MUVES+and+Professional+Development

Missy's post 11/30 I think that professional development could be accessed from the SL site. A 'Second Life' for Educators,” discussed the possibilities for teachers to have a place to collaborate that would make it easier to have professional development and collaboration. Also, this type of training could be more economical than hiring trainers and pay their mileage, lodging and food for the training period. I also think that some professional development workshops could be created with a MUVE. For example, we had some training on bullying. ‍Why not show some bullying in a virtual world and have some discussions about it in the virtual world? Also, teachers might need to see how bullying could occur even in SL and how students should handle it. ‍ Some virtual worlds do not have instruction, but Whyville is one place that has strategies to deal with dangerous behavior. This could be brought to the attention of educators. I really had an enlightening time looking through several virtual worlds. I am interested in finding more ways to use them in the classroom. I would like to talk to others who have used them with their students. There are some negatives, like technical problems, time lags, high speed connections, high RAM necessity, etc. as well as such things as safety and appropriateness. However, it is an emerging technology that could dramatically improve in the near future. It is possible to use these MUVEs on the Smartboard as a class instead of individually. Perhaps some of the issues would be resolved this way. For instance, students might be multitasking so that the time lags in the virtual world are not important. Also, it is safer to be online as a group so that a teacher can track unsafe behaviors easier. Missy

Res‍‍‍ponse to Missy, Has your school district considered using MUVE technology to assist with online learning for students to recover class credits? Where I work, if a student fails a course, they have the opportunity to retake the course online for credit. Having the physical classroom and the virtual classroom for students to experience is a good way to get them engaged with this emerging technology. Of course, you do not have to fail a course to take the online classes that are offered. ‍‍‍

-Jeremy

**Response to Missy,**

**Using the virtual world to teach about bullying a creative idea. Bullying has unfortunately increased across the United States and students really need to understand its severity. By instructing students on how to handle bullying in the virtual world is great practice for the read world. You said, "also think that some professional development workshops could be created with a MUVE. For example, we had some training on bullying. Why not show some bullying in a virtual world and have some discussions about it in the virtual world?" Engaging in discussions about bullying is also a wonderful way to increase awareness!**

**Lyndsay**

Kourtney's Post: ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) and Discovery Educators Network have an online presence in the MUVE. These particular professional organizations are setting up workshops and collaboration forums to allow for the sharing of ideas as well as a resource center. When looking at a personal learning network available in the MUVE, I think Global Kids is a very powerful network that I would like to get acquainted with to allow this tool use in my own classroom. It allows students an opportunity that “engages them in socially dynamic, content-rich learning experiences” (Yoder, 2009, p. 17) Additionally, for my own professional growth, I would like to join Second Life to “expand my professional networks” (Jarrett, Levine, Malmstrom, Santiago & Toth-Cohen, 2009, p. 17) MUVEs provide rich environments in which ‍‍‍participants interact with digital objects and tools, such as historical photographs or virtual microscopes. ‍‍‍ It is no wonder the role of MUVE’s are here to stay, they are changing and evolving rapidly in the educational world (Jarrett, Levine, Malmstrom, Santiago & Toth-Cohen, 2009, p. 23). An additional resource that stuck out to me was the idea of handipoints. [] Through handipoints and club penguin, students are provided 2 virtual worlds- one academic and one social.

Through the MUVE and the resources I have found, I believe it to be powerful to help our school engage in learning opportunities that reflect the 21st century skills. Additionally, as a school, I can see us engaging in opportunities through blogging and partnerships with schools who are already using such tools. Even within our own state, MUVEs are in action. Having professional development opportunities will be very powerful. Research states that “kids are engaged, they’re doing math, and they are making choices they would encounter in real life” (Dembo, 2008, p. 50). In addition to academic perks, social interactions amongst peers re provided in an ideal setting that challenges social biases (Dembo, 2008, p. 52). There is a great deal of power behind MUVEs and with more technology tools, I can see this as a powerful tool within my own school and classroom.

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.

Jarrett, K., Levine, C., Malmstrom, M., Santiago, F., & Toth-Cohen, S.. Making the muve to virtual education. 16-23

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Jeremy's Post:

Two professional organizations that I have explored online that have an online presence and offer training and workshops using MUVE technology are Gwinnett County Public Schools and Sycamore Education. Gwinnett County Public Schools offers secure logon and when in the portal, it offers many resources, communication, email, shared networks, etc. It is a valuable resource. Sycamore Education offers a complete online school management and student information system.

One personal learning network that I am already using that keeps teachers abreast of new and emerging technologies is the Gwinnett Online Campus. Teachers are able to logon and get valuable resources that will help teachers and students stay engaged with new technology that will assist learning in the classroom. Technology Review’s website is another great resource for getting information about new and emerging technologies.

