Thoughts and a question

THOUGHTS

My apologies for not blogging as much this year as in years' past. Much of that had to do with a very tough set of classes this year, including one which I felt very unqualified to teach. I was definitely out of my comfort zone for September and October. The addition of a wonderful Special Ed. teacher into the class helped in so many ways it would take an entire blog post just to detail them. Suffice it to say he taught me much and I am a better teacher for the challenge.


That said, this has been a year of technological growth for me in several areas. While cell-phones and all electronic devices are still banned from the classroom (despite my pleas to the contrary), a technology more trusted by the administrators has been established in my classroom: a SmartBoard!

I'd been asking for this particular type of technology for over a decade, so when the district finally bought into it and purchased/leased several, I hoped to be one of the early adopters (can you call someone an "early adopter" when the technology is so old?). I got my board in April and couldn't wait to make it do tricks.

What I'm finding, however, is that it isn't nearly as student-interactive as I'd like it to be at the high school level. We need to get the software onto student computers so they can create cool presentations, too. While it can do a few more fun things than I could do with my tablet and the projector, it's seeming to be a case of too-late-technology arriving after more spectacular changes have taken place (have you seen Prezi?)

QUESTION:

Has anyone else noticed a new phenomena when it comes to technology and schools? I had several students this year who had either Smartphones or had a satellite uplink for their laptops. They didn't need to worry about our 'Net blocker -- they simply ignored it on their way to the Internet Superhighway. I have said for years that we need to teach responsible use -- that banning electronic, hand-held devices in the classroom only sends the kids' use underground -- and we can't teach them there. How are schools going to regulate these devices -- and should they?

Till later,
Thespis

Web Resources

On June 7th I'm presenting Second Life to a group of folks from districts all over our BOCES area. As part of that presentation, I want to direct them to some websites. So for all of you from the workshop, here you go!

Daden white papers -- Daden is a research company that has done several studies on the use of virtual world by various populations. This is the paper I talked about at the workshop (Or I hope I will, I'm writing this before I actually give the workshop!)

Virtual World News -- a blog directed primarily toward IT professionals on what's new in the various virtual worlds

Second Life's homepage -- a great place to explore, an easy place to get lost in...

Second Life wiki -- SL's official wiki, where you can get all your questions answered. And if the answer isn't there, there's a spot to ask the question.

The State of Play -- this is the book I referred to at the start of the presentation. My students each took a chapter; chose three quotes from the text and held a discussion with the class based on those three major points.

Virtual Worlds Wiki -- this is the wiki I use with my class. Come on over and take a look. Just remember, this is primarily student-written and developed. Under the Resources link on the first page you will find student-centered resources; under the Articles link you'll find articles I've required them to read and discuss in their journals.

Second Life can find in Niche Virtual World Events -- article detailing how SL still has a place among other, growing, virtual worlds (the statistic about the number of schools using SL came from this article).

PowerPoint slides from the presentation -- If you'd like to refer to any of the slides I showed during the presentation, here they be!

To those of you joining me for the first time, welcome! Hope the above links prove useful :).

Thespis

The Year in Review

The Virtual Worlds course began its second year in September with 17 students. Because our islands were all set up from last year and our administrator had a year's worth of experience under her belt, the kids were able to get inworld the second week of class instead of the third month of school. We spent only about a month on the task list since I had four returning students. They acted as mentors for the newbies which meant instead of just me teaching, they took over. Wonderful!

We also created our own Burning Life exhibit this year. I shared with them the concepts of the Burning Man festival and when SL held Burning Life, we did, too. There were some great creations. You can view pictures here!


One of the best pieces we did came from an administrative snafu here at the high school. I had ordered two dozen copies of The State of Play; Law, Games and Virtual Worlds, edited by Jack M. Balkin and Beth Simone Noveck. When the books weren't in two weeks after school started, I investigated and discovered the paperwork had never been sent. The books were never ordered. It was time to fall back ten yards and punt.

There are seventeen chapters in the book, each one written by a different expert, each one exploring a different aspect of the law as it applies to virtual worlds. I assigned each student a chapter and then we round-robined the book for the next seventeen weeks. Each kid read his/her chapter, chose three quotes from the chapter that held important concepts and then we held discussions each Friday about the chapter of the week. I am SO glad the office goofed up! This worked beautifully and I'm adding it to my teaching toolkit. When the kids can teach each other, it becomes SOOOO much better.

