Ctrl+Alt+Teach - Rebooting Education with Digitization

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8 Ways to Introduce Second Life for Educators

Whenever I mention to educators that they could easily use Second Life, whether for the classroom or for free professional development and networking, I generally receive expressions of doubt and ...

Amazing Teacher Tech Class is Blogging for Learning and Reflecting

I recently received several pingbacks to a number of posts in Ctrl+Alt+Teach. As I am always looking to learn from others, I make an effort to visit the page of ...

Game to Learn Interview

Recently, I was honored to be contacted by Game to Learn (@GametoLearnEDU), a UK-based group dedicated to bringing learning into the 21st century through innovation, educational technology, and gamification. They ...

Edublog 2012 Award Nominations

As a newer blog on the educational block, this year is the first time I am submitting nominations for the 2012 Edublog Awards, a longterm community-based effort to recognize and ...

Google Apps for Education Southern Summit: Attendee Reflection Hangout

A few weeks ago, on September 22nd and 23rd, I attended the Google Apps for Education Southern Summit at The Lovett School. I went with my colleague Trey Boden (@TreyBoden) ...

An Ed Tech Vocabulary Lesson (What do all those buzz words mean?)

I am an educational technology evangelist to the bone. I live and breathe what I do; ed tech is my profession, passion, and pastime. Which means, apparently, that I've accumulated a ...

8 Ways to Introduce Second Life for Educators

April 2nd, 2013 2 Comments

Whenever I mention to educators that they could easily use Second Life, whether for the classroom or for free professional development and networking, I generally receive expressions of doubt and dislike or clear looks of confusion. And occasionally, I get “that’s a game, right?” followed by uncertainty that any sort of “game” could be used as professional development for educators. After three years of continuously illustrating the uses and benefits of Second Life for Educators, the following are the 8 ways that I introduce Second Life as an educational tool for teachers, administrators, and all types of pedagogues.

1. ISTE SigVE [Special Interest Group: Virtual Environments]

When I first joined Second Life in 2010, this group is why I signed up and where I first visited. The 3rd Thursday of every month, SIGVE hosts a very popular Speaker Series with guests from Harvard’s Dr. Chris Dede to ReactionGRID’s John Lester to various educators sharing their work and PhD-ers sharing their research on utilizing MUVEs as well as other bleeding edge technology in education.

+ Main Website
+ Previous Speakers
+ SLurl (Second Life URL)

NEXT SPEAKER DATE: April 16th, 2013 featuring Dr. William Schmachtenberg, aka “Dae Miami,” a teacher from Virginia, speaking about the virtual world URU, which he has used in his classes.

2. Virtual Pioneers

The Virtual Pioneers started as a group of Social Studies/History teachers who actively search for and tour historical recreations in Second Life (of which there are many). Several locations are literal recreations (such as Versailles in Second Life and the Globe Theatre) and others are general representations of a place or time. All can be used in a classroom setting to illustrate in 3-D these events, places and eras to our students. You do not have to teach Social Studies in attend; I am a regular attendee along with others who lead technology classes, teach elementary school, or are higher education administration. You have no need to participate other than listening/reading and following along in the tours.

+ Main Website
+ Upcoming & Past Tours
+ SLurl (Second Life URL)

3. VWBPE Annual Conference [Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education]

What conference have you recently attended that boasted between 2,000 to 3,000 visitors and provides such a wealth of information world-wide almost 24 hours a day for three to four days continuously on topics that the regular classroom teacher has yet to even consider? For the past six years, VWBPE has provided an astounded Second Life-based conference drenched in scholarly and experiential research that ANY scholarly person should be attending. I, myself, attended and participated on a panel at VWBPE for the first time in 2012, and I was completely blown away by the academic research and the longterm tales of in-the-trenches usages of cutting edge technology in K-Higher Ed classrooms. I have purposefully scheduled absolutely nothing aside from a babysitter for the four days of VWBPE 2013. This is a MUST for the doubtful administrator or higher ed representative. Check out the 2012 Session Listing to see what I mean!

+ Main Website [with 2013 Conference information]
+ 2012 Session Listing [with clickable info per session]
+ 2012 Conference Proceedings
+ 2007 – 2012 “Televised” Presentations

6TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE DATES THIS YEAR: July 24th to 27th

4. VSTE [Virginia Society for Technology in Education]

At the time I joined Second Life, I lived in Virginia and quickly learned of VSTE and their extensive workshops, sessions, conferences, and other events. Their “island” on Second Life is full of SLurls and items free for all in education. Nearly every Monday night at 8pm EST, VSTE has some sort of interesting event open to everyone. Also, they frequently host non-Virtual Worlds related events, such as last year’s Summer of Learning in which VSTE held a book club on Dr. Jane McGonical’s Reality is Broken and held weekly speakers on the subject in Second Life (I was one of the speakers and wrote about the book club as well).

