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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.

EDTECH Island Two Years Later: Training Teachers in Virtual Worlds Lisa Dawley of Boise State Implications for design of space, activities and social support to serve learners in virtual worlds

I've created this wiki to help teachers use simulation and game in the classroom. Please help me by suggesting articles, resources, and videos or sharing this with teachers at your school and/or via your blog. Thanks and hope you enjoy!

Ning site is dedicated to teachers exploring the potential of using MUVEs for teaching and learning about Social Studies. This is the group Virtual Pioneers in Second Life. Many links to great educational projects for K12 teachers and ISTE.

How does this teacher's experience compare to yours? Can virtual world learning experiences mitigate ANY of these constraints or concerns?

T.H.E. article about end of Teen Second LIfe, other platform options and what it all may mean for K12 teachers (good and bad).

This is a comprehensive site with thousands of online resources to use to develop critical thinking in any discipline. The argument mapping tutorials, for example, use various articles to demonstrate the annotation, questioning, and thought process one should use to evaluate the logic of an argument. One of the first tutorials uses an article which claims the moon landing was a hoax, which is a very engaging topic. Many of the other topics are also very timely and engaging. The only drawback is that most of the activities are more traditional activities which rely mostly on reading and writing (sometimes on discussing with others) and which don't incorporate much hands-on activity. However, it is still a very rich site of resources and activities for college and high school teachers and students.

Some interesting concerns, considerations and questions by a teacher on the edge of virtual worlds.

This SLURL has potential for any U.S. or World History classroom if teachers want to show students what trench warfare might have been like. Students can see a simulation of a trench with rats crawling around, mustard gas being deployed, explosions, rain, etc. Users can click on various sound boxes and video links to learn poetry of soldiers and historians who have researched trench warfare. You can also transport to a camp where you can change clothing to a soldier or a nurse--and it's free! Very educational and highly recommended for history teachers.

Stellar design! A detailed and fantastic virtual world educational environment/activity design now being developed by U of Oregon for K12 teachers attending a summer program. Virtual Oaxaca will combine a virtual world space with a journey to the real Oaxaca. Please read for a great example of blending "real", online and virtual world spaces into a comprehensive, collaborative, CREATIVE! and reflective learning experience.

Wow this is great. I just recently visited Oaxaca and was fascinated by the culture. I was only able to stay in the city for a couple of days and I felt I really wanted to learn more about the indigenous population and it's effect on the Oaxacan culture. This is a great way to learn more and interact for those who cannot visit. It is definitely a rich and magical place.

Happy Steve blog post chronicling ongoing student work on a Second Life Teen Grid Island. Booralie Island is the virtual extension of a Christian school located in Sydney, Australia. Their island is largely student created and used for many different subjects. Happy Steve is also a great example of a technology infused enthusiastic teacher. This post details students building a war memorial, scripted recording studio, coliseum ... on their own time and after school.

This is a very recent post regarding the integration of current events in education, by means of Second Life. The article specifically describes how high school teachers have created an oil spill in Second Life and are having students think of ways to control this environmental nightmare. Creating real life problem in Second Life enriches the manner in which students interact with news. This type of work leads me to believe that many aspects of a student's development can be worked at the same time! More bang for the buck! These teachers do however, have he economic and technical support from the city of New York.

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.

Teacher Guide and Activities for Deep Down.  Great example of MULE learning.  Good to use to put SL experience in context.

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?

This article discusses how Teen Second Life and similar dynamic online tools gives teenagers another way to explore their identity, in a low-risk, no consequences environment, and how teachers can use this environment to explore serious issues.

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.