Our Civil War build came next and this was decidedly mixed in the kid's eyes. They all seemed enthusiastic at first; we chose the Battle of New Market because it's a little-known battle and "would give a greater opportunity to teach other students who came inworld" (their words). It required a great deal of research and I found their research skills to be abysmal. Hence it took a lot longer to get the information than any of us thought it would. Once the building commenced, some finished their tasks in a week, others took nearly four to get their projects done. I'm not entirely happy with the result. This group never came together as last year's class did.

And now they're bored. We're alone in world and frankly, they're tired of each other's company. We really need other schools to come in and be with us. Unfortunately, because of staff cuts, this class is in jeopardy and may not fly next year. I'm thinking of offering an after-school option just to keep our hand in until budgets get back on track. To alleviate some of the boredom, we're planning an end-of-the-year showcase of the things they've created in the past month. One student created a stage, another has made a scavanger hunt of roses, a third created "Poe's Corner" in the library featuring the works of E.A. Poe. Two other students have created several dresses; one of them has begun work on creating hair. The rest of the seventeen are totally disinterested, unfortunately.

So that's the year in a nutshell. Personally, this was the roughest start to the school year I've had since my first year of teaching, and probably accounts for the lack of posts. My teaching assignment included a class I've never taught before with students who have emotional and learning handicaps. Let's just say that one class has taken up most of my planning time this year and leave it at that. Next year will be better. It has to be!

Take care,
Thespis

Go paperless for Earth Day!

Been meaning to do this for a while, but finally did it today. If you don't follow this blog, you should. Shelly is an active advocate for teaching with technology and has some wonderful ideas. This year, he's encouraging teachers to go paperless for Earth Day. You can sign up to take the pledge here.

For the record, I'm an English teacher by certification and by assignment. I teach a LOT of literature to students. I also help them develop language skills in both expression and decoding. Paper, in the past, was a HUGE part of my job.

Notice I say, in the past. Since I've discovered wikis, life has become so much less cluttered. It wasn't uncommon at all to see piles of papers to be corrected on my desk that reached six, seven, eight inches high. And when research papers came in? You couldn't see me for the mound of work on my desk.

But then I started having kids email me their papers. I told them, the emailed papers get graded first and for my motivated kids, that was a great carrot. The paper load on my desk diminished greatly, the turn-around time was quicker (I found it faster to read and comment using Microsoft Word than paper and red pen), and we all felt better about the work. The kids didn't mind doing a rewrite when it was only a matter of editing using the word processor and I didn't mind reading again when we could track changes and I could easily see what had been changed.

I went to the wiki next, having the kids post their work with me editing via the wiki. Unfortunately, the wiki tools are not really conducive to that, so I'm thinking next year I might go back to emailing. Or maybe using Google Docs. Only the final draft would get posted on the wiki. I also want more conversations about the work to flow from student to student rather than just teacher to student. The wiki will help that.

So...go paperless for Earth Day!

and the up side

This is part two of a two-part post:

The sims we work on are owned by the Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES district. Yesterday, the BOCES administrators had a meeting at which they saw a presentation on SL. Lynn (SL name)asked me if some of my students could come inworld so she could relay questions to them from the admins. Because of the timing of the meeting, I was only able to have three students there (one for only 15 min).

At her end, Lynn projected the SL image on the large screen so everyone in the room could see. She and her assistant (whom I've never met in RL, but have met in SL several times) split the duties, with Emilie asking the students questions and Lynn asking me the teacher-directed questions in IM so the converstations would be easier to follow.

Let me say right now, that when you give kids real-world tasks and ask them to step up to the plate...they do so with a panache that makes one proud. In the classroom, I was dealing with three different converstaions at the same time: the IM with Lynn, the kid's conversations in general chat and the rest of my regular classroom that had never seen SL before. Needless to say this latter group was enthralled by the fact that we were in a meeting with a group of people thirty miles away while still sitting there and talking to them at the same time. And to see their fellow students simply and easily step into these roles impressed the heck out of them.

Two things impressed me on the kids' end. The first deals with a student who, quite frankly, isn't all that interested in anything I have to teach her. She's unfocused and not always willing to do what needs to be done. But her demeanor and answers in that meeting bespoke a higher level of maturity than I'd seen in her before. Getting to see her in the role of teacher to the admins was an eye-opener for me.

The second dealt with the secret two of us had. I'm a female teacher, but play a male avatar. Reason? I was curious to see if the kids responded differently to me inworld than in RL. One of the students who partook in this conversation yesterday is a male student who has created an absolutely beautiful female avatar. Reason: it's role playing and he wanted to explore that part of his personality.

