MUVE's+and+Professional+Development

= EDUC 67151-2 New & Emerging Technologies =

**Online Learning Community: Leading Technology Change**
**MUVE's and Professional Development**

Revisit one or more of the MUVEs you explored this week. Then, identify at least two professional organizations that have an online presence and offer training or workshops in the MUVE. Identify one personal learning network available in the MUVE that will help you keep abreast of new and emerging technologies. Identify at least one other resource in the MUVE for information about new and emerging technologies (e.g., technology reviewer, futurist, researcher, or journal). Next, post about how could you use the MUVE, and the resources you found, to engage colleagues (local and remote) in professional development workshops? Finally, contribute an additional suggestion, strategy, resource, or idea to at least one of your community members’ posts. Assignment length: 2–3 paragraphs.

// When posting, please label your 2 paragraph summary as "MUVE and Professional Development (your name)". //

// When posting step three, please label your additional thoughts and ideas feedback as "MPD feedback from (your name) to (group member's name)" //

The two professional organizations which have an online presence, and offer training in MUVE are [|Open Cobalt Alpha] and [|Atlantis Remixed]. The personal learning network that I’ll use to keep abreast of new and emerging technologies is [|ISTE SIGV Virtual Environment Special Interest Group Wiki]. One additional professional journal that I will use to keep informed about new and emerging technologies is the [|Research in Learning Technology] Journal. Assuming that my school district’s plan to increase wireless hubs to every room in our building is accepted by our school board in May, that teachers could use our student computer lab (because those computers have more RAM needed as compared to classroom minis) to upload software to lab computers, and the design tools yielded a product on which it was worth it to spend the time, MUVE resources on Atlantis Remixed could be used to “attend” the new teacher induction, which is a self led course (Sanchez, 2009). Both myself and other teachers that had just signed up for the course would be invited to join a “facilitated PD workshop” as a part of the course. During the facilitated PD workshop, teachers from other schools and I would work together toward enrolling students from each teacher’s school in the game. This self led course will allow me to “attend” the course whenever I like from any device with internet access I have (Dembo, 2008). The Quest Atlantis Teacher wiki would also provide me a place to join a Quest Atlantis email listserv, join a facebook page, or take part in monthly virtual meetings. Adding this wiki to my feedreader will allow me to keep up with posts on the wiki (Warlick, 2009). This last week I requested membership on The Atlantis Remix website. Currently I am awaiting an e-mail confirmation of my status as an incoming teacher or facilitator and a confirmation code to register for a workshop with Atlantis Remixed. My hope is to spend time during my summer Professional Learning Academy during my independent study sessions working on Atlantis Remix’s self-led new teacher introduction. Our school district PLA is a portion of the district’s [|21st Century Design for Learning Plan] during which different groups or teams of teachers are sent to summer PLA sessions for training in implementation of 21st century learning concepts and skills. The district plans to hold PLA sessions until 2015 when teachers will be expected to implement 21st century learning practices. As a member of Walden’s Masters program, I have received some of the training already, so the PLA director has offered me the opportunity to do some independent study. With a focus on Problem Based Learning- this summer I will work on Atlantis Remixed, My Reading PBL, and my course management system in [|Edmodo].
 * __ MUVE and Professional Development Julia Geiser __**

Dembo, S. (2008). Virtual worlds for educators. //District Administration, 44//(11), 48–52. Retrieved from the Walden University Library using the Academic Search Complete database. Sanchez, J. (2009). Barriers to student learning in Second Life. //Library Technology Reports//, //45//(2), 29–34. Retrieved from the Walden University Library using the Academic Search Complete database. Warlick, D. (2009). Grow your personal learning network. //Learning & Leading With Technology//, //36//(6), 12–16. Retrieved from the Walden University Library using the Education Research Complete database.

__ MPD feedback from David Keniston to Julia Geiser __ I also found an International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) resource during this assignment. I had never heard of this organization, but they seem to be well established and extremely informative of current, new and emerging technologies that can assist teachers in the classroom. This year’s conference in San Diego will have five hundred exhibits, four hundred learning activities, three hundred model lessons and additional hands-on workshops. They obviously draw a large crowd since they have so many organizations, tech companies and agencies that agree to host exhibits and share their latest forms of technology. Their internet resources are just as user-friendly and informative as their conferences seem to be. I like that most of their information is delivered through video, I am a visual learning and being able to watch their videos on the link you provided to their wiki page as well as the information available on their standard website helps me better understand the topics they present. These are definitely websites I will use to stay current with today’s latest forms of emerging technology and possibly go to a conference in the near future. David

