple registration is right there on the intial page.

Yes, Facebook allows you to keep up with your friends but businesses and organizations also have a presence on Facebook. Even Facebook has a Facebook account! You can sign up to be a fan of these groups. Examples include: School Library Journal, PBS, American Presidents Blog, TX Assoc. for GT

To find more of these public pages , you must sign in. At the bottom of any of your pages, click on the Groups icon.

When the page opens, click on Browse Groups and you will see a list on the right side of group catagories that you can visit.

Facebook is also a part of the mobile computing community in that you can access and use Facebook from your phone or other mobile computing devices.
If you need more help with Facebook, go here.

Here is how one student solved a very common problem faced by graduating Seniors by using Facebook.
Instead of posting a note on the student center bulletin board, these college students use Facebook.
Need help planning for college? Here are some Facebook apps that will provide that help: Gradzilla, College Planner, SkoolPool

Book Clubs for Kids on Facebook

If you are still uncertain about your postion towards Facebook, read Diane Chen's blog post Facebooking---a little long but check out the bottom portion especially. How she answers the question "why Facebook?" may give you a reason or two that fits!

The Common Craft Guys help explain Twitter, another microblogging resource.
[the embeded copy of this video has been removed due to technical issues. It can be viewed by clicking the link.]

Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo

From the Twitter Fan Wiki here are more answers to "Twitter is ...."

Twitter optimizes the "shortness" of microblogging because answers can only be 140 characters long! And just like Facebook, Twitter is part of the mobile computing world becasue it can be done from a computer or phone in several formats.

It is simple to join. Just create an acoount using an email address and password.

The Twitter blog has some information on searching techniques. This would be especially useful if you search for the same information regularly or you are trying to keep up with local, national or even international events as they occur.

The Twittter experience is only as good as your network. Have an objective or reason for following Tweeters that you add to your group. You also want to be a good twittizen and practice good Twitter manners.

Here is a recent post by 2 cents worth about how and why to do twitter.

If you doubt the popularity and power of tweeting, check out these power brokers who use it. D.C. Top 10 Twitters

Even our district now has a way for you to keep in touch through Twitter. It's Twitter identity is Spring Branch ISD.

Here are some reasons why educators should consider using Twitter in school and with students.

Library/Education Twitters to check out. Their Twitter IDs are included.
David Warlick from 2 Cents Worth - dwarlick his Twitter page
Scott McLeod from Dangerously Irrelevant - mcleod comments from college students about Twitter
Joyce Valenza from NeverEndingSearch - joycevalenza mapping your Twitter network
Michael Stephens from Tame the Web - mstephens7 can I Twitter that?
Jessamyn West from Librarian.net - jessamyn library/book vendors who Twitter
Vicki Davis from CoolCatTeacher - coolcatteacher scroll down to How I use Twitter

No Internet Required with Twitter

Good list of what to do with Twitter in Libraries

Twitter Guide Book (digital)

Another form of microblogging that is even more informal is back-channeling. From Wikipedia, back-channeling is defined as

the practice of electronically passing notes among some or all of the audience/students during the lecture. When sanctioned, this practice is particularly useful for speakers who are attempting to dynamically modify their presentations based on immediate feedback from the audience. When unsanctioned, this practice is often very distracting for the presenter.

Back-channeling is often used at large conferences or large lecture-style classes where clarifying questions are often asked by the audience or students and answered by facilitators who work in tandem with the presenter. It has be also be used when students can not be present for the actual lecture and participate from long-distance.

Twitter is often used to conduct back-channeling. Two other resources include Today's Meet and TinyChat. Joyce Valenza writes about the use of these resources.

There are advantages for both the presenter and the participants to use back-channeling.

What about those students who find it difficult to speak out in a group setting? Would a back-channel opportunity make it easier for them to participate?

For your blog post, describe your experiences with Facebook and Twitter. Give suggestions as to how these resouces could aid students in and out of the classroom. Give ideas for using back-channeling at school.