Partway through our coversation, it dawned on me that these administrators would have no idea of who was behind the computer. They wouldn't know our true genders. I brought this up to the three of us left in the classroom (my class had been dismissed for lunch and one of the students in the meeting had to go to geometry). We got a chuckle over it and continued to play our parts and answer questions.

At the end however, I asked them, in chat, if we should reveal our secret. Of course, the admins now all wanted to know what it was and my male student grinned in RL and said, "You bet!" So I told them I am actually a female teacher. That got a laugh from them and when I gave my reason, they thought that a cool experiment to undertake. Then my male student revealed his gender and Lynn told me later she thought they were going to fall out of their chairs. She said they roared and couldn't get over how they'd made assumptions based on what they saw on the screen. A good teachable moment that she used to great effect.

So as frustrated as I get with them sometimes, when it's truly important, the kids step up and make me proud. We had a good time with admins yesterday (turns out to be mostly Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents, Directors and various principals). It sounds as if they had as much fun as we did.

Thespis

frustrations

This is the first part a two-part blog post:

I haven't been keeping up with the blog because, quite honestly, I've been disappointed in the way this year's class is working. Or not working, to be more specific. Where last year's group hung together and created the Drop In, working on their own within the groups, this year's class has fragmented, with several more intent on playing and making attempts to create their own little kingdoms than with working on the class projects. I've had to delete several of these "homes" more than once and am close to shutting down the entire project because of their lack of cooperation.

I can kick them out of SL entirely, and if this were the adult grid and I had tenants who so blatantly ignored the rules, I wouldn't hesitate to ban them from the sim. But this is a classroom and as such, I've been trying to teach and model the behaviors I want them to follow. So I delete and redirect -- over and over again.

We're working on a Civil War build as a class. They've chosen a relatively obscure battle on the theory that everyone already knows about the famous ones. This way others will be able to learn something they might not find in their textbook. We're recreating the Battle of New Market, specifically the Bushong farm and the Field of Lost Shoes. As I said, this is an uphill battle to keep them on task, but we're getting there.

Thespis

Outside

(The following was written outside, then transcribed here afterward)

Today was an experiment for me. I haven't taken kids outside for class in decades (yes, I've been teaching for decades. Plural.). Recently, however, I've been thinking that taking a group outside would be fun -- it's just been a matter of getting up the nerve. My Creative Writing class is small and filled with upperclassmen, so a good opportunity to let the squirrels scold and the ants explore us.

Of course, I wore my white pants today -- and I gave my two car blankets to the kids. So I'm sure I'll teach the rest of the day with grass stains on my rear end.

Interesting. Two students immediately separated themselves and headed away from the group to write. One of the others made note of it and called them "the real writers." The stereotype of the solitary writer haunts even these 17-year olds. Another girl is near me, but faced away from the group in a world of her own creation.

The others have all clumped together, but even there the dynamics are interesting. The two boys who do not feel creative or comfortable are sitting on the rocks together in conversation. There's a girl sitting somewhat solo, facing another group of three and who is regaling them with stories -- not realizing she's actually involved in creative storytelling by her very nature. Two others sit with their backs against different sides of the same tree, listening, writing, looking, writing. In the midst, yet separate. Jouralists in the making.

So why do I find myself sitting in the sunshine on a beautiful late summer/early autumn day writing about them instead of starting my own story? Because as a teacher, my attention is divided. To my left my solo two -- to my right all the others. They are my responsibility and while I'm not worried they'll escape on me, it's still my duty to be aware of their existence. But when I write fiction, I notice so little of the world around me. I get so involved in the story unfolding inside my head, letting the words flow down through my hunched shoulders and along my arms to emerge on the computer screen via my flying fingers, that it, in fact, takes a scream from one of the girls to bring me back to their fears of a creepy-crawly that turns out to be an ant.

The other reason I can't write fiction lies in the fact that I have no computer in front of me. I'm writing long-hand and I've long since lost patience with how long it takes for the words to get out of my head and through the pen/pencil. And why no laptop? It wouldn't be fair to the kids. I didn't let them bring out the school's laptops as they can't save anything this far from the server and I don't trust the batteries. And its hardly fair for me to sit here with one and not allow them. So I'm writing the old-fashioned way for an hour or so of time.