To better understand the advanced capabilities MUVEs provide I created an avatar in Second Life, I was instantly entertained with the idea that I could fly around, which was easy to figure out. To better support our own learning of MUVEs, such as Second Life, and ways to incorporate this type of technology in our classrooms I followed the advice Yoder (2009) suggested. She listed two organizations that support educators in the MUVE movement. The first one is through Global Kids, [|http://www.globalkids.org/#/news-and-events/upcoming-trainings] this will link you to their news and events webpage where they list upcoming trainings. The second organization Yoder (2009) provided was ISTE island, [] this link takes you to their annual conference page. This year’s conference is held in the end of June in San Diego where teachers, administrators and technology professionals get together to share information on not only MUVEs, but all forms of emerging technology. In Second Life’s virtual world there is an available learning network called Discovery Educator Network Leadership Council. Volunteer teachers are there to help you in any possible way to become more proficient in the Second Life environment (Dembo, 2008). Another way to connect with other educators and keep updated on the latest forms of emerging technology is to enter chat or discussion worlds within Second Life. If you simple click the search button on the left side of the screen and type in ‘teachers’ or ‘educators’ it will link you to all the different areas where teachers are meeting. You can be as specific as you want to find the information you are looking for. Since most of the teachers involved in the Second Life program are interested in implementing technology they can provide you with information on ways to better incorporate emerging technologies or at least point you in the right direction. Dembo (2008) provided information to find a technology expert that supplies educators with a variety of tools and concepts for the classroom. Kathy Schrock [] has a website that links you to presentation dates, books, articles, blogs, tech blogs, twitter feeds, guides and much more. Her goal is to help support educators implement technology in the classroom and keep you informed on the latest technologies that could enhance our students’ learning. I could use Kathy Schrock’s website to introduce the idea of looking for more professional development courses on integrating technology in the classroom to my colleagues. My department is always eager to attend conferences that will benefit their teaching practices, by sharing these same links with my department team and school administrators we could possible plan a way to attend one this summer or next school year. David
 * __MUVE and Professional Development: David Keniston__**

References: Dembo, S. (2008). Virtual worlds for educators. //District Administration, 44//(11), 48–52. Yoder, M. B. (2009). Walk, fly, or teleport to learning. //Learning & Leading With Technology//, //37//(2), 16–20. __MPD feedback from Stephen Gross to David Keniston__ David, I had difficulty finding the Discovery Educator Network Leadership Council. I did however find information about the Discover Education destination within Second LIFE. I don't know about you but I really had found that Second Life had some strong points but it lacked clear instruction in how to navigate and really find what I was looking for. The idea that you could build an avitar and start walking around different destinations was great, yet if you don't know what your looking for then it could be a little confusing. I read and study about second life and it detailed the fact that Second Life requires a higher level of ability then what you would expect. I think Second Life although a great tool could be fustrating for someone with limited skills in technology. I would think it would be more appropriate for higher level students if used in the classroom. Do you agree?

__ MPD feedback from Jennifer McClure to David Keniston __ Hi David, Were you able to find any educational islands on Second Life? I was having a hard time, partly due to my internet connection. I did a general search on Second Life and found many informative sites to visit giving suggestions. [] is a place to search for different destinations without jumping right into them on Second Life. It helped me a little to find some different places to navigate. A great part about it is you can set the setting to different levels. I chose general, so all audiences could potentially view the destination. I could not search for teacher or education as you said above, it always came up as could not be found... Jennifer

__**MUVE and Professional Development: Dawn Kinnell**__ Two professional organizations that have an online presence and offer training or workshops in the MUVE are Eduism, which is a 3D virtual world (similar to Second Life) for an interactive whiteboard such as the Smartboard or Mimeo. With the many schools who have the interactive white board in their classrooms, this organization would be beneficial as a using a virtual world. The other organization is Second Life, which is most commonly used by educators who are using MUVE's. One personal learning network available in the MUVE that will help educators keep abreast of new and emerging technologies that I found and thought was interesting was the Tapped In site found at tappedin.org. The Tapped In concept is where teachers can learn from one another (collaboration) and they are exposed to a variety of education reform concepts. Teachers can also find resources through Tapped In and contribute to them. The purpose of Tapped In is to help the education community understand emerging technologies and to rethink their approach to include online community services and activities into their teaching day. One other resource in the MUVE that I found for information about new and emerging technologies was Sims Teach. SimsTeach is an information and community for educators using MUVE's. It is about promoting effective teaching and the learning of contents in schools. It is a place where university instructional designers, faculty and administrators can go to find information and they can also share their own experiences through SimsTeach. SimsTeach has a blog and a wiki where educators can post their information to share. I can use MUVE and the resources I found this week to engage colleagues in professional development workshops by learning how to use these MUVE's myself and to find and try one I am comfortable using. This will enable me to be able to educate my own colleagues and teach them about exactly what an MUVE is and how it works. I know as I asked around this past week to see how many were even familiar with MUVE, not one of my colleagues had ever heard of it. It is a very new concept for me as well and to be honest, a bit difficult for me to grasp. That said, I really need to learn more about it before I can make a decision on whether I think this can be useful in my teaching. I would like to find a MUVE I can use in my own classroom and where my students can use it without having the frustration of trying to figure out how to use it. My students have cognitive impairments and very little reading and writing skills so it becomes a little more challenging in my environment, however, if I can find the right resources, I believe it could be a positive addition in my classroom. Dawn Kinnell

