On using virtual space for K12 students; for events and professional development; and, for simulations & locations

Jason Adamo, Jennifer Coe, Tina Gagliardi,

Benjamin Rosenthal, Dana Taurisano

Second Life is an on-line virtual space where users can interact with others through the use of avatars.

Users can explore, socialize, participate in individual or group activities, and create & trade virtual property.

Users can build three dimensional virtual objects that are stand alone or that are interactive.

Users can find events such as concerts and lectures, and cultural locations like museums, art exhibits, book clubs, and theaters.

Users can post PPTs, video, internet, documents, images, etc.

Professional Development

Training

Lesson Practice

Presentations and Lectures

Collaborative Learning

Distance Learning

Tutoring, Help Sessions, or Office Hours

Networking

ISTE Island

Virtual Field Trips NOAA, Planetarium, Museums, Libraries, Cities

Game Rooms Sports Simulators, Card & Board Games, Create Games

Private Islands Private islands can be created for each class, school, or district that

can be controlled by island administrators to ensure age appropriate material. Individual user names and passwords are issued to users for access.

SER/VE – Lecture Hall, Create Pods, Practice Building

Additional Benefits Team Building, Discovery Center, Biographies, Bio-Dome

What appears to be an entertaining computer game can convey serious science, bringing to life esoteric research with an engaging virtual experience (NOAA).

Teaches visitors about our changing planetthrough “immersive storytelling.”

Experience environments you would not otherwise have access too.

“Ride through the eye of a hurricane, soar through the layers of the atmosphere on a weather balloon, or view underwater creatures from the safety of a NOAA virtual submersible; all while being exposed to the real-life data and research incorporated into the adventures.”

Experience Take a tour of NOAA’s virtual island on Second Life at http://youtu.be/is8YX32GAyQ

“Visitors can mingle with scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Explorer Island, explore the surface of the moon on Lunar Exploration Island, teleport to e-Education Island for free educational resources, visit an interactive planetarium with real-time showings of constellations and see a model of the Martian surface that was created using actual NASA data.”

Visitors can also watch live space shuttle launches. Screens at the islands' outdoor meeting spaces can show NASA video clips or stream live NASA TV. During shuttle launches and landings, users from around the world gather and watch together.

The sky is NOT the limit with Virtual Learning Environments.

Laboratories

Hospitals

Farms, Greenhouses

Ecosystems

Amusement Parks

Friendly competition Simulates a real world experience in a video game-type

environment.

Alternative learning experience Combines Web 2.0 skills with fun and learning.

Expands their social network Provides for and fosters positive and safe communication with

students from different classrooms and even different countries.

Investment If they help make it, they will want to continue to be part of

it. Facilitates learning though engagement and group participation.

Link SL activities with classroom material so that students will understand that the “fun” is relevant, and not just a game.

Assign building challenges for students to create modules, accessories, and prizes to receive or be involved in. Students are more likely to be challenged by the effects when

they have an investment in their creation!

Require peer review for participation in group work to reinforce the importance of work (as they play).

SL provides immediate feedback because it is interactive.

The program keeps track of number of log-ins, time spent in virtual environment, number of activities opened and/or completed.

Teachers could hold special community events where students are encouraged to attend, “prizes” given out, bonus questions asked.

Special speakers could be planned, students asked to “comment” via chat during and afterwards, and number and quality of questions or comments logged and reviewed by teacher.

Students can “report” inappropriate behavior with an easy “click and comment” method.

Students complete peer surveys of presentations and work completed.

Curriculum: Need for activities and projects in the learning

environment that are aligned with course curriculum and standards.

Has to be more than fun!

Assessments: Methods must be in place to assess student learning.

Results: Students must gain from the experience through

increased knowledge acquisition and retention of information.

Provides simulated experiments in real-world contexts.

Develops 21st Century and critical thinking skills.

NASA training puts learners through simulated events.

Airlines have pilots go directly from the simulator to the yoke of a 747.

Medical students have progressed from learning on cadavers to working with physical simulators and, more recently, onscreen simulators.

If a prospective doctor can learn about a complex piece of anatomy or a difficult procedure from a simulator, certainly our kids can learn the frog's interior layout from a sim like Froguts (Edutopia, 2011)

“The challenges of the new millennium require that students be adaptable and

analytical, and that they have the skills to identify and use the best tools in a rapidly

changing environment” (Solomon and Schrum, 2007).

K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work | Edutopia. (n.d.). K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work | Edutopia. Retrieved December 13, 2011, from http://www.edutopia.org/

http://www.nasa.gov

http://www.noaa.gov

www.secondlife.com

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007).Web 2.0: new tools, new schools. Eugene, Or.: International Society for Technology in Education.

Virtual Space Events

for M.A.T. StudentsTeaching and Curriculum – Fall 2011

SUNY Empire State College

Eric Hauenstein

Professional Development Expo Expo setup in Second Life with a variety of booths providing information

and conducting workshops

Separate expos by content area, or combine if logistically possible

Logistics

• Schedule workshops at regular time intervals

• Provide a .pdf with a map of booths and a schedule of workshops.