Okay, so what does all this have to do with virtual worlds? I posit the question, what are stories if not the original virtual worlds? The stories told around the fire centuries ago are no less and no more real than the worlds we create inside a computer, for all our modern stories are written with zeroes and ones. The stories have meaning in both media -- and so my Creative Writing class is as much a class in virtual worlds as my Virtual Worlds course in Second Life.

Funny, I'm getting flack from three students who don't want to be out here. Have I moved them too far from their comfort zone? Do they not like the ants or the fuzzy catepillers? My upbeat mood is rapidly deflating. Only three of them seem to have gotten any inspiration -- or even tried. The remaining six are just glad I'm not watching them too closely and are enjoying their conversations. I'm thinking I have to call this experiment a failure.

(back in my room, having posted and asked for feedback from the kids)

I'm not far off. Most of them enjoyed the opportunity to get out of the building and enjoy the weather. Only a few found it conducive to writing. Of the three who expressed dislike outside, one said he finds it difficult to write with a pen (a physical difficulty) and would enjoy it if he could take a laptop out with him. One of the girls said she would like it if she could sit somewhere other than the ground. Picnic tables were mentioned as a solution. So not as much of a failure as I thought. I might do this again...

new school year...

A new year brings new administrators as well as new kids in my class. Will be interesting to see how this all plays out...

Hope everyone had a good summer. I spent mine in RL traveling and visiting new lands and seeing faraway places. I crossed two things off my "10 things to do before I die" list -- which, of course, means I now need to add two things to it. I figure if I keep the list at ten, I'll never be done...and hence, never die! Well, one can always hope...

Regular updates to start up with the coming of the school year. Till then...take care :)

some end of the year musings

Had a great meeting with our BOCES liason and the kids today...Lynn Yoder (SL Name) came to our RL classroom for a chat. We debriefed a little (what worked, what didn't) and Lynn told us about some exciting new stuff for next year. To wit:

Next year there's a possibility another school will be holding a Virtual Worlds course at the same time we do. This will give us an opportunity to mix the classes and get the kids working on collaborative projects between the districts. Geographically our schools are about 70 miles away from each other. Our sports teams compete against one another, so this will be a fun opportunity to meet them in another setting.

In addition, at least one other school has expressed an interest in bringing kids on "field trips" into SL. Lynn told the class that those who remain will be asked to provide specific builds depending on what these teachers request. I saw grins from the four returning students, that told me they're excited about that possiblity.

Speaking of returning students, the four mentioned above are returning to the class itself, but three others have asked if they could remain as mentors, even though they're not taking the class. I'm encouraging them to do so, since this IS what they trained for this year. Two others are graduating, four want nothing to do with this after the end of the week (I think they wanted more shoot 'em ups). The others are still making decisions about what they want to do next year. Since I have only 14 in the class, I'm thinking a 50% retention rate (as in coming back to work or help next year) is pretty good!

Some other suggestions/requests for next year:
Allowing students to set up businesses that could actually be run for a profit
Taking out 2 of the carousels (kids admitted it was fun riding one the first time, but they didn't go back. And three carousels is overkill)
Get permissions to modify buildings put in by Ohio State or rebuild them and then remove them as there are bugs and assorted problems with some of them that we can't fix without permissions.
Fill up the libraries with texts from Project Gutenburg.

Winding down!
Thespis

the end is almost here...

We've made it through our first year of VW Explorations -- and have lost only a few along the way. Two students left the class because they turned 18 and thought they would lose their avatars (although apparently this isn't the case; something for me to track down next week). One other student has decided this isn't what he thought it would be when he signed up last year and shut down on me a few weeks ago. He grudgingly does what I ask him, but he lets me know he's not happy.

As for the rest, most are not taking the class next year, but are looking forward to being mentors for the newbies coming in. In fact, one group of girls has been working to create a "mentor center" as a place n00bs can come to ask questions. Very cool initiative on their part!

I had four objectives when starting this course:

•To introduce our students to new ways of learning and doing business using virtual worlds.

Hit: Students learned several new skill sets (how to move, talk, create) in a virtual world. We also talked at length about legal, financial and cultural issues that crop up as a result of a virtual neighborhood.

•To create a body of mentors that will be available next year as more students from other districts begin to use this new technology.

Miss with some hits: Not everyone who took the class this year has signed up to take it again next year. This means we’ll be training newbies again, although there will be a few old-timers to help out. The up-side of this is that BOCES now has its act together and creating the student accounts will be quick and easy (or so I’m told!) so it won’t take as long for the new students to become comfortable enough to mentor others.

