Teacher Professional Development

One of the reasons I think I became a little disengaged at the end of last year with Second Life was because I had reached a ‘now what?’ stage. Having been part of the community of learners on the Islands of Jokaydia was great, but personally I felt I had plateaued in what I could offer or do.

ut what I began to obsess over was this: if anyone came to my plot .. why would they? Why would they come into Second Life merely to click on a few urls that would take them to the internet? To me, that wasn;t a good use of the platform.

How could Second Life compliment some of the traditional practices that exist at the moment? These are characteristics of the space I would like to create: Low skill level required for a new user or visitor to the space. Basic knowledge of moving, collecting and navigation required. One of the biggest obstacles is *time* - I don’t want visitors first experiences to be one of frustration or pitched at a level that they won’t be able to enjoy the experience. I want it to be ‘interactive’ by which, of course, I don’t want it to be merely a space where someone clicks on a scripted board merely to be taken to a 2D URL. Documents may be a feature, not necessarily the primary feature of the build. I would hope the space could interactive for whomever visited it. Invite collaboration, strategizing and provide points for debate.

I have decided that I will use the parcel of land to help develop knoweldge about settlement / colonisation in the south east of Australia.

At the moment I am gathering as many resources that are currently available online which will act as a knowledge base for visitors to the site

he impact that colonisation had upon indigenous communities in Australia

In a dream world where this was a project that had a much longer time period to develop, I would love this to be a feature - especially if the space, which is to be ‘colonised’ had features of existing inhabitants. How interesting it would be to see the choices that students would have to make when they were creating their space.

I have quite a few illustrations and paintings from the period depicting colonial life. I have quite a few letters and written documents, but I think it would be best to choose two or three simple descriptions. The last thing that I want is swathes of text that people have to read in-world.

I hope that the space in the Virtual Classroom Project enables students to build upon their knowledge that they may have gained from a textbook, history book, documentary or museum visit by critically analysing, debating and deciding upon the way their understanding of the past is represented.

United States Is Substantially Behind Other Nations in Providing Teacher Professional Development That Improves Student Learning; Report Identifies Practices that Work

Every year, nine in 10 of the nation’s three million teachers participate in professional development designed to improve their content knowledge, transform their teaching, and help them respond to student needs. These activities, which can include workshops, study groups, mentoring, classroom observations, and numerous other formal and informal learning experiences, have mixed results in how they effect student achievement.

embedded in the work of collaborative professional learning teams that support ongoing improvements in teachers’ practice and student achievement.

Feb. 4, 2009: Today NSDC releases Professional Learning in the Learning Profession: A Status Report on Teacher Development in the United States and Abroad. This also marks the launch of a multi-year research effort to measure the effectiveness of professional learning at the state leve