This can be a notecard that visitors receive as a pop-up when the

login to the area

• Create a poster at the default login area with directions on how to

get around in Second Life

Possible Booths/Topics(the possibilities are endless)

• Incorporating Common Core

Standards

• Rubric Writing

• Lab Safety

• Essay Grading

• Classroom Management

• Inquiry Lessons

• Curriculum Writing

• Emerging Content

• Demonstration Ideas

Administration Panel

Round Table discussion with administrators in Second Life

Principals, Superintendents, Department heads

Questions:

What is your number one thing you are looking for in a new teacher?

How do you go about assessing an applicants resume? Is there something specific you do or do not like to see on a resume?

What do you expect of a new teacher in regards to lesson plans coming into the position?

How does your department work together-- do you have regular meetings to share ideas? Do you all just work on your own lessons?

Have you noticed any specific trouble spots in the material for students? What do you do to remedy this?

If you could give one tip to an applicant coming in for an interview what would it be?

What is a part of the interview process that takes new applicants by surprise?

Virtual InterviewsWho knows better than the students what actually works in the classroom?

Recommendation: New teachers invite K12 students from varied geographic

locations into SL to ascertain what works, what doesn’t, and what they want out

of science education…

• Teachers introduce themselves

• Start w/ something fun

• Go kart tour, etc.

• Informal Interview - Possible Questions (teachers answer some too)

• What was your favorite activity from a science class – why?

• What is the hardest part of science class?

• What does your science teacher do that makes the material more

understandable?

• What does your teacher do that does not seem to help you learn?

• Describe the best science teacher you’ve ever had.

• What is your favorite piece of technology (anything – video games, software,

hardware, etc.)?

• If you could do any science project, what would it be?

• What would an ideal science classroom look like? What items are there? How

is it laid out?

• Would you enjoy participating in Science Lessons on SL (SLSL!)?

Samples of “Live”

Education Resources for

Virtual Space

Brookhaven National Lab

Space Time, Quantum Mechanics and the Large Hadron Collider

http://www.bnl.gov/video/index.php?v=229

The Long Island Solar Farm

http://www.bnl.gov/video/index.php?v=236

• Cold Spring

Harbor Laboratory

– DNA Learning Center

http://www.dnalc.org/

• Cold Spring

Harbor Laboratory

• Bodies The Exhibition11 Fulton St

(between South St & Front St)

New York, NY 10038

Neighborhood: South Street Seaport

(888) 926-3437

www.bodiesny.com

Dialogue in the Dark at South Street Seaport

11 Fulton Street

New York, NY 10038

Phone: 888-926-3437

E-Mail: dialoginthedark@prxi.com

URL: www.dialognyc.com

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/nes2/home/i

ndex.html

http://firstlegoleague.org/challenge/2011foodf

actor

First Lego League

TIME TRAVEL TO

HISTORICAL DISASTERS

FIND AND VISIT PAST DISASTER LOCATIONS

Use Second Life to Visit/Create Spaces Where Disasters have Struck

Pompeii Volcano’s BeforeHerculaneum Tsunami’s AfterMt. St. Helens Hurricane's Changes

Biome Field TripImagine taking your class to the Mojave Desert on Monday, the Arctic tundra on Tuesday and an African savanna on Wednesday.

Second Life “Biome Field Trip” allows them to explore the varied flora and fauna, watch virtual food-webs in action and discover how life has adapted to various ecological conditions around the world.

This rich program can be adapted for interdisciplinary work as soil and water samples may be gathered and meteorological readings can be taken. The depth of study is only as limited as the programming.

Biome Field Trip

In addition to exploring the biotic and abiotic features that shape these environments, Biome Field Trip also addresses “anthropogenic” biomes; examples of the effects of man’s intrusion on nature.

When you return “home”, attend our Conference Area, where students can augment their virtual experience with the first-hand accounts of other students from around the world.

Possible Concepts to Study

Plate tectonics

Earthquakes

Earth’s layers

Volcanoes

Geysers

Journey To the Center of the Earth

Using virtual spaces to create a difficult to conceptualize concept.

Organic NomenclatureScrabble

Bringing Students Together

• The Second Life environment allows for endless possibilities that are not possible with the limitations of the real world environment. The space in which makes up the Second Life world allows not only for the transformation of the virtual “physical” space but also allows for an instantaneous way in which students who are at great distances from each other to come together and collaborate.

• Because there are limitations in communication when distant cultures come into contact I wanted to use the Second Life space in a way that would seamlessly bridge this gap. The medium in which this gap would be bridged comes in the form of a game in which a common language would be used.

• The common language of Organic Chemistry is called IUPAC nomenclature. This “language” allows for anyone anywhere to look at a organic molecule and create a systematic name independent of ones cultures language.

The Game

• Using the IUPAC nomenclature in combination with a scrabble type game could bring students throughout the world together to compete in building and naming organic molecules.

• The common lower scoring letters would be the hydrocarbon building blocks of the molecules while the higher scoring pieces would be the functional groups.

• For example a series of game pieces would be:

Each student would place a piece on the board until a completed molecule was build. The team would then have to correctly name the molecule to score points.

-OH -C-C- -C=C- -COOH