P.S. Join the group below that Wonder Weiss created for all of us...another useful feature of FB.

Thing #6 iTouch Apps

2009-05-11T13:23:00.021-05:00

This will be a slightly different Thing in that it involves getting your hands on some hardware. If you do not have an iPhone, iTouch, or iPad then you will need to borrow one or you can go to the nearest Apple Store and actually play with theirs for a while. If you have an iPhone or an iTouch then you will probably have already done these things and will be able to teach us in your post. The iTouch is part of the web 3.0 which involves much of web 2.0 but on mobile devices.

Read through the posts below. Then do 2 things:
1. Download some educational apps to an iTouch (or find some good visual directions on how to download apps to an iTouch).
2. Create a list of ways to use the iTouch in the Library by multiple students (that is different than an iTouch being assigned to students).

Why an iPod Touch in education?
Nice blog post about some great apps for the iTouch. Some very good lists of Apps for education. Made note that an iTouch can hold 140 Apps.

tags: education, ipod, apple, itouch

Top 100 Free iPhone Applications - Pinch Media - powered by FeedBurner
Pinch media delivers the top free apps for iphones every day. This is their feed. Be warned that on any day 10% of the suggestions are probably not appropriate for education. that does not prevent this site from being very useful. You would use this site to find Apps that you might want on your iTouch. Then go to the iTouch and download those free Apps that you want. Once the iTouch is in your hand, you do not have to be bothered by the non-educational Apps.
tags: education, learning, iphone, itouch

Watch video Review of iPod Touch about students who used the iTouch for some of their Flatclassroom projects.

This post on Cloud Computing gives some background as to why an iTouch can really do all the things it can do.

Some information about what Abilene CU is doing with iTouch's

FeedBooks: Help
Feedbooks: Recently added
You can get so many books on your iphone/iTouch - just get the stanza app and then sign up for a feedbooks account to set everything up. This is great!
tags: education, learning, iphone, itouch, app, reading

Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) Beau Giles
This looks exceptionally useful for a single user of an iTouch. I don't think it will be two useful for multi-users as we will have in the Library unless the Library has a Google Calendar (which is not too bad of an idea).
tags: education, itouch, apps, learning, mobile, google, gmail, mobileme

A great tutorial on how to download to iTunes.

Downloading games to an iPod--how to.

How to get ebooks downloaded to your iPod.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally this Thing was going to explore Wikipedia, but because of mischief students, the IP address from Spring Branch Schools has been blocked from editing articles at Wikipedia until April of 2010. You may be able to edit at home, but the purpose for learning is to have your students edit. There are probably hundreds of other speciality versions of Wikipedia that you might explore and even have your students edit. But for now we are switching this thing to iTouch Apps. Below are the posts gathered in preparation for the Wikipedia Thing. Enjoy as an extra!

A summary post by Stephen Abram at Stephen's Lighthouse called "The Battle Continues" gives some information about the history and accuracy of Wikipedia.

A similar article is introduced by Library Stuff: Face facts: where Britannica ruled, Wikipedia has conquered.

See if you can find the article or post that states 54% of all Americans go to Wikipedia first for facts.

Now that hopefully we can accept that Wikipedia is a viable tool, let's expereince the creation or editing of a Wikipedia article.

First go to the Community Portal. Spend some time looking at all the requests for collaboration in expanding and editing Wikipedia. Scroll way down to the last section and look on the right column. Click on What Wikipedia is not and take a look.

Thing #7 Video Resources

2009-05-11T13:22:00.009-05:00

Creating and sharing video has become an essential ingredient of the 2.0 world. Because of the ease of the cameras and software available, creating video products AND using video products have become essential parts of the school day as well.

Anyone can create a video and has many places to upload it for viewing. Even the commercial producers of video have decided that sharing their products is a good thing!