+ General Info Website
+ VSTE Online! NING: Second Life Group
+ 2012 Summer Book Club Info
+ SLurl (Second Life URL)

VSTE Summer of Learning Speaker Panel

5. SLEEC [Second Life Educators of Escambia County]

Proof that “they do exist!” These are the educators (and students via a protected, private Second Life “island”) of the Escambia County School District in Pensacola, Florida who not only use Second Life with their students (as well as Dreamland Metaverse for students under the age of 13), but also use Second Life to hold district professional learning series offering inservice points for teachers and even their very own educational technology conference: Virtual Innovative Teaching and Technology Summit. Gosh, could you imagine every school district (or universities, for that matter) providing inservice points and certification hours virtually with an “in-person” atmosphere without traveling at all or the redundancy of a 2-D online discussion board? Or even every district and university hosting their own conference? They are doing it right now!

+ Website #1
+ Website #2
+ Must-Read “About” Section
+ SLurl (Second Life URL)

6. VWER [Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable]

Once any educator feels more comfortable in the Second Life environment and more willing to interact or participate in a smaller group, the VWER is a great place to visit once a week [thanks to Dan Holt for the info correction] to join others in discussing a wide variety of issues in education, from MOOCs to the flipped classroom, not just in regards to virtual worlds.

+ Website
+ SLurl (Second Life URL)

NEXT MEETING: Thursday April 4th, 2013 — Topic: “Where to take students in SL or other grids and why?”

7. ISTE Virtual World Tours

The ISTE Virtual Tours offerings are a new feature for SIGVE. Hosted by the longterm Second Life in education (ISTE and VSTE, among others) member and expert Matt Poole, aka “Cyrus Hush,” who knows the ins and outs of the educational uses of MUVEs better than almost everyone else. Tours are planned frequently on Wednesday nights at 8pm EST and all are welcome!

+ SIGVE Calendar [with Tour events listed]
+ SLurl (Second Life URL)

8. VEJ [Virtual Education Journal]

VEJ is the first non-peer-reviewed journal focusing on utilizing MUVEs and other bleeding edge technology in education. This journal covers a wide gamut from recent research to personal accounts to previous and upcoming events in the educational digital world. Anyone in education who needs proof that Second Life and other controversial usages of technology in education work for both educators and for students should peruse this journal and see for themselves what opportunities might present themselves.

+ Main Website
+ Previous Issues
+ Latest Issue

For those with whom I discuss Second Life and Virtual Worlds in education who genuinely have their interest piqued, I add a “one step further” by mentioning University of Washington’s Certificate in Virtual Worlds. UW’s work in Second Life, including such projects as Maya Island, has been phenomenal and their affordable certificate program is continuously increasing in size with each offering.

Second Life is not a game. Yes, there are communities that specifically “role-play,” but in general, the large educational work in Second Life focuses on lifelong learning. You will find friendly people, fascinating places, and mind-blowing opportunities that enhance education for ALL participants, not just the students.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this post or have thoughts to contribute, please subscribe to Ctrl+Alt+Teach and connect with me on Twitter.

Posted in ISTE SIGVE, Professional Development, Second Life, Virtual Worlds in Education |

Amazing Teacher Tech Class is Blogging for Learning and Reflecting

February 26th, 2013 4 Comments

I recently received several pingbacks to a number of posts in Ctrl+Alt+Teach. As I am always looking to learn from others, I make an effort to visit the page of every pingback I receive. I was surprised and thrilled to find that six of the pingbacks came from reflection post assignments for the “Technology for Teaching and Learning” course at the Kansas State University College of Education, which is a prime example of a teacher ed tech class that is blogging as a means of learning and sharing.

After a quick Google search, I came across the Wiki for the course, which is incredibly detailed and organized and is almost fully available to the public. Cyndi Danner-Kuhn (@cyndidannerkuhn), the professor whose website The Ed Tech Place is a must-visit that is full of useful information, not only requires that her students develop their own blogs, but also has a terrific blog herself: Technology Bits, Bites and Nibbles.

According to the DED 318 syllabus, “Technology for Teaching and Learning” is a required course for teacher candidates, including undergraduates. That fact along with the many topics and activities in which the students must learn, participate, and create made me excited to see such a great introductory course for instructional technology beyond just Powerpoint and incorporating social media for PLN building. The course also introduces some essential educational technology tools such as VoiceThread, Google Apps, QR Codes, Creative Commons, screencasting, and response systems that I firmly believe will empower the future teachers in this course to be ahead of the curve when they enter the classroom.

