Experimenting with Second Life

I really enjoyed this aspect of Second Life, mainly because I find it to be somewhat similar to The Sims 3. I enjoy creating and designing my Sims, and I also enjoyed experimenting with the different outfits, hair styles, and body types in Second Life. Here is a picture of my original avatar I created when I first started Second Life. I really like this outfit and hair style, and was hesitant to create a new avatar! Even though I did not want to "get rid of" this avatar, I did create a new one to experiment with. Here is a picture of the new "original" avatar I selected before making any changes to her clothes and looks. I decided to first look through my inventory in the library folder to see if I could find something I liked to experiment with. I tried on a few different selections, and finally decided on the female musician outfit. I was not a big fan of this look, which is why I decided to experiment with it. As I got going, I decided to start with changing her physical appearance. After I got that all changed up, I was actually pretty satisfied with how she looked. After trying on different clothes initially, I decided I did not want to mess with that anymore. Here is the picture of my second avatar's finished product. Overall, I did enjoy experimenting with Second Life's avatar creation.

Second Life, Round 2!

As I started the second tutorial, I was interested in getting into the "hang" of this. Being able to explore a new location with guidance was a great experience for me. I enjoyed learning about what I can do in Second Life. I even was able to interact with another resident! I also learn best by doing, so this was a great learning opportunity for me to experience. First, I just explored the signs, reading what they said and doing some of their suggestions. Once I finished the guided tour, I explored the island a little. I went downstairs, chatted with another resident, and then walked (and ran) around the island to check out other locations. I captured two photos during this experience; one of me at the beginning before starting the tutorial. The second at a location that I thought looked pretty interesting.

Second Life Intro

After completing the first tutorial for Second Life, I would have to say I am not quite hooked yet. It does seem intriguing, however, I just do not see this as something that I would enjoy to use. Second Life is an online virtual world. To start, you sign up (for free) and create an avatar, which you use to explore the (virtual) world, meet other residents, socialize and  participate in individual and group activities. Second Life is intended for users 16 years and older.

I started playing The Sims 3 after my experience with that a couple weeks ago, and became hooked to that. When I started exploring Second Life, I kept noticing little differences between Second Life and the Sims 3 throughout the tutorials. I find it hard to adjust from The Sims 3 to Second Life, especially when I was personalizing my avatar.

Overall, I think that Second Life does present our society with a lot of possibilities and opportunities, especially in the field of communication. However, because of age restrictions, I cannot see myself using this program again in the future, aside from my EIT class.

Gaming: The Sims 3

I decided to play the game The Sims 3. I have heard a lot about it, and played Sims Social on FB a time or two, but never the "real" Sims 3. One of my previous roommates LOVES this game, so she lent me The Sims 3 plus some of the expansion packs to try out! Let me just say, I LOVE this game now!  :)  I really enjoyed creating my Sims and even decorating and designing their clothes and homes. Getting to pick their personality and job was also a plus for me. Once I got everything established, I had already been "playing" for about an hour; so I decided I better actually "play" the game for an hour. I started off with just two Sims and they had jobs, not professions, which made the gameplay a little easier and less complicated. Off course, I went into the education field in the game, and my boyfriend was a police officer. 

As I was playing the game, one characteristic from Dr. Z's blog posting really stuck out to me: choice. I feel that The Sims 3 is all about choice! I make pretty much all the choices. When creating my Sims, I choose their looks, clothes, and personality; I choose their house, decorations, and design; I also choose their jobs, relationships, and family. The path my Sims take is my choice. The Sims 3 also has multiple long and short term goals. At the beginning, the Sims select a life-time wish, which would be the long term goal. The life-time goals I selected (for my two original Sims) where "Surrounded by Family" and "Dynamic DNA Profiler". I also created a long term goal of getting married, having 6 kids, reaching the top of the education field, and moving at least twice into bigger homes than before. The short term goals in the Sims are your Sims' wishes that you fulfill daily. Also, by fulfilling these wishes, you get lifetime points, which you use to buy rewards, which can be considered to be short or long term goals because of the wide price range. 

