Second Life in Education

Second Life in Education

The educational benefits to using Second Life in the classroom can be endless. With these benefits comes the responsibility to make sure our students are safe and not being exposed to inappropriate material. Can this be? Yes! Second Life offers a version that is just for students ranging in the ages of 13-17.

Teen Second Life is just like the adult version of Second Life including flying and creating your own customized avatar. Everything created is by students and the only time when adults are allowed in, is when a professor is giving a demonstration or lecture. One benefit for using Second Life is the cost to use it. The school would not have to worry about buying a program. It only requires a one-time 20mb download.

Using Second Life is beneficial to many subject areas. For example, a marketing teacher can have students design and showcase their projects in Second Life. This gives the benefit of seeing a creation in a 3-D virtual environment. A math teacher can improve his or her students’ math skills when building objects in Second Life. Students would be learning about coordinates, angles and using formulas when creating larger more complex objects. A foreign language teacher can have students practicing their speaking skills by chatting with other students in Second Life. http://digitalkatie.wikispaces.com/How+to+use+SL

Numerous websites are dedicated to showcasing how teachers can use Second Life in the classroom. http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses Teachers can search categories for the types of lessons they want to make. When you click on a category the website displays the creator and how you are to use the lesson. This is a collaborative website that encourages other teachers to use Second Life and submit ideas or new ways to use Second Life.

Some colleges and universities operate solely in Second Life. Memorial University posted a video http://www.distance.mun.ca/media/files/secondlife/spotlight.php showing how professors can use demonstrations, simulations, create virtual laboratories, and use role-playing in Second Life. A great benefit to using virtual labs is that students can repeat an experiment without worrying about costs. Students were interviewed and asked their opinions about their learning experiences using Second Life. They enjoyed using Second Life and value the hands-on experience. One student in particular was very impressed with the recreations that can be visited in Second Life.

If teachers are worried that they will not be able to understand how to use Second Life, they should not worry. There are many free video tutorials available to get you familiar with the controls in Second Life. A great place to start would be http://imohax.com/heyavatar/. This website provides tips on how to create your avatar and goes into more advanced training. There are also numerous groups in Second Life that are dedicated to helping others use technology in the classroom. When you join a group in Second Life you are invited to meetings. Most groups meet once a week and will send reminders to their members to attend. Some groups ask there members what they would like to talk about. Using Second Life is a great way to communicate and share ideas with others.

RSS in Education

Web 2.0 technologies are helpful to educators in multiple ways. RSS is beneficial to teachers not only because it saves time but it also allows you to be in control of the news you read. Personalized information from newsfeeds, blogs, wikis and Podcats are being sent right to your desktop using RSS feeds. In this blog, you will find numerous ways RSS can be used in the classroom.

http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/Web2TL/rssfeeds.html What is an RSS feed? RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication. Getting started with RSS feeds will only take a few minutes. Educators should have their students using RSS feeds from the beginning of the school year to see the full benefits. Getting started is easy and you only need an email address to get the benefits of RSS feeds. First, students should sign up for a reader like (http://www.google.com/reader ). Then you are able to go to websites and click on the RSS icon to begin receiving updates.

http://technological-teaching-aids.suite101.com/article.cfm/educational_uses_for_rss_feeds Teachers are not the only one benefiting from RSS feeds. Administrators in the school setting are catching on to the benefits of RSS feeds. For instance what if one administrator was in charge of 15 schools. Instead of checking all 15 websites, he or she can subscribe to the feed and read all of the updates on one page.

http://www.feedforall.com/academia-and-rss.htm suggests students should monitor for scholarship opportunities using RSS feeds. Parents of students who are getting ready for college can find feeds and Podcasts about final aid at http://www.educational-feeds.com. Parents can also listen to feeds about school news or any other changes going on concerning the school.

http://www.articlebiz.com/article/258154-1-rss-the-future-of-e-learning/ discusses the question, are RSS feeds going to be the future of e-learning? Downes says in his article "An Introduction to RSS for Educational Designers" that "the distribution of content over the Internet will look a lot more like an RSS network than... an enterprise content management system." The reason why is because using RSS feeds costs less money than a content management system and they can find much more content.

http://www.teachinghacks.com/index.php?s=RSS+ideas+for+educators. Instead of using paper journals, teacher can have students blog about their experiences. As a teacher, you can subscribe to their blogs and then their blogs are sent directly to your computer. This eliminates keeping 30 journals in a classroom. When student blog, the comment feature easily allows other student to comment on their classmates blogs.

http://www.slideshare.net/leonardstern/rss-in-education lists ways to use RSS in the classroom. Teachers can create bookmarks of content related websites using De.lic.io.us.com and then syndicate them. Students can also take pictures of class projects and use Flickr.com to syndicate photos. It is also possible to take a textual feed and using talker.com or feed2podcast.com can let a student listen. This is great for students who prefer to hear the notes rather than reading. Teachers can also show students how to combine their feeds by using feedshake.com or rrsmix.com. Students can have their to do lists sent through a feed by using Rememberthemilk.com or Tadalist.com.