Of course, that brings up the question of copyright and fair use. Is it OK to use things found on the web? If the creator uses the Creative Commons licensing, the answer is a little simpler. Take a look at this video that discusses the idea of fair use and what that entails.
Remix Culture: Fair Use Is Your Friend

Here is the documentation on fair use that is related to the above video.
Here are some FAQs about fair use and video.

Here are several sources to use in searching for educationally useful videos. Check them out and see what you can find for your library and classroom needs. Be sure and note the licensing and restrictions!

Hulu
Includes individual videos and collections such as Black Holes, Dark Mysteries, National Geographic specials,

Blinkx
The world's largest search engine for video - over 35 million hours of video since 2004!
What about How to Make a Lava Lamp from the Kids collection or Waterproof Sand from the Environment collection.

National Archives Video Collections
historical films converted to video on the topics of Space Flight History, WWII Newsreels, and Dept. of Interior films, especially those of 1930s work projects.
[Just since this activity was created, apparantly these videos were permanetly moved to a Youtube channel for the NARA. The link now reflects that new location. Of course, currently that means they will not be available in district unless they are converted using something like Zamzar.]

PBS Video
collections such as Nature, American Experience, Nova,
Time Team America is a new series of videos starting this summer that showcase archaeological digs around the country like this one in North Carolina.

blip.tv background information
Check out this piece on the creation of tornado-like conditions or wildcast.com from Africa.

totlol
Videos for the youngest viewers in the crowd. Parental approval!

Google Video Search
Google Video Blog

Joyce Valenza has an extensive list of video resources on her web page including info about this new video source NeoK12.

Here is another list of video search engines.

For your blog posting, select two videos from any of these sources and discuss how you would be able to use them in your library or classroom. Do you have any additional sources of videos that your have found on the web. Tell us about them!

P.S. If it is possible to embed the video in your blog, remember you have to copy the code and switch to the Edit Html tab before pasting.

Here are embed directions for Youtube videos.

Thing #8 Screencast

2009-05-11T13:21:00.006-05:00

Screencasts allow you to record movements on your computer screen and voice over with instructions detailing what you are doing. Below are several websites that facilitate screencasting.

Create Simple & Useful Screencasts with ScreenCastle by makeusof.com gives a step by step description of how to use the free web-based ScreenCastle.

Jing is free software made by the folks that make Camtasia and Snagit. For Mac and PC.

LibrarianInBlack in a long post contained these comments: "He really plugged Wink as a screencasting tool; the output is a Flash file. He used CamStudio to do screen video capture"

.
Wink is download freeware.

.
CamStudio is free streaming video software. It is Open Source.

GoView "Its quick. Its easy. And its free." Or so says the website. Looks it.

Screencast-o-Matic - is a free online tool which lets you create recordings of your desktop with audio. Requires no download.

Freescreencast - simple with no downloads.

Further Investigations into Free Screencast Software an overview blog post with more examples.

Quick Tips for Improving Screencasts

Joy of Screencasting - a motivational post.

Think about letting your current group of students creating screencasts of how to use certain tools on the computer to have for your next group of students. What an investment that would be!

Explore several screencasting tools. Pick one and create a screen cast of a simple task on your computer that would be useful to have and send to others in lieu of showing them face-to-face. Then upload it to your blog and comment about the potential this tool has with your students.

Thing #9 Slideshare

2009-05-11T13:20:00.012-05:00

Slideshare and More on Slideshare from makeuseof.com Slideshare blog with Slide tips.

Ignoring Social Software - Not a post listing 5 social software we should not ignore. Slideshare is one.

Comparison of PowerPoint Hosting tools

Slide Share by Stephen's Lighthouse

Read Joyce Valenza's post about authorStream and its enhanced capabilities over Slidehsare.

Slideboom

In case your students do not have access to PowerPoint try 280 Slides. Read about it at Presentation Power Online.

Would it be important for students to use Slideshare? If so, why?