__ MPD feedback from Julia Geiser to Dawn Kinnell __ Dawn- Thanks for including information about the organization Tappedin. I took a look at their site and figured out that it was a giant collection of chat rooms. That was nice to see considering that it wouldn't necessitate the download of any software to participate. I too looked at the Sims teach wiki as a possibility which led me to some gaming forums. From BIG Fish I found a variety of word games that I will be implementing with my kids for vocabulary study next year. For 5 years I've been using "Acropolis" to help students in 4th grade reading at a entering 3rd reading level to practice word groups that we study. For example, when we learn r-controlled words I challenge them to keep track of how many r-controlled words they can make in "Acropolis". Next year's game is KrissXwhich will allow me to customize words in the game to support specific vocabulary from student's novels. I'd like to teach the kids to design these actually so that they can get some experience, enjoy playing a game that reinforces their text, and allow me to delegate. Lastly, I think that you're wise to learn more about MUVE's before you would implement one. I haven't seen evidence that they would be approporiate for all developmental levels.

__**MUVE and Professional Development: Jennifer McClure**__ This week I explored different MUVEs. I ended up creating an Avatar in Second Life because I saw I could access art galleries online. This has been an interesting experience. Dembo (2008) said there is a place called EduIsland II to visit, all for educators. I could not visit this, whether it was because my computer did not have all the requirements, or because the site was having difficulties. I also tried to visit different art galleries. I had a mixed experience, as one of the galleries people were trying to chat using extremely vulgar language. Then I had a hard time getting to other places and then always wondering what people were going to talking about! This is where professional development can come in. It proves it is important to understand how to navigate a virtual world such as Second Life. One professional organization that has a presence on Second Life is International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) on ISTE Island. It is a place that host events and speaker series to learn more about educational technology (Yoder, 2009). Another organization that has a presence on Second Life is Discovery Educator Network (Waters, 2009). They help new educators to Second Life become comfortable with it. These organizations also have blogs or web pages beyond what is found within Second Life. There are many ways to keep abreast of new and emerging technologies in Second Life. First and foremost, it is important for your computer to have the correct requirements. I was not able to search for places, but if I had, I should be able to find many resources for educators, including seminars, and links to external journals. There are many people willing to assist in finding information about new and emerging technologies, including the Discovery Educator Network. Elizabeth Knittle, a technology integration specialist, says it can take up to a year for educators to feel comfortable in Second Life and able to master the skills needed to have the best experience (Waters, 2009). Other MUVEs might be more appropriate for the educational world, but Second Life does have a Teen Second Life for 14-18 year olds that are more suited for their age level. This would be worth researching more about. Second Life could be used to engage colleagues in professional development workshops, especially over the summer when it is difficult to physically meet. Teachers could chat in different educational settings, and we could decide on different workshops or seminars to attend. In the future, if Second Life is a good option, our school could rent land on an education island and create our own professional development opportunities. Jennifer

Dembo, S. (2008). Virtual worlds for educators. //District Administration, 44//(11), 48–52. Yoder, M. B. (2009). Walk, fly, or teleport to learning. //Learning & Leading With Technology//, //37//(2), 16–20. Waters, J. K. (2009). A 'Second Life' for educators. //THE Journal//, //36//(1), 29–34.

__MPD Feedback from Laura Mahany to Jennifer McClure__ I, too, used Second Life and seemed to have difficulty finding the educational purpose behind it. It seems to need a lot of structure and background knolwedge on my part in order to make this school appropriate. The avatars that I had with me seemed to immedietly pick up on the fact that I was new to Second Life and did not really help too much. This seems to be one of those things that I can keep playing and playing and hope something eventually clicks into place. The best way to get colleagues on board is to have a strong basis in the "game" so I want to spend more time working on the best way to present something like this to my administration. Did you find anything that might help me through my journey? I hate to say it, but I am struggling!