Podcasting in Education

Many students today own an IPod and it would be a shame not to utilize all of the capabilities of an IPod. Not enough educators are taking advantage of Podcasting. Podcasting can include audio files, visual files, documents or a combination of the three. Podcasting only requires minimal training to learn how to make. It is an excellent ways for teachers to archive their lesson plans. This is a great way to look back on lesson plans and make improvements or additions. Some helpful links to help educators learn about Podcasting are listed below.

http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/100-ways-to-use-your-ipod-to-learn-and-study-better showcases the many ways students can use their IPods for educational benefits. Study guides and flash cards can be downloaded to an IPod. The disadvantage is some of the supplemental material like study guides and flash cards are not always free. This supplemental material is downloadable but can range in price from $9.99 down to $1.99. The benefits of using Podcasts can be for any age group. Even Sesame Street is offering 6 free Podcasts available via ITunes.

http://www.epnweb.org/index.php?view_mode=about if anyone is thinking of starting their own podcasting, they should visit the site just mentioned. Teachers may be surprised to see the content that is already being Podcasted about. There are numerous websites dedicated for teachers to add their Podcasts so other teachers can access and use them for their own classroom. Adding your own classroom material to a collaborative website is a great way to show you are serious about using technology in your classroom and you are networking with others that share your same interests.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/podcasts/fanfaq.html You do not have to have an IPod to view a Podcast. A Podcast can be viewed on a computer and an IPod. Any radio broadcast and lecture can be converted to the AAS format. This allows video and images to be played simultaneously. IPods also allows you to download Podcasts with documents. An IPod cannot view a PDF file but you are able to open the corresponding PDF on your computer.

http://www.apple.com/education/teachers-professors/mobile-learning.html Many teachers are afraid to use new technology in the classroom because they don’t know how to create proper learning material with a new technology. Teachers need to realize that a lot of the students they teach probably have access to the Internet right in their pocket. Some High schools and Universities are already using Podcasting to reach their students. As soon as a professor is done with a lecture, he or she has the ability to submit their lecture and that gives students the opportunity to download and listen to that lecture on the go.

Delicious in Education

Web 2.0 technologies are making a great impact on education today. Social bookmarking is a great way for students to start organizing their bookmarks now so that they will be able to locate those bookmarks from any computer. Being able to access bookmarks from any computer can have many educational benefits.

For any educator getting ready to use Delicious in the classroom should refer to http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-use-delicious-like-a-pro the article has step-by-step tutorials on how to use the site. There are also accompanying screenshots for those who enjoy a pictorial tutorial. After reading the article any teacher can walk away with numerous ways to use Delicious in the classroom. Some examples are how to create a network, subscribing to a tag and bundling your tags.

Teaching students proper research techniques is essential for creating quality work. Students through the use of Delicious, can search for bookmarks that have been saved by scholars in designated areas. This makes Delicious useful for any subject matter. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/delicious lists several other ways to include Delicious in the classroom. Delicious allows students to tag their bookmarks and even search for their classmate’s bookmarks. This would be an effective way for students to collaboratively research a designated topic.

Giving students access to the best resources on the Web is beneficial due to the fact that it cuts down on research time. Delicious allows students to see which bookmarks are the most popular. Obviously, if a student sees one bookmark that 150 people find interesting, that student would feel confident in that source. http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/top-10-ways-to-use-delicious.html If a student wants to be extra specific in their search they can type in key terms. For example a student could include four terms in their search, this is how a student would type the search into Delicious, http://del.icio.us/tag/organization+GTD+office+tools.

Another educational benefit to Delicious is the ability to see the profiles of the person who created the bookmark. This can allow students to find other people who share the same hobbies or interests. http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSocia/156804 also reflects on the down side to Delicious. Since Delicious is a free resource anyone can join and tag their bookmarks. This can lead poor tagging. Poor tagging can lead a student to a bad resource. Another problem, a student could be persuaded by a biased member. This is a problem because a student may not want to research or find it necessary to read about the other side of the issue.

Some additional educational advantages to Delicious are listed at http://www.scribd.com/doc/212002/Using-delicious-In-Education. A benefit for teachers using Delicious is that they can look at their students bookmarks to gain knowledge of student interests. This knowledge can be a benefit when making future lesson plans. When students learn how to tag their bookmarks, they are learning organizational skills. This is a big advantage to students with organizational problems. Teachers can tag specific bookmarks for group/individual student projects. The bookmarks made available can be used as a starting point for the research process. This is another way to support learners who need help with their organizational skills.

Using Twitter In Education

Twitter has become a new technology tool that is being used by just about everyone. Flipping through the TV channels you hear celebrities talking about their latest tweets. Driving down the street, the local video rental store’s sign displays, “Follow us Twitter.” Twitter is also being used as an educational tool. Can Twitter be an effective teaching tool? This blog will look at ways to use Twitter in the classroom.

Watching Twitter being used in an actual teaching environment is a great start to seeing if Twitter is right for your classroom. http://vodpod.com/watch/1497715-twitter-in-the-classroom In this video a high school from Minnesota is showing how students use Twitter in the classroom. One teacher reported that using Twitter has helped her students by keeping them engaged and learning how to express their thoughts more clearly. The administration is also making sure students are up to date with current technology because they feel it is important to future success in the workplace.

Reading blogs from professors using Twitter