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Kitely Presentation for Immersive Courseware  60 minutes

Annenberg Media provides wonderful resources for teachers of almost any discipline from kindergarten though college. I use the American Passages series in my American Literature classes. Students can watch brief videos, which really bring content to life, but what is great is that Annenberg includes so much more than just videos -- discussion questions, other links to more information, glossaries of key terms, project and essay ideas. The drawback is the passive nature of the site. Students watch videos; they don't create them or edit them. The activities surrounding the videos incoporate reading, writing, and possibly discussing, but these approaches in isolation, as we have seen, do not always provide the most immersive or effective learning experience.

This is a blog about the use of Second Life in teaching science, especially biology. It is meant to document my Second Life activities and development efforts leading up to and including my upcoming Sabbatical in Spring 2009. My sabbatical is to develop hands on modules in Second Life that could supplement either lecture or lab classes. Photosynthesis

Brain scans of avid players of the hugely popular online fantasy world World of Warcraft reveal that areas of the brain involved in self-reflection and judgement seem to behave similarly when someone is thinking about their virtual self as when they think about their real one.

LSL script to distribute object to list of names in a notecard. Might be useful for distributing class materials.

Alright this one just makes me laugh. Sad, but funny.

This location takes a famous concept from geology of using a spiral timeline to illustrate the history of the Earth. As you walk through the interactive exhibit you get a sense of the passage of time as well as the slow and gradual evolution of life on Earth. I really like the idea of walking through a timeline and interacting with exhibits and can see how this would work with a class. There are many opportunities for discussion and demonstrations along the way. I also think this type of collaborative site would make a really great class project. Constructed by students at the University of Arizona.

San Diego State University's Aztlan Island in Second Life even calendar. Please respect other class meetings!

Overview of Science through Second Life - a Motorola grant funded science curriculum implemented in a 9th grade Brooklyn science class, Spring 2008. (Full disclosure - Co-designed by Cathy) A practical example of using a virtual world to supplement and support standards based high school science. Note the environments NPIRL (not possible in real life).

This site has a lot to look at; Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, etc. supposedly reproduced from the early 1900's. Some of the details are wonderful, but educationally the most value might be in a language class visiting this place to read all of the signs and directions. I can envision a second-semester or second-year French class coming here with an assignment to translate the signs and posters. It would be a bit of an adventure to find them and discover what they are describing. I do not speak French, but I enjoyed riding the streetcar and watching a real-life old movie in the Cinematographe (theater?).

Anyone interested in CSI? What about forensic science to stimulate your science classes? It has posters that give information about the basics of forensic science, as well as scheduled lectures. Inside the examining room, there are pictures (both avatar and real life) of autopsies. In the morgue you can open and close the drawers.

It appears that Edusim may be a partial solution to giving elementary students access to a somewhat virtual world. This is an "immersive-touch" product that works with an interactive whiteboard allowing students to interact with and build in the environment. I created an account a year ago and had no motivation to learn about it until I took this ET 700 class. Now I am eager to figure out how to use it in my classroom. Using this technique, a class can have a hands-on virtual field trip, interactive story telling, or show a process in a 3D immersive way. For more explanation:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVFsxev-2sk Edusim alpha 11:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f53LzbK3alw I am going to download this and try it out. Let me know if you have any experience with this product.

My design document included an idea of connecting my senior students in Multicultural Literature class to students in another part of the country or even another part of the world. The goal of the class is to learn about other cultures and SL allows teachers to collaborate with other teachers to do this--inexpensively. The link above is to an article entitled "Student Exchange, Without the Jet Lag: Educational Collaboration in a Virtual World." The article details how students in Modesto, California connect with students in Kyoto, Japan -- it's called the Pacific Rim Exchange. They meet in Teen Second Life on a group of private islands. Eventually, these students will meet in person, however, they get to know each other virtually before they do.

OpenSim 4th grade class island. Ongoing creative applications of MULE's (curriculum based) for elementary students.

This group has really taken SL and ran with it. Very interesting work they are doing here

Given that Congress has the lowest approval rating of any branch and that most sessions are broadcast on CSPAN (zzzzz....), I'm not sure what good a Second Life for Congress will accomplish, however if teachers want to have students in a government class explore. At the sim-hearing that took place, Congress people posed questions about the dangers of the second life community (e.g. safety for children, etc.). This was back in 2008, but doesn't Congress already have enough on it's hands than to worry about hte dangers of second life?

A great place to learn how to use your avatar for people like me who are a little frustrated. Plus there is a lot of free stuff to collect. Non-threatening! I didn't have anyone approach me and ask if I liked vampires like I did on Discovery Island. I also acquired a great picture changer there. Some very useful freebies. If you are a collector - go to ISTE.

I was there too! I appreciated all of the resources and free tools. I got a ISTE t-shirt and hope to be sporting that at the next class.

I enjoyed the learning aspect at this location, mostly due to its utility and choice. I found it simple to navigate and gain a better understanding of SL.

This award-winning website allows children to: * Interact with dozens of famous historical and fictional characters from the arts, literature and sciences. * Submit creative writings for others to read and comment upon. * Explore famous works of art and play art related games. * Undertake challenging quests that take kids into the world of classic literature, the arts and humanities. * Practice typing with typing-tutor games. * Learn best practices for staying safe on the Internet. The website is not free, and they have a Teachers Console for class management. They recently partnered with the San Francisco Opera to bring classical music to young adults.