•To explore several of the issues surrounding education in a virtual world for myself and see what kinds of things kids learn from using them.

BIG Hit: Was a LOT of fun watching the kids struggle and learn from each other, from the ‘net and from me. Caveat: next year I’m planning to do more community-building exercises as that didn’t happen spontaneously like I expected. The kids formed small groups, but never really formed a community of any sort.

•To create independent learners who don’t need me to tell them what to do next. They can use me as a resource for guidance when needed, but are capable of designing and executing their own projects.

BIGGEST HIT: The creation of the Drop In was one of the most rewarding of my career. It truly was wonderful watching them all take ownership of their sections of the site and then work together to create something useful and beautiful. This was the highlight of the year.

I looked over my blog before I wrote this – and boy, has it been a year of ups and downs. The technical end of getting this class off the boards alone would have been enough to daunt a less-determined teacher. Add in the above-mentioned student-apathy and a healthy dose of attitude from at least one fellow staff member and you have all the elements for a disaster of a year.

And yet, somehow – it wasn’t. I watched students work together to create The Drop In, a central spot where all new students coming in world will get their orientation and skills. It was great to watch them break the task into manageable tasks, then split themselves into groups with each group taking one task and breaking it down even further. They worked together, fought together, succeeded together and in the end, created a practical work of art that will benefit the community for a long time to come.

Would I do it again? Yes. I’ve learned a lot about how to handle kids in several locations at the same time, I’ve even taught from home while they were in world and in class. I’d like the opportunity to go again and see if I can make it a smoother and better experience for all involved.

Till later,
Thespis

Machinima

Finally getting to post the new machinima I made. I'd wanted the kids to do it, but we got scheduled for the Board of Education meeting a month earlier than expected. So I wrote a script, had the kids each record a line and threw this together. A special shout-out to Heath Vercher, whose music I used to underscore this one as well. Sorry, Heath -- forgot to give you credit!

The presentation before the Board went well, although I spoke too fast and tried to cram a half-hour's worth of information into twenty minutes. They seemed to enjoy the video even with the uneven sound quality, though.

And without further ado...our Drop In!

Dancing the technolgy shuffle

Some days I feel we take two steps forward and one back. But then I remind myself that at least we're moving forward...mostly.

The Drop In is nearly complete, although we've been having some trouble with permissions when the kids work together. They forget to mark things properly or two different people will put two different scripts into one object and that will goof up the previously set perms. I think we're set now, though. They really have learned so much doing this.

For the next projects we're working on, I'm making them do a LOT of outside work first. They'll be out of world for the next week or two as they make their plans and drawings -- and get my approval -- before they go inworld and create. That, however, has lead to another glitch in our technology. To wit:

One of the greatest resources, the SL wiki, wasn't open to them; it was blocked and we lost a period while we got that open (because we meet so early in the morning, no one is around who can take care of these matters immediately. Step backward). But now that it’s open, two of my girls want to create clothing and they got on the SL wiki and found all the tutorials. Great – two steps forward.

They need to download the templates for the clothing. But our Internet blocker doesn’t allow students to download anything. Step backward. I download them onto my computer and tell them I’ll post them to the class wiki. Except when I try to, they won’t go. They’ll upload, but then corrupt when I try to post them on the page. Step to the side – and back.

Today I get the bright idea that I’ll email the file to them both. But neither have a school email. I can email it to their home accounts, but then they won’t have it at school and neither can get SL at home. Stuck in place.

They both now have applied for school email accounts. I’m also going to try putting the file on a jump drive and have them copy it to their own drives. But that’s a job for tomorrow. In the meantime, the enthusiasm they had for this project has been dampened with frustration of what should have been a fairly simple task: go to the SL wiki, download the templates and begin to learn how to use them. An entire week gone.

The two have been putting their time to good use, though and probably aren’t as frustrated as I am. I want things to work right the first time and when they don’t and I have to wait for others because I can’t fix it myself, I tend to get impatient. The girls, knowing they have no power over this at all, simply adjusted and went out to research clothing ideas so when they DO get the templates they need, they’ll be ready. Nothing needs to be done in any particular order, as long as the task gets done.

Which, now that I think on it, is actually a good skill to be teaching them. The ability to adjust and try again in the face of frustration is something we all need to deal with in real life. Perhaps I can learn something from my students…

Drop In Lessons

Things I've learned working with the kids on The Drop In:

1) make sure they have a specific plan before beginning. This means NO BUILDING at ALL until they've run the plans by me. We've had several false starts by groups who didn't have a clear idea of what they needed to accomplish. One group needed several starts and I'm not entirely sure even now that they understand their task.