Thing #10 Virtual Worlds

2009-05-11T13:19:00.044-05:00

For this Thing, you are going to take on a new life. Read the stuff from the links in the "How (from Second Life)" section. Then if you still want some more information read the stuff from the links in the "How (from others)" section. You will probably want to read some of the "Why" stuff just to give you an idea of why you even want to learn about Second Life. You will want to read the section "Learning from my explorations". I wrote them as I created my avatar and went into Second Life for my first 4 or 5 times and the things that stumped me. After you have read, downloaded the software, created an avatar, and gone into Second Life (especially to some of the recommended places) then write in your blog posting for Thing # 10 what learning your student might accomplish in Second Life. Since some of your students will be too young for Second Life or Teen Second Life, you will probably be exposing them to the learning by having them watch what is projected onto the big screen as you go into Second Life and re-explore some of the things you will explore now. Have fun!

HOW (from Second Life)

Second Life - click on boxes and explore before doing anything else.

Second Life Blog - Be sure to click on the "What is Second Life" link in the top left.

Here is a very useful (or overwhelming) quick start list of how to issue commands in Second Life to get your avatar to do things. Two points are that there are lots of interesting things to see and do in Second Life and second there is almost always some sort of help to move you along.

Second Life Support Center - look at the "Second Life for Beginners".

Online safety in Second Life. This site gives a lot of very useful and reassuring information. Although I do not intend to spend real money in Second Life, the safety tips on how not to get scammed are very interesting. second Life is a lot like 1st life. :-)

Second Life is for adults 18 and older. Teen Second Life is for teenagers 13 to 17. so you will learn inf Second Life and then help your students learn in Teen Second Life. There are other virtual worlds for pre-teens.

If you really do not think Second Life has anything to do with education try this link to Education in Second Life. Notice the research links.

SLurl - location-based linking in Second Life. Often you will be invited to attend n event in Second Life at a certain location. Usually the location is given to you as a URL. this site helps explain that a little.

HOW (from others)

There really is more information about Second Life than anyone person can read, but click on this link and follow the links in the article to find out a lot from expert Joe Sanchez.

Another how to post. This one by Cool Cat Teacher--very good. She has several lists of things to do and she gives you a running dialogue of her first day in Second Life.

SciLands Classroom - a series of courses and support materials that help you understand how to operate (walk, sit, etc.) in Second Life. You do not have to do all the activities to get a good handle on things, but try some of the links.

WHY

In case you want to go to a conference discussing virtual worlds and education follow this link.

Second Life - What Is The Hype? a post about a year old that gives a good introduction. Be sure to concentrate on the second half of the post. It is about education and Second Life.

Several good posts by Hey Jude give a perspective about Second Life that is worth the read. If you are just skimming, enjoy Judy's costume changes in Second Life.

Suffern Middle School in Second Life - This is a whole blog devoted to "A running account of the proposal, acquisition, development, and implementation of the virtual presence of Ramapo Central School District on the Teen Grid of Second Life" by Librarian Peggy Sheehy.

Practical example--book club in Second Life

This link goes to a short post by Stephen's Lighthouse. The second half talks about the success of a Library in Second Life.

3 Free Online Virtual Worlds

If you think Second Life is not for you just yet, try any one of these 200 virtual worlds brought to us by David Warlick of 2 cents worth.

Now, join a virtual world, name an avatar, learn to walk and sit and talk and then explore. Report back on your blog what possibilities virtual worlds might offer our students.

Learn from my explorations:

When I created my account I was a little confused about the name. I chose to use my real first name. When I did so, a button popped up that said "Change first name". I thought that meant I HAD to change my first name. In fact it did not. I should have figured it out because the last name selection was ready for me to choose a last name.

The recommendation is to choose a community in which to start. There are about nine screens of communities from which to choose (scroll down to see the nine boxes). I think the English language communities run out after about 3 screens. I was torn between the first (Hobos) and the university one (Camus in 3d) and the DC Community (Yosemite National Park).

Next you will need to check your e-mail for a message from Second Life. Save the e-mail. Then you will need to download software to your computer. It is about 70 megs of software. I put it in the default suggested place.

