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In recent years there has been an explosion of virtual worlds intended for early childhood populations; however, because the majority of research on games and such worlds has focused on adults and adolescents, we know very little about these spaces. This article attempts to address this gap by providing a qualitative content analysis of the affordances that Webkinz World an online environment that as of March 2010 had over 3 million unique site visitors per month, offers for children's literacy and language development. Analyses suggest that the site provides unique opportunities for immersion in literacy-rich contexts and academically-oriented practices that may enhance those that are readily available in many children's daily lives. However, looking beyond the discrete linguistic and technical aspects of learning in Webkinz World reveals a designed culture with limitations on learning and a constrained set of literacies and social messages that warrant further critical exploration.

In recent years there has been an explosion of virtual worlds intended for early childhood populations; however, because the majority of research on games and such worlds has focused on adults and adolescents, we know very little about these spaces. This article attempts to address this gap by providing a qualitative content analysis of the affordances that Webkinz World an online environment that as of March 2010 had over 3 million unique site visitors per month, offers for children's literacy and language development. Analyses suggest that the site provides unique opportunities for immersion in literacy-rich contexts and academically-oriented practices that may enhance those that are readily available in many children's daily lives. However, looking beyond the discrete linguistic and technical aspects of learning in Webkinz World reveals a designed culture with limitations on learning and a constrained set of literacies and social messages that warrant further critical exploration.

"As a tribute to XKCD's 'Map of Online Communities', we have decided to re-create our own, updated version of this map. The numbers are taken to reflect many new developments in the social networking communities, including Facebook surpassing Myspace as the preeminent online community:"

Very nice map of the social networks in the web2.0 space. Has anybody seen the XKCD original version? :-)

" The second Horizon Report for the K-12 sector describes the continuing work of the NMC's Horizon Project, a research project that seeks to 1 identify and describe emerging technologies that will likely have a significant impact on K-12 education. This report was produced in partnership with the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and was made possible via a grant from HP."

one thing I have noticed when it comes to integrating information communication technologies (ICT), is that the teachers and the schools that really fly, the high performing schools...they don't come to my PD. They don't go to any PD. They understand that they, and their professional networks, are their own PD.

This Ning was developed to support a workshop presented by Apple Distinguished Educators at CSUN 2010.

33 page guide to google for teachers

Best of Children's Book iPad Apps 2010

Though centralized PC labs have been an important part of both campus space planning and IT infrastructure for the last two decades, this may be changing.

Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services - think apps - are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures.

"Problem Based Learning - An Instructional Model and its Constructivist Framework"

Nice list that explains the framework behind constructivist learning.

Personal Info, Photos and Video and Positive Presentation

Last night I ran a workshop on 'writing and presenting at conferences' as part of the 'On Track' program I run at RMIT university. During the session I asked the group to tell me the worst things they had ever seen in presentations.

"Some excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. However, many teachers cannot access YouTube in their classrooms. This is a list of alternatives that might better suit teacher needs."

Nice list of alternatives to YouTube if it is blocked at your school.