KSU Ed Tech Class Logo by Cynthia Danner-Kuhn

Many teacher colleges in the country have yet to make this leap, so I applaud Kansas State and @cyndidannerkuhn for this amazing course, especially in their undergrad teacher program. I am personally encouraged to see teacher colleges embracing the realities of the digital educational revolution!

So, I would love to surprise these teacher-students with some traffic to their blogs! If you have a moment, please visit the following (unfortunately, comments are turned off for their blogs):

Jonathan Henning: Reflection on How to Gamify Your Class this August
Matraca Hutton: Reflection on Why I Don’t Use Pinterest in education
Tyler Briscoe: Reflection on the entire Ctrl+Alt+Teach blog
Cassidy Murphy: Reflection on It Exists! Interactive Powerpoint with Twitter
Sydney Brown: Reflection on Ctrl+Alt+Teach and on Game to Learn Interview
Benjamin Raaf: Reflection on Game to Learn Interview
Brianna Winn: Reflection on Gamification

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this post or have thoughts to contribute, please subscribe to Ctrl+Alt+Teach and connect with me on Twitter.

Posted in Ed Tech, PLN, Social Media in Ed |

Game to Learn Interview

November 27th, 2012 6 Comments

Recently, I was honored to be contacted by Game to Learn (@GametoLearnEDU), a UK-based group dedicated to bringing learning into the 21st century through innovation, educational technology, and gamification. They subscribe to the fact that gaming can improve performance through increased engagement with people of any age. Not only does their company provides support for gaming and gamification in education and host a thorough community of educations both blog-based and on Facebook, but also are they heading up an amazing initiative to bring together emergent thinkers in education from across the globe in a series of fascinating video interviews discussing a variety of hot educational topics.

They asked if I would be willing to participate in an interview as well an active researcher and implementer of gamification in the classroom. I gladly accepted and was thrilled to be the first American perspective included in the series.

I discussed some major topics including:

my experience in educational technology and emergent education
the positives and negatives associated with gamification in education
the knowledge/experience gap between educational researchers and classroom teachers.

I really enjoyed the conversation and connecting with Game to Learn, and I highly recommend you watch their entire video interview series to enjoy the amazing variety of locales, perspectives, and experiences!

As an aside, the interview was conducted 6:00am EST (11:00am GMT/interviewer time). The difference in daylight was remarkable for me, personally, as it make the global perspective all the more real. International collaboration and sharing is very powerful, and as a direct result of this interview, I am seeking ways to incorporate international connections both professionally as well as with my students in the classroom.

Thanks, again, to @GametoLearnEDU for the opportunity to share my knowledge and passions with the global community.

Posted in Ed Tech, Educational Research, Gamification, Interviews, PLN, Video |

Edublog 2012 Award Nominations

November 23rd, 2012 2 Comments

As a newer blog on the educational block, this year is the first time I am submitting nominations for the 2012 Edublog Awards, a longterm community-based effort to recognize and promote the value of social media for educators and education. These awards truly are a way to give credit where credit is due as well as collect and share some of the best educational finds throughout the web all in an effort to improve the current state of education across the world. Personally, I am finding that just reading through the nominations themselves has led to finding amazing blogs, twitter chats, and social networks, among other things, that I have bookmarked and referenced frequently. One of my favorite blogs, Gridjumper’s Blog, is one such site I found through the Edublog Awards nomination listing. Now, I know, follow, and chat with her often, and I have learned so much about virtual words and machinima from her, enriching my own approach to education.

Don’t forget to nominate as well! Nominations are open until November 27th, 2012.

The following are my nominations for the Edublog 2012 Awards. I hope my readers might find something intriguing in this list as well!

Best individual blog

Dangerously Irrelevant
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/

This amazing blog by Dr. Scott McLeod is the first blog I check on my Google Reader in the morning. That should say enough for this nomination (I write more about him and his blog below as well).

Best group blog

Hybrid Pedagogy
http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/

Hybrid Pedagogy is “an academic and networked journal that combines the strands of critical and digital pedagogy to arrive at the best social and civil uses of technology and digital media in education.” Contributors come from a wide, interactive audience of all realms of education and embrace participation and social media in education. They hosted a mini-MOOC recently and established their own Twitter chat: #digped. The community is active and the ideas are emergent, exciting, research-based, and thought-provoking. Hybrid Pedagogy is not just a collaborative online journal but also a movement in the pursuit of professional and “scholarly” blogging.