It is fun. I still have not learned many things, but I can find a Library and sit down and relax. by the way, if you see me in Second Life, I am Barry Bigboots. The second time you go into Second Life, you will need to open up the Second Life software that you downloaded onto your computer, then type in your Second Life name and password. If you can, find someone you know that has been in Second Life to take you in and show you things. It really is fun. You can see inside a tsunami, a cell, a volcano etc... If you want to download the Second Life software to a second computer, go to this link. I hope you survive your awkward moments in Second Life. I some how lost my Movement Controls. While I was looking for them someone came up behind me and said "hello". Without my Movement Controls I could not turn around. I kept looking for my Movement Controls and she said "oh" and left. Finally I found my Movement Controls in the Tool bar under "view". Then I walked over to her and explained why I had not said anything. I left shortly thereafter.

Here are some place to go to (click on the search box at the bottom and type these in, then click on them and then click on the teleport button--easier than it sounds):

Texas Library Association (not a place but a group to join)
American Library Association
ISTE
NOAA Virtual Island

Thing #11 Digital Citizenship

2009-05-11T13:18:00.000-05:00

Pick 3 or so of the articles below and study them. Then think about what 5 things you might tell your students as part of Library orientation to encourage them to be good digital citizens.

1. One approach to digital citizenship resides at the Digiteen Digital Citizenship Wiki. Delve into the topics in the left margin. These topic titles come from the book 'Digital Citizenship in Schools' by Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey.

2. Cool Cat Teacher summarizes much about digital citizenship.

3. Another teacher "reflects" on digital literacy.

4. Here is a Ning with resources for educators on digital citizenship.

5. The ISTE standards (NETS-S [for students]) talk about digital citizenship. And the NETS-T for teachers give a little more detail about digital citizenship.

6. I-Safe factsheet from TxSSC (Texas School Safety Center). Check out the TxSSC for many more resources including the link to TEA's Internet safety page.

In your blog post briefly outline what your digital citizenship lesson might look like and why.

Thing #11.5 Evaluation

2009-05-11T13:17:00.001-05:00

Congratulations!! You’ve reached the 11.5 more thing. Give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program.

Please give us your feedback on your experience by reflecting on your learning journey by blogging a few thoughts. Here are some questions to prompt you:

Please give specific answers for each question.

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

We hope this is not the end of our learning journey together as a staff and a system, but the start of something amazing …such as:

maintain your blog as your educational journal
add your blog URL to your e-mail signature line
re-purpose it as your School Library blog
share it with your colleagues and administrators

Other Information

2009-05-11T13:16:00.000-05:00

More More Things

2009-05-11T13:15:00.001-05:00

Creating Wiki’s Wikispaces, pbwiki, powerpoints about Wiki’s
iTouch applications
Webs.com creating a website

The Next Hot Web 2.0 WebsitesWebsites such as Yelp, StumbleUpon, imeem, Veoh, WeeWorld and Piczo could represent the next wave of popular Web 2.0 websites. The websites are already popular among early adopters by cross referencing the Hitwise Lifestyle Segmentation data from groups such as Young and Digerati, Money and Brains and Bohemian Mix. The websites all over indexed among these groups compared to Internet average of all US websites.
http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/archives/2007/04/web_20_market_p.html

Certified Divers Summer 2010

2009-05-02T11:42:00.010-05:00

The following bloggers successfully completed the program during the Summer 2010.

