This link has been bookmarked by 9 people . It was first bookmarked on 20 Apr 2008, by Anne Bubnic.
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24 May 10
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28 Apr 08
Houston Chronicle article on Second Life in Education w/interview responses from David WArlick, Chris Duke, Kevin Jarrett, Stephanie Sandifer, and others.
second life david warlick kevin jarrett chris duke stephanie sandifer chron chron.com Secondlife virtual-worlds
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In the virtual world, teachers can attend professional development sessions without costly registration fees or travel expenses. Rather than assigning book reports, they can ask students to design sets for Shakespearean plays. Teens can experiment with building cars or composing, and even selling, original music.
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"The desktop requirements for Second Life are quite robust and the bandwidth it takes up is quite significant," said Chris Duke, an instructional technologist for San Jacinto College who is studying both the business and educational impact of Second Life.
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"A lot of the conversations revolve around fear — if we open this stuff up to the kids, it could get out of hand or you could open the kids up to danger," said Stephanie Sandifer, a literacy coach at Houston's Waltrip High School who uses Second Life as a professional development tool.
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While she's not ready to introduce Second Life to her students yet, Sandifer said being active in the virtual world helps her understand the type of collegiate and corporate world her students will enter after graduation.
Like the other educators in Second Life, Sandifer said the technology has provided her invaluable professional contacts and improved her teaching skills. She's had a chance to talk technique with colleagues from around the globe and has polished skills such as "Ustreaming" events live on the Internet.
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Peggy Sheehy, a New York teacher whose school district owns six islands on a private estate in Second Life, said virtual worlds should be seen as part of the repertoire of tools that can be used to engage this new generation of students.
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New Jersey teacher Kevin Jarrett agrees that results at his school — which hosts an after-school Second Life club for middle schoolers — have been encouraging. If teachers understood how the technology can erase peer pressure and teens' inhibitions, they wouldn't be so hesitant to try it, he said.
"When you put a kid behind that keyboard and screen, their true essences comes out," he said.
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"If you were talking to a room of educators, they would have looked at you and said, 'I don't have time for this. Get away. I need to make overheads for my class,' " Jarrett said.
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"Something that is that compelling, education cannot ignore, even though it doesn't make sense to us," said David Warlick, an education consultant and author from North Carolina. "What I look forward to is someone building an environment like this for education, where it becomes a sandbox for kids."
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27 Apr 08
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23 Apr 08
Rudy GarnsTechnology guru Jamey Osborne is a strong advocate for Second Life, a popular online virtual world that allows people to build their surroundings and interact in real time. He says it's ideal for teachers. "It's like the Web, but there's a lot more," he says.
Educators on virtual islands see classroom potential (Chron.com - Houston Chronicle) -
Wesley Fryer19 April 2008 article about educators and second life - thanks @ssandifer
secondlife second_life education learning professionaldevelopment virtualization virtualworld
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"The average classroom teacher here in Texas has enough to worry about with the TAKS exam without buying islands out in virtual space," said Richard Smith, a visiting assistant professor of instructional technology at University of Houston-Clear Lake.
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22 Apr 08
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Stephanie SandiferHouston Chronicle article on Second Life in Education w/interview responses from David WArlick, Chris Duke, Kevin Jarrett, Stephanie Sandifer, and others.
second life david warlick kevin jarrett chris duke stephanie sandifer chron chron.com Secondlife virtual-worlds
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In the virtual world, teachers can attend professional development sessions without costly registration fees or travel expenses. Rather than assigning book reports, they can ask students to design sets for Shakespearean plays. Teens can experiment with building cars or composing, and even selling, original music.
-
"The desktop requirements for Second Life are quite robust and the bandwidth it takes up is quite significant," said Chris Duke, an instructional technologist for San Jacinto College who is studying both the business and educational impact of Second Life.
-
"A lot of the conversations revolve around fear — if we open this stuff up to the kids, it could get out of hand or you could open the kids up to danger," said Stephanie Sandifer, a literacy coach at Houston's Waltrip High School who uses Second Life as a professional development tool.
-
While she's not ready to introduce Second Life to her students yet, Sandifer said being active in the virtual world helps her understand the type of collegiate and corporate world her students will enter after graduation.
Like the other educators in Second Life, Sandifer said the technology has provided her invaluable professional contacts and improved her teaching skills. She's had a chance to talk technique with colleagues from around the globe and has polished skills such as "Ustreaming" events live on the Internet.
-
Peggy Sheehy, a New York teacher whose school district owns six islands on a private estate in Second Life, said virtual worlds should be seen as part of the repertoire of tools that can be used to engage this new generation of students.
-
New Jersey teacher Kevin Jarrett agrees that results at his school — which hosts an after-school Second Life club for middle schoolers — have been encouraging. If teachers understood how the technology can erase peer pressure and teens' inhibitions, they wouldn't be so hesitant to try it, he said.
"When you put a kid behind that keyboard and screen, their true essences comes out," he said.
-
"If you were talking to a room of educators, they would have looked at you and said, 'I don't have time for this. Get away. I need to make overheads for my class,' " Jarrett said.
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"Something that is that compelling, education cannot ignore, even though it doesn't make sense to us," said David Warlick, an education consultant and author from North Carolina. "What I look forward to is someone building an environment like this for education, where it becomes a sandbox for kids."
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20 Apr 08
Page Comments
Also, it is important to note that teachers don't have to BUY anything to participate in SL.
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