My friend really helped me before I played the game because she gave me the "low down" on what to do and what cheats to use. :)  The only thing that really hindered my play was my lack of knowledge and experience in the game. I have never really been a big gamer, so this was completely new to me. Once I started playing though, I was hooked! Some good learning experiences for me while playing The Sims 3 was when I completed wishes, gained promotions, had babies, and moved houses. All these events really helped me learn more about the game, and how I like to play it. 

While playing this game, I would have to say that I was in the state of Flow. I reached flow because there were steps every part of the way throughout the game. There was also a balance between challenges and skill. Starting a game I never played before was a challenge, and getting everything for "life" established was fun, but also challenging. I also think that skill was involved as well because I had to use my own previous experiences or skills to determine how I wanted to play the game and overcome those challenges in the game. While playing The Sims 3, I was definitely completing engaged. I lost track of time, and ended up playing the game for over 2 hours without even noticing it!  I was having fun playing this game, and was in The Flow because of the reasons listed above. 

This has affected me in several ways. First of all, I am now going to be asking for this game and expansion packs for my birthday and Christmas!  :) So, it has affected my life because I will now be a beginning gamer. As a teacher, this showed me the value of gaming. I never had anything against gaming in education, and now I realize how educational some games can be, especially for children growing up in this gaming era. Overall, this gaming experience was a great one. I will be sure to look out for more ways to use gaming in the classroom as I enter the teaching profession within a year.   

The video below is about a 7th grade teacher using The Sims 3 on iPod Touches in the classroom. The teacher's goal for his students is for them to learn the elements of fiction through playing The Sims 3. In this video, students explore point-of-view, motivations, and personality traits. One student shares her experiences, thoughts, and ideas while playing the game. She is able to make a connection/comparison from The Sims 3 to the book she is currently reading. A great watch for future/current teachers about how to integrate technology and gaming into their classroom. 

Adam and Emily K's Global Learning: The Day I was Born

Discuss your class (imaginary or otherwise):

From Flickr Creative Commons: avitomas31 

Our class is a 5th grade elementary classroom with 24 students. The students are mostly caucasian, but there are 3 African Americans, 2 Asian Americans and 1 Native American. Our class is located in Cedar Falls, IA. Most students are middle class, with a few high middle, and a few low middle. The students are all proficient in speaking and writing the English language. Our school had a computer lab open to everyone to use as well as carts with laptops for teachers to check out to use in their classrooms. Each cart contains 10 laptops. Our classroom also has a Smartboard, which is used throughout the day in instruction and for student learning.
How/why this project fits into your subject area:The project we found is titled "The Day I was Born". The basics of this project are: students are guided through the Internet to find out what was happening in the world on the day they were born. If teachers are interested, student results may be included in "The Day I Was Born Online History Book". This is an online project where students are guided to a variety of links to find out what was happening in the world on the day they were born--news, literature, music, television, etc. Students collect, record, and organize data in the form of a report. Student handouts are posted on the site and may be copied by teachers. The site contains animated graphics and audio clips. Collaboration is encouraged. The curriculum alignment for this project includes: Arts; History; Information Technology; Language; Mathematics; Science; Social Studies; Technology. Our subject area that this project fits with is mathematics. This project fits with mathematics because once students find the data needed to complete the project, and then use their math skills to record, organize,  and analyze the data in the form of a report.
What you hope to achieve:Throughout this project, we hope to achieve many things. We hope our students learn about the history of American (or whatever country they were born in) the year and day they were born. This project will also help our students with a variety of core subjects in school, such as mathematics, language arts, history, science, and social studies. A 21st century aspect to this global learning project is the use of technology to complete the project as well as collaboration throughout the project with others around the world. We also hope our students learn appropriate organizational skills when completing this project. Students will hopefully also achieve more awareness of the world around them, both past and present aspects.
What barriers do see as possibly occurring:Some barriers that could occur would be a student not knowing much about their home countries history, (for non native born Americans). Another barrier could be the technology itself. Even in today's technology centered society, there are always problems that can occur without notice; this would be a huge barrier for this project since the majority of the project and global learning in general, revolves around the use of some sort of technology.
How this might change your students' perception of the world:Hopefully, this project will change our students perception of the world in a positive way. By researching past events, students learn more about the major occurrences that formed the world we live in today. By collaborating with others around the world, they learn about the events that shaped their country, as well as learning that they are just one small piece of the "whole picture". Overall, we hope our students become more aware of the world around them, not just where they live or have visited. Becoming more culturally aware will change the students' perception of the world in a very positive way.