11.5 More Things Needed for Teaching sb

11.5 Part 2 sb

Adventures of Luka Blogwalker

Amywoo2

Art4Edu sb

Big Country's Thoughts Part 2 sb

The Book Nook sb

Double Learner sb

A Gal Named Al sb

Get in Gear sb

Goodner's Adventure sb

Growing Readers sb

Hawks Rule-bjs sb

Heightsbooks sb

It's Always Pink sb

Just in Time! sb

Kandel's Fan sb

Kinder2:)

Kristen ans a Tech Diva! sb

Library Jump sb

Library Miscellaneous

Mary Katherine's Blog sb

Mr. Allen's 3rd Grade Blog sb

New Tools for Great Fishing Online

The Pasture sb

Playing Again sb

Prek Kittens sb

Schocking Thoughts sb

Science Rocks sb

Servin' Up Some... sb

Spartan - djs sb

Starting Anew sb

Sweet Summertime sb

A Teacher's Garden sb

Teaching and Learning sb

Technology in Biology sb

Texas Book Worm sb

Theresa's News sb

This is What I Really Need to Say sb

The World According to Ellen sb

Certified Divers Summer 2009

2009-05-01T13:44:00.003-05:00

The following bloggers successfully completed the program in the summer of 2009.

1 Book, 2 Books, 3 Books sbl
A+ Recipes sb
Adventures in Learning sbl
Allabasudden- Is That 1 Word or 2? sb
ARK's Instructional Blog sbl
At the Water's Edge sbl
Big Red sbl
Biology Blogology
Bits & Pieces sbl
Blogging--Weedin Style! sb
BookStar sbl
Bookworm Gardner sbl
Books Are Treasures sbl
Camp Mitchell sb
CatLover sbl
Connected but Hasseled
Daydreamintechnicolor sb
Estie's Gifts and Treasures sb
Experimental Play sb
Fooling with Words sb
Forum, The
Frogntoad
Funsunsummerlearnng sb
GOI-BOK sbl
Happy Harping sb
Have Job - Have Baby - Will Travel sb
I "Heart" Bibliophiles sbl
I Wonder by Luna sb
If I must... sb
Information is Bliss sbl
Into Humid Air: 11:5 Reasons to Stay Inside sb
Into the Book sbl
It's All Relative sbl
Journey sb
Karen's Place sb
Kathy"s Page sb
Katyroo
L'l Bit of This & That sbl
La Bibliotecaria Loca sbl
Lam's Learning sb
Land-marks sbl
Learning New Things
Learning to Play and Playing to Learn sb
Liberry Lady
Librarian & Mom sbl
Library Lamp
Library Lion sbl
Lit's Blog sb
Lost in Cyberspace sbl
Lover of Skippy John Jones and Olivia sb
Mama Libearian sbl
Mjablog sb
MMS Library Blog sbl
Ms Bojangles sb
Ms Frazzled sbl
NMW-Live sb
Not Just Another Pretty Place sbl
Notes from the Library Squirrels sbl
Of Life, Education, Ebay, Travel & Books sbl
Older But Wiser sb
PastWords sbl
Porter Library Blog
Readerbuzz
Reluctant Blogger sbl
Sara the Belles sb
Sheepish Blogger sbl
Still Trying sbl
Sperry Summer Fun sb
SU-Z-Q-Z sb
Summerdaze sb
Teacher Mommy
Tech Snapshots sb
Tech Talk sb
Techgoddess23things sb
Technology Pursuit sb
Texas Techie's Blog sb
Thoughts from the Swedish Chef sb
To Be GT sb
Travels
Tx Library Girl
VaughnL sb
Web 2.0 King Is Back Again sb
Wonder Weiss's Wisdom sb
Working Mom sb

Treading Water!

2009-05-01T13:43:00.005-05:00

These bloggers did not complete 11.5 More Things but may be using their blogs for other purposes.

11.5 Things sb
BioBlogger sb
Book Nook
Book Train
Born to Travel sb
Bruce's 23 Things Project sb
Cladybug sb
Danni's Blog sb
Erin is now an Aggie!!! sb
Geo4All sb
Insert Blog Title Here sb
It's a Puzzle sb
Klein Old Aggie 82
Lady Bubble sb
Library Byte by Byte sbl
LiveSimple sb
Moving Forward sb
Music-Matters sb
Raider Physical Science
Summertime Fun sb
Transformers sb
Trout's 11 sb