2) have the plan in writing. I had them develop the idea on the wiki and, for the most part, went with their general outline. Mistake on my part. While two of the four groups could self-direct themselves, one "group" ended up with only one person doing all the work and the other group has been lackadaisical at best, mostly because I truly think they didn't (and don't)understand the task.

And by in writing, I mean -- on graph paper. We need to have discussions before hand about where single prims can do the work of many. I will make an attempt to clean up the prim usage once I have all the pieces, but to be honest, planning ahead would have saved a LOT of work.

3) All posters need to be approved BEFORE they are uploaded into SL. I actually had that rule set before, however, some followed that rule, some didn't. Those that didn't ended up with posters that didn't work (font too small, colors that didn't match, etc).

4) Set the number of prims allowed beforehand. We decided partway through on what the limit should be and by that point, one group was already over.

More to come...

Moving right along...and a problem

Inworld we're still working on The Drop In but several sections are nearing completion. The hub group has only a few posters to design and put up yet, the vocabulary and communications group has the rooms finished and is now decorating, the movement group needs to check in with me and the appearance group has finished their room layout. We still hold to a finish date of mid-March and we're right on schedule.

This despite losing a member of the class to school suspension. The student's actions certainly warrented suspension from school, but it does raise some troubling questions about a suspended student's participation in a virtual world. I put the student on "read only" for the two class wiki's he's involved in, but have not yet removed him from our islands on Second Life's Teen Grid. I'm dragging my heels even though I know the suspension will probably be for the rest of the school year.

Why have I not moved faster on this? While I have to admit the possibility of his going inworld and wreaking as much havoc as he can, the reality is, I don't think he's the kind of kid who would. His hearing isn't until today and even though I've been told he will not be back, the process of getting a student inworld is so long and arduous I don't want to toss a perfectly good avatar until I know for sure.

And then there is the student to think of. All the work he's done inworld (which mostly was testing stuff to see if it could be broken) will be lost. Because I know all their passwords, I did go in and make sure permissions were set for each of the items he made so they could be tranferred to other members of his group. But I did not delete anything he "owns". And of course, that brings up another issue: does he, in fact, "own" anything?

Because these are closed sims, his avatar cannot ever exist anywhere else BUT on our islands. Once the avatar is deleted, he ceases to exist and all his inventory disappears. So I think I'm right in saying he does not truly have ownership over anything on the islands. Its not as if he can take it with him to another island somewhere.

The only issue I don't have the answer to is if our teen avatars migrate to the adult grid once the student turns 18. I know they do on the regular, open sims of the TG. But what about avatars created specifically for specific closed sims? I'll have the answer soon enough. Our oldest student turns 18 in another 6 weeks and we'll watch closely to see what happens next.

But in the meantime...do I delete the student's account entirely? Do I allow the student to continue working with the class (although at a different location)? What role does a RL suspension play in a virtual world class? I'm open for ideas -- feel free to comment!

Thespis

Downtime is still productive time

Today SL's logins are being fussy (two students were able to log in, the rest can't). Since we're still in my room and limited to five computers, that was going to mean an entire class of downtime, something we've not had to deal with since we got into SL back in December.

But there are tasks that need to be done out of SL and I put the other groups to creating the posters that need to go into their respective areas. The group in charge of The Drop Off (the landing point) is also the group in charge of THE RULES (school isn't complete without a set of rules to govern behavior). I am very impressed with the seven they came up with...and with their phrasing. Without any input from me, they came up with their draft. While they were working, I heard one of them tell the others, "We have to make this PBIS language." When they turned to me and asked if they really had to do that, I reminded them that no one likes a list of don'ts. Keeping the rules positive would set a better tone. That was my sole input (well, except for fixing the spelling of "you're" to "your") -- they came up with the list.

But here's where I realized how stuck I am in old technologies. I suppose in the very olden days the students would have hand-written the list and then written it by hand on the board for the others to see and comment on. In a more advanced class, perhaps they would have used carbon paper and the room's typewriter to make several copies kids could share. Today, they attached it as an email and sent it to me so I could put it up via the projector and they could see the list on the screen to suggest changes. Another alternative would have been to have the small group brainstorm and put the rules right onto the wiki and let others read and make suggestions when they had the time. I still haven't quite incorporated that technology fully into my teaching. Something for me to work toward :) .