__ MPD feedback from Julia Geiser to Jennifer McClure __ Jennifer, It must have been disconcerting to run into sims in second life with potty mouths. I'm sorry that you had that experience. It does remind me however that many students don't think about their digital impact. For example, my class has one social networking thread for social conversation. When we created it as a class we also made rules for how we would post, speak, etc. Many of my students balked at being told that they should use complete sentences for example, or avoid digital shorthand like LOL. We also had kids sign a use policy that expressed automatic account deletion in the event of improper language or bullying. Looking into the education organizations that have a presence on Secondlife, I was able to find a wiki with Collegiate organizations, but I was also able to find TSL Campus. Unfortunately, the TSL just explained some basic parameters about Teen Second Life. I thought that the best resource written by a school that had worked with second life for a period of time and blogged about it was Global Kids. I liked this blog because the instructors took a course called "I dig Zambia" which was actually a summer course taught in secondlife, and shared there experiences with it. From my perspective, it might be a good idea to have kids investigate these types of blog entries about using Secondlife before they try using it themselves. It would satisfy your "researching" idea. Have a good Sunday evening Jennifer : )

This week I researched and discovered information about MUVE’s. Like most of you I discovered that there are many possibilities with this type of technology and that its something that is still evolving with each passing day. The MUVE that I choose to explore was Second Life. The reason I choose this one was it was one of the MUVE’s that I found the most information about and it was very easy to navigate. I also located a great research article [], this article really provided some insight into Second Life and its effectiveness as a educational tool. The first professional organization that had an online presence in Second Life was N.A.S.A. This destination is a place that a lot of science teachers could use to explore concept in science as well as educate students about N.A.S.A in a MUVE environment. “ Learn more about NASA in this education resource center, which is devoted to providing support for teaching about NASA in the classroom. Highlights include the marine research station, underwater habitat and even an Antarctic outpost.” (Retrieved from []) I also found that the US Armed Forces use second life for training. There location is called the United States Military Islands. This destination is allows for you to visit all the branches of the military and discover information pertaining to each one. They also have conferences and training available within this MUVE.
 * __ MUVE and Professional Development Stephen Gross __**

Another resource that I located was EDTECH Island which located in Second Life. It resource for all teachers and was developed by faculty and graduate students at Boise State. This destination was developed to help educate teachers about technology especially the world of virtual environments.

How can I take what I have learned and engage colleagues? It is my opinion that the best way is to show them and let them see first hand how MUVE’s work. I think that the allowing them to see it in action will only increase their interest in utilizing such a technology in their classroom

**__MUVE and Professional Development: Laura Mahany__**
The MUVE that I explored was Second Life. I can already see that this can become a problem to use with the school computers because it requires a download. This will need to be installed on every computer by our technology guru before we can even think about using second life. I found it extremely hard to figure out in the time given because it kept telling me that I was not allowed to go to certain areas due to restrictions. How to override these restrictions were unclear, because one said I was not mature enough? I actually used outside sources in order to learn the most about how to use second life. Two of the different trainings I have found were [] which looks at how to use Second life in the English classroom and [] which is basic steps in how to use second life. I have never heard of Second Life before this week, but my boyfriend said that NASA, Home Depot, and other places have their own spots in these worlds to showcase their products. I have yet to find it, but I belive they are floating around in this virtual world. I think the biggest learning network for this MUVE is to be able to interact with those around you. Having that many people all in the same place is bound to lead to discussions on what new and emerging technologies are out there, especially if they are related to the game. While in there, I was immedietly asked to join a few different groups and interact with the people there. I couldn’t help thinking it was a lot like the Sims, though. With a little direction, I can see this being used in the classroom for a way to have students be more engaged and motivated in the classroom. However it would be a lot of research and creativity on my part to make sure I knew more than the students do about this program.

[] is a review about how some students have used second life in the classroom. It was very hard to find some ways to connect Second Life in the classroom, so I feel like I am grasping at straws. Before I could get my colleagues and administration on board, I feel like I would need all summer to explore and build up a great base for why this MUVE would be beneficial to our students. Right now, even after hours of exploring, I still see this as more of a game and not necessarily a way to use in the classroom. I also want to make sure that I know that my students are not going to be purchasing land with real money, as they are allowed to do in Second Life. Programs such as these make me nervous when putting my students into these worlds because of all of the possibilities.

Laura

__MPD feedback from Dawn Kinnell to Laura Mahany:__ Laura, I too, find Second Life more of a game and not necessarily a way to use in the classroom. I think we have a lot more to learn about this before we try to get others on board. I, too, was feeling like I would need all summer as well to explore and learn more about Second Life. I also know right now due to the download requirements, this will be difficult for me to get past our IT people unless I can learn more and be able to convince myself I am ok with this before I try to convince IT and my staff. I worry about students being able to do things, especially in the dating part of it and like you, worry about them purchasing land with real money.

I had a hard time trying to figure out the Second Life but found it interesting your boyfriend said NASA and Home Depot and some others have a spot in this virtual world. I did not come up with anything on this but would love to learn more.

Dawn Kinnell