Best new blog

EdCamp Atlanta Blog
http://www.edcampatlanta.org/blog.html

EdCamp Atlanta Unconference has its inaugural event this September, but they have been actively establishing an active and amazing blog on their website that includes posts from local educators as well as national figures in education. Ed Camp Atlanta takes pride in having a blog that makes their unconference more than just a one-day-and-nothing-more event. They use their blog as an outreach and networking resource for Atlanta-area educators and should be commended for their blogging activity.

Best ed tech / resource sharing blog

Gridjumper’s Blog
http://www.gridjumper.net

Gridjumper has been actively blogging and contributing to both the emergent topics of Game-Based Learning, Virtual Worlds in Education and Machinima to the point where her blog has become a leading authority in those topics. She is constantly sharing and contributing to the growing wealth of knowledge, especially at the helm of Machinima in education, and writes some of the most straight-forward and intriguing posts that anyone might find in an educational blog. The resources that she shares are indispensable and very useful and her clear descriptions of easy to use albeit very emergent educational technology makes these topics palatable to even the most technology-resistant of educators.

Best administrator blog

Design Movement: 21st Century Learning and Leadership
http://drjacobsen.wordpress.com/

This blog by Dr. Brett Jacobsen, Head of School for Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta, Georgia, features his forward-thinking and open-minded leadership style as well as his emphasis on the emergent Design Thinking movement in education. He dedicated this blog and his work to the improvement of K-12 education by using new movements, thought-processes, and research and not being afraid to experiment. He advocates a “fail up” mentality, embracing the fearlessness and illustrating himself that not being afraid of failure can mean amazing amounts of success in your endeavors.

Most influential blog post

“It’s About Time and Space” — Gridjumper’s Blog
http://gridjumper.net/2012/10/29/its-about-time-and-space/

Best individual tweeter

@dkapuler
http://twitter.com/dkapuler

David Kapuler shares some of the most useful and interesting content on Twitter that I frequently read, reference, and retweet. I enjoy his recommendations for #FollowFriday, which is where I find some of the most interesting EduTweeps to follow and enjoy their content.

Best twitter hashtag

#gamemooc
http://tweetchat.com/room/gamemooc

As the Game-Based Learning MOOC leaves its second iteration and goes possibly into its third iteration, the related #gamemooc hashtag and Wednesday night Tweet Chats are constantly going stronger and stronger. There is no other better hashtag, other than #gbl, that can give you the best information on games in education, MMORPGs, gamification, learning badges, virtual worlds, and so much more under the umbrella of Game-Based Learning. Also, the #gamemooc Wednesday TweetChat is in a league of its own, as there is no other TweetChat of which I am familiar that actively discusses and engages in debates regarding GBL.

Best free web tool

Google+ Hangouts
http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/

What better way to have free, multiuser F2F or audio only discussions, speakers, and presentations that also includes a live stream to YouTube with backchannel chat window for including larger audiences as well as Slideshare, screenshare, interactive Google Docs in the Hangout and much more? This is a SUPERB service that more educations need to use ASAP!

Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast

EdReach
http://edreach.us/

EdReach is an amazingly comprehensive site featuring news and views on all points of education by the educators themselves. EdReach has “channels” on which they host a multitude of podcasts as well as video both traditionally-recorded and Google+ Hangout on Air-recorded. The variance of perspective as well as the multiplatform usage of audio and visual is what makes EdReach extremely unique in the online social educational world, and I STRONGLY believe EdReach should receive credit for their hard work in corralling so many contributors and making their various presentation platforms function well! Not to mention that EdReach is also on web RADIO! How many educational group sites can claim that feature?

Best open PD / unconference / webinar series

It Takes A Guild: A Guild of Educators
http://g.a.m.e.shivtr.com/pages/webinarpage

G.A.M.E. (Gamers Advancing Meaningful Education) broke ground with their multiplatform speaker series gathering experts in games and simulations in education to speak to a large audience interested in learning more and interacting with others interested in the topic. There is no other similar free development and networking opportunity that is hosted both using Google+ Hangouts on Air as well as with a backchannel in Second Life, YouTube chat, and Twitter chat.

Best educational use of a social network

G.A.M.E. Gamers Advancing Meaningful Education
http://g.a.m.e.shivtr.com/

I cannot possibly express this better than the website itself:

Gamers Advancing Meaningful Education (G.A.M.E) is an online community of global educators who game. At its core is an online synchronous gaming community. This intellectually curious network of educators develop curriculum, offer online open courses, webinars and F2F presentations on the opportunities and deeper learning that takes place in games.