I'm proud of the work the kids are doing. There have been some frustrations, but those are good and they're learning. The group I have that's trying to break what's currently there have found several problems and are working to get them fixed. The communication group has come up with a cool design for their section and the appearance group, after a frustrating start, is now coming along quite well. The movement "group" consists of only one person at the moment as his partner has been absent. In spite of that he's come up with some great ideas and is moving right along. We're aiming for a finish date sometime in mid-March.

Thespis

Update

Been a while since I posted...lots happening and keeping us busy.

We're still working with only 5 computers for 14 kids. Not easy, but we're limping along. Each student has now completed a task list I created consisting of 25 skills they have to master in order to continue with our main goal in SL: that of creating a space for other classes to use. I paid the students 10L for every skill they mastered -- they'll be using that money for textures for their next projects.

Before break for exams we brainstormed ideas for an orientation spot and came up with a web concept. The center will be a single space with doors off to the other sections. The thought is that each new avatar can control which section he/she wants to visit first, but all the skills they need will be taught there. The areas that they can visit are: Appearance, Movement, and Communication.

Lynn Roder (waving to Kelli!) came to visit us in RL yesterday and the kids shared with her their ideas for an orientation spot for all newbies coming into our islands. We're working on the assumption that these newbies have never been in any virtual world ever. Those that have can run through the tasks quickly...those who haven't can take their time and everything will be explained. She enjoyed the kids and even threw in her vote for the name of this orientation spot: The Drop In.

The class has now broken into four groups with each group responsible for an area of The Drop In. They're in the process of creating wiki pages that they'll use to keep their notes on. Each group is creating a mission statement and a list of tasks they need to do (including coming up with a theme for their area). They're expected to prioritize the list and assign the tasks so each person knows exactly what they're doing (and so will I!).

So we're off and...walking. Still attempting to get a lab for the kids so I can have more than one group inworld at a time. Otherwise this is going to take forever when each group can only do actual work once a week...and spends the other days just twiddling their thumbs. Makes it hard to keep the momentum going. But we're moving along!

Thespis

We broke it :(

Well, after a little less than two weeks, we managed to break Second Life. Or at least break the sims we're in.

Seems one of my kids figured out how to edit terrain. Since he didn't really know what he was doing and figured he could undo whatever he did, he raised a whole bunch of mountains -- mostly over the tops of buildings. Then the period ended before he had a chance to change them back. When we ran into them (literally) the next day, I tried to flatten them, but since landscaping isn't in my realm of expertise, well...we were stuck.

Not one to give up easily, I searched for tutorials and found one that showed the steps. I did the steps. Nothing changed. I finally wrote Lynn (owner of our sims) and told her we broke it and couldn't fix it. I also got the kid to did it to fess up when I told the class I wasn't mad and he/she wouldn't be punished for being curious.

In fact, the incident helped both Lynn and me to understand a part of the purpose of my class: we're beta testers. We're there to break as many things as we can so we can then figure out how to fix them when others break them. Or to figure out how to set the permissions so things can't ge broken again. Both are valuable pieces of information. So I congratulated the kid for giving us a challenge and he felt a lot better.

I have one student who is too old for the Teen Grid, but he's in the class at least till the change of semester. He's fascinated with scripting and has been searching websites for cool animations and activites. He then sends the script to one of the kids inworld and works with the kid in helping him to create. Today they created a box that, when you sit on it, it counts down from 10, then launches the avatar X number of feet in the air. The avatar then free-falls to the earth. The kids loved it and several spent quite some time having fun being launched.

Now some would be concerned: does such a scripted object have practical use? I would say, "YES!" One, it taught the kid how to change the script in an object. Two, the distance covered gave each of the kids a great overview of the islands. And three, it was just plain fun. And having fun together creates community -- something I very much want to achieve with this group.

So we're "breaking" things, and stretching boundaries in our attempts to find out who and what we are inworld. If all groups "Form, Storm, Norm, and Perform," we're definitely Stormin' now!

Two items of note:

First item:
Our wiki is featured this month in PBWiki's newsletter -- yay! The kids knew this was coming and several of them spent some extra time cleaning up their journal posts over the past week or so. Funny how things like capitalization and spelling become important when you discover REAL people will be reading what you wrote. The newsletter came out on Thursday and we've had several hundred hits over the weekend. I'm so proud of them!