By sharing information found on the Internet and collaborating with colleagues about the new and emerging technologies through staff development can help colleagues better understand technology resources. At my school, we are already using a portal that engages teachers in using MUVE technology, finding and using additional resources is possible and that information can be shared on our school’s network. ‍‍‍We are fortunate to have a tech team at each school whose job is to assist in using new technology and conduct staff development on using the technology. It has been a huge success at my school. ‍‍‍

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** Lyndsay's Post **

**The MUVE that I further explored was Second Life. There are several professional organizations that offer training or workshops with this environment. ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) offers learning activities regularly for professional growth in this area. In addition, the people at SL (second life) also provide professional development workshops in order to ensure training in their program. Both of these organizations would be helpful in furthering educators understanding of the program. It would put them at ease and slowly introduce the virtual world to them. **

**Within Second Life there are many blogs and forums that create a sense of community. This is a feature of the website in which questions can be answered and ideas can be shared. In addition, here new and emerging technologies can be shared and discovered. **

**<range type="comment" id="138763">Another interesting MUVE I browsed through was Whyville. I teach elementary school so Second Life was a little too mature for the children in my school. Programs like Whyville and Club Penguin are site more familiar to the age range in my school. **

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In order to engage colleagues the teacher could be shown how to use the MUVE on the interactive white board. Having a professional from the company come in would be great since they are more informed on the program. I also think it is important for the teachers to <range type="comment" id="799991">‍‍‍know how they could use the program and how it would benefit their students. ‍‍‍ I would have already tried the program in my classroom so I have first hand experiences to share with the group. Overall, by providing a hands-on experience and detailed support my colleagues will hopefully embrace the new technology. Our school has yet to introduce any virtual worlds, so this would be a first. **

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Resource: **

**[]** Response to Lyndsay I really like the ideas and resources that you have come up with. I also think it would be great if you had the other teachers actually learn about the virtual world by participating in it in an interactive workshop. This could really bring the MUVE to life for the teachers and possibly help them to become more interested in it.

Chad Martin

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Response to Lyndsay <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">My students LOVE using Club Penguin, but the academic implications are limited, since the world is already created and geared towards games. I don't know anything about Whyville. What is the premise? How is it used? Is it something we could realisitically bring into a classroom? This could be interesting to look into. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">~Colleen


 * <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">*Post from Nellie Murison* **
 * <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I've spent some time this week trying to explore Eduism and how it can be used in the classroom. I have watched many short videos watching other users manipulate space using Eduism. One resource provided in Eduism is the blog. There is a blog on the website that allows teachers to talk, discuss, and explain how they are using Eduism with their students. Fortunately there is also quite a library of videos that show what can be done with this software<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">. It seems like videos are the best way to share information about how to do something using this online software. Explaining something with words just doesn't do enough. Eduism is also a part of Facebook and Twitter as a way for users to communicate and share ideas. **
 * <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I also found a website at learningtimes.com This website holds conferences and many virtual trainings online for teachers. They use lots of collaborative tools to link teachers together to learn and share ideas. They also hold conferences with training in different software and how it can be utilized in the classroom. This website looked like it really had some great things to offer. One thing that really piqued my interest was an online conference with t<range type="comment" id="820964">‍‍‍he National Air and Space Museum. ‍‍‍This is something that teachers as well as older students can participate in, with space and history professionals sharing their problem-solving and critical thinking ** **<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">skills. **
 * <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I also found another great website at live.classroom20.com, this was another resourceful place for teachers to **
 * <span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">collaborate. They hold live sessions, group chat, and tutorials for educators. They have specialists do presentations and simulations with new tools or software. It looks like a great way to keep up with new trends in technology and in education. It is a free cite, and all you have to do is sign up to participate. It is a lot of great and FREE training! **

Chad Martin's Post In looking at all of the MUVEs from the past week, the one that interests me the most is second life because I believe that it offers more to the user. To become more familiar with this tool, I have looked into different workshops that could be valuable in providing more training in second life. The first of these workshops is one that would be a few hours drive for me and is provided by the Florida Institute of Technology ([]) and the other is TxDLA ([]) which offers an in-world conference for second life and while there are none scheduled for this time, I will keep checking for a conference to be scheduled by them.

To keep abreast of new and emerging technologies in the MUVE, I will continue to work with colleagues from my Walden classes in the facebook network we have set up. In this we have been sharing ideas and things we have found for months now and plan on continuing to do so in the future. Another resource that I will use for more information about new and emerging technologies is the second life wiki located at []. This wiki provides in-depth analysis and updates of what is going on in this MUVE.

To engage colleagues in professional development workshops, I believe that second life could be used to help others learn about its effectiveness by having workshops in the virtual environment. This would be a great way to immerse other teachers into second life and provide them with first hand experience in a workshop.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Colleen McCray <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Using Second Life

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Professional Organizations – NASA eEducation <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Penn State – World Campus <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Personal Learning Network – New Media Consortium <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Other Resource – IBM

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Second Life is a somewhat difficult program to use, but once it is figured out, it offers many possibilities for professional learning communities and professional development opportunities. NASA’s eEducation and Penn State’s World Campus both have places in Second Life where users can connect with other professionals and attend webinars and discussions about education and classrooms. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The New Media Consortium is a network of professionals that are dedicated to the exploration of new technology. Keeping in touch with that network will give a user excellent reviews of new and upcoming products. The reviewers are not necessarily educators, so some creativity may still be needed to see the potential within a classroom. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">IBM has a big presence in second life, using the virtual forum for all sorts of meetings. An avatar can visit and chat with other technology professionals to get more information. There are rumors that IBM is looking into creating its own MUVE, and is therefore using Second Life less. But for now it is still a good place to go for new information.