G.A.M.E. is for educators who game, want to learn how to game, and want to incorporate gaming strategies into teaching and learning. Participants will become familiar with the use of massively online roleplaying games, commercial off-shelf games and sandbox genre games in their quest to innovate teaching and learning.

All educators are welcome, novice, dabbler, and hardcore gamer. Come game with us to level up on teaching and learning. It’s more than an affinity space for educators who game – it’s a guild.

Best mobile app

Remind101
www.Remind101.com

I have been a fervent fan of Remind101 for quite some time. Their fast, secure, and safe SMS text messaging for teachers is so incredibly useful (and not just for reminders!), so when they came out with their iPhone app and later with their Android app, I jumped with joy. I use this app so frequently that I have it on my first page of app icons on my iPhone. They were able to take something complex and make the app so simple to use, even for first-time users and/or educators who struggle with new technologies. They are an remarkable educational startup who heard us teachers asking for an app and responded extremely quickly.

Lifetime achievement

Dr. Scott McLeod
Did You Know? (Shift Happens) Video Series
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/
CASTLE

Another nomination for the amazing blog by Dr. Scott McLeod. He really is one of THE most influential people in education today and has been for quite some time. He co-created the infamous “Did You Know?” video series (aka “Shift Happens) and constantly produces research as well as presents and keynotes. Meanwhile, he founded CASTLE (Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education) and his personal blog is incredibly rife with ideas and thoughts as well as information and motivation for those of us trying to make the change happen in education. If you are reading this list of nominations, I want to to walk away at the very least with this leader’s name and links to his work.

Posted in PLN, Social Media in Ed |

Google’s Story Builder

November 9th, 2012 2 Comments

After the success of Google’s animated and automated Search Story via YouTube, it’s no surprise that they would produce something similar using another one of their popular services.

This time, the animation features the real-time collaboration capabilities of Google Documents. Called “Story Builder,” you can add up to ten different “participants” with customizable names and then write your story within ten “actions” that include additions and deletions to the fake document as well as a small but decent selection of free music to use for your story.

As with Search Story, Google’s Story Builder is incredibly user-friendly, so the most curious experimenters can give this tool a try. There are innumerable ways to use this in education, from inclusions on student projects (as the Story Builder does not require an account or any identifier) to engaging previews or introductions to particular lessons.

I am using Story Builder for the first time in a concurrent session I will be giving at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference entitled “Mobile Communication Inside and Outside of Your Classroom.” The Story Builder video will be a part of my session and has served as a preview of my session that I shared on Google+ and Twitter.

The only negative to Google Story Builder is the inability to download your creation, upload it to your YouTube account (the latter of which was one of the best features of Search Story) or grab an embed code. Instead, you are given a permalink to a Story Builder page that has your video as well as information on Story Builder. You can work around this issue by using screencasting tools (such as Screencast.O.Matic, Screenr, or my favorites SnagIt and Camtasia Studio). I used SnagIt to grab a quick copy of my video, so I could embed it within this post.

Happy Story Building!

Posted in Cool Tools, Featured Posts, Google |

Google Apps for Education Southern Summit: Attendee Reflection Hangout

November 2nd, 2012 No Comments

A few weeks ago, on September 22nd and 23rd, I attended the Google Apps for Education Southern Summit at The Lovett School. I went with my colleague Trey Boden (@TreyBoden) as we learned more about further integrating our school with Google Apps. We spent most of our sessions with my fellow EdCamp Atlanta inaugural organizer and educational technology consultant Jaime Vandergrift (@JaimeVanderG).

We spent two days immersed with all things Google and made many local connections with a variety of educators and administrators as well as with amazing Google presenters who left us with some remarkable and astounding ideas for what we could do technologically using Google Apps in Education. The Twitter backchannel at the Southern Summit (using the hashtag #gafesummit) was just as informative; even if we couldn’t go to a particular session, someone was tweeting and sharing enough that we hardly missed anything.

The backchannel is also where I linked up with several local educators who wanted to continue the conversation about using Google Apps in our classrooms and schools beyond just once a year. Via Twitter, we picked our time and date and produced the following Google Apps in Education Southern Summit Reflection, hopefully the first of many more!

Incidentally, while I have participated in many Google+ Hangouts, this reflection was the first Google+ Hangout on Air event that I hosted live personally on YouTube. Additionally, this is the first time I used YouTube’s in-side editor to improve the quality of the recording. I can’t wait to use it again. If you have any questions about Google Apps in Education, the GAFE Summits, or Google+ Hangouts, comment or send me a message; I would be more than happy to help you discover some of the amazing things Google can do for you!