Second item:
I threw my back out on Friday morning while shoveling snow. I took a sick day so I could go to the chiropractor and get myself straightened out. But since my class meets early in the morning (7:20 am to 8:00 am), I told the sub to make sure 5 kids got inworld and I'd meet them there. I sent out a group notice with a landmark to where I was and sure enough -- by 7:25 I had all five students in front of me! We held class as usual, with them doing tasks and me making payments for those tasks, only I kept track on a piece of scrap paper instead of in my database, since I couldn't get to that from home. I even disciplined a student who wasn't in world by shouting at him. The inworld students were all relayed my message!

Of course, teaching remotely does bring up some interesting issues the union will need to deal with in the future. If a teacher isn't in school, but is actually teaching the students from somewhere else -- should that count as sick time (or conference time/bereavement time)? She's still teaching and still interacting with the kids; the only difference is that she's not in the room with them.

Our IT manager likes to remind us, "Any job done by a person will someday be able to be done by a computer." I can forsee a time when kids and teachers go to school only one or two days a week to build social skills, spending the rest of their week in remote learning situations. Kids who don't have computers at school will still need to come to the buildings so they can use the computers. Of course, that begs another issue: will any social stigma be attached to those who come to the building vs those who choose to stay home to meet up with the class?

Many questions for us to consider...
Thespis

They're taking off!

I was late to school today because of the icy roads. Not real late, only about 5 minutes, but it was long enough that, when I entered my classroom, the computers along the wall were already occupied by students, one row sitting, the other row standing, nay -- crowding-- around to watch and advise. In other words, had I not shown up for class at all -- they would've been just fine without me. :)

Isn't that a teacher's true objective? To make the kids independent learners? I asked a journal question after their first foray into SL: "Are you a 'learn-as-I-want-to' person or a "you-tell-me-what-to-do-next" type person?" We'd read an article that postulated today's generation wanted structured lessons, that being left to their own devices generally produced frustration. In their journals, nearly every student who answered stated they wanted to be left alone to explore on their own. When they had questions, they'd ask. What I've seen of their behavior in SL supports their words. In other words, they're walking their talk.

Interestingly, when left to their own devices, the girls are still fussing with clothes -- trying on new outfits and modifying them to their own designs -- while the boys are grabbing pre-made houses from their inventories and are building a village of their own. One boy already made his own "house", figuring out without any instruction from me how to twist the pillars and add texture.

Some teachers might find this alarming. After all, when kids go off to learn on their own, the focus of control switches. We're used to being the Be-All and End-All of learning. We decide what's important and we decide what order it should be learned in. I will admit, there is a part of me that's affected by this control issue: what if they do something they shouldn't? How can I justify my position as a teacher if they're doing the majority of the work?

But most of me rejoices. This isn't about me -- it's about the kids and their learning. I already know how to use the world. They don't. My position isn't that of the traditional teacher, it's more of a mentor -- answering questions when they have them, guiding their behavior so they remain civilized, laughing at their antics and disciplining where necessary. It's a very different role and not one teacher schools prepare their students for. It is, however, very rewarding to watch what they come up with when all restraints are taken off!

Cool beans!
Thespis

static vs dynamic

Many thanks to Lynn Roder (in SL) for visiting with the kids inworld. We're still only five in at a time, but having an extra person there for the kids to talk with helps. Since Lynn is actually at a computer 3o miles away from our classroom, the kids have to use text to chat, a skill some of them still find challenging to initiate when the chatbar disappears. But they're learning how to get it back and move on.

I titled this post "Static vs Dynamic" in reference to my classroom vs what's happening inworld. Several times all the students, plus myself and Lynn all stand in one spot. From Lynn's perspective it looks quite static. Nothing is happening, no one is talking. Perhaps one person is editing his/her appearance, but that's all.

But what she can't see is what's going on in my classroom, with several kids clustered around each computer, calling out questions to each other about how to do this or that or, my favorite, "Hey, look at me! I made a new outfit!" or "Hey, watch me fall off this building." I'm afraid the stereotypes are holding true for several of them at this point. Several of the boys don't care what they look like. They spent one period playing with their skin and/or hair and now are ready to jump to some other activity. And several of the girls are interested only in trying on every new piece of clothing they can lay their hands on.

Yes, the majority of the kids lie somewhere in the middle -- both male and female who just want to explore and have fun. Right now I'm not really giving them structured lessons, although they do get a prize for each activity they complete (10L that they're going to need down the road). In fact, when I had them blog about whether they wanted structure or exploration, most chose exploration as their preferred learning style.

GTG-- this is fun!
Thespis