International Dot Day?

From: Flickr Creative Commons: Visions By Vicky

Recently, I was reading Angela Maiers' blog, and came across a post about International Dot Day.  At first, I just passed it by, not really paying attention to what I had just read. Then, it hit me, what the heck is International Dot Day, and why have I never heard of it before?!? So, this is when I deliberately decided to "continue reading" and find out about International Dot Day from Angelia Maiers. Direct from Maiers' blog post, "Every year on September 15, innovative educators around the world celebrate International Dot Day by making time to encourage their students’ creativity and genius potential. Inspired by Peter H. Reynolds treasured story, The Dot, students are encouraged to “make their mark” by starting simply with a dot and then seeing where that dot takes you." Now, this seems like a pretty cool idea to me! First of all, I strongly agree with encouraging children to express what they have learned from art and their own creativity. Second of all, the lesson integrates literature, which I also feel strongly about. Finally, children are encouraged to "make their mark", which connects to 21st century learning and Global Education (see my previous post for more on Global Education). According to Angela's blog post, "Over 350,000 educators and students have registered so far for International Dot Day and have signed up to share their stories with one another using the Skype in The Classroom Network. It is awe-inspiring to see children, teachers, leaders and entire communities representing all 50 states and spanning 6 continents join together to let one another know how much they matter to the world." This is just so amazing to me, and really gets me excited about joining such an amazing profession. Projects like these give me inspiration to be a great teacher, and innovator. Teaching and encouraging students to "make their mark" is what education and Global Education is really all about; providing experiences for students to learn from to become better 21st century learners, citizens, and creators. Terry Shay, inventor of International Dot Day created a website to inform educators, parents and students about this day and why it is important. "Every day is a good day to celebrate creativity in the classroom and all that it unlocks and unleashes for students and teachers. But since 2009, one day – September 15 -- has become a great day for teachers, students and people everywhere to re-commit and re-connect to the power and potential that creativity brings to all we do." The video below show an example of how one school incorporates International Dot Day into their curriculum. How would you use The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds in your classroom to inspire students? 

Why Global Education?

From Flickr Creative Commons: The Dream Rocket Project

In a recent blog post from Cool Cat Teacher Blog, Global Education came up as a topic for the day. This post lead me to World Savvy, a website that defines Global Education, and the importance of it.  One quote from the website that really caught my attention is about the impact Global Education has on students. "Research show that students who learn 'about global issues are more than twice as likely to see the point of personally undertaking social action. Global learning encourages awareness and critical thought about issues such as poverty, climate change, different religions and cultures as well as world trade and politics,' and students who are educated about global issues, from multiple perspectives, are more likely to exhibit tolerance and acceptance of religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity, and demonstrate increased empathy for individuals." I want all of those qualities to be present in my classroom and the actions of my students. It takes time to help children become well-rounded students and citizens, but I think that using Global Education is a great way to instill those qualities and perspectives into students throughout their K-12 schooling. In the following video, a 6th grade teacher tells why she thinks global education is important. What would you do if your school decided to go global?



According to an article from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, global education is: "an education perspective which arises from the fact that contemporary people live and interact in an increasingly globalised world. this makes it crucial for education to give learners the opportunity and competences to reflect and share their own point of view and role within a global, interconnected society, as well as to understand and discuss complex relationships of common social, ecological, political and economic issues, so as to derive new ways of thinking and acting. However, global education should not be presented as an approach that we may all accept uncritically, since we already know there are dilemmas, tensions, doubts and different perceptions in an education process when dealing with global issues." Using this description, I think that global education is the future of education. I want to be able to instill the foundations of global learning into my students as a future teacher. What about you, what do you like or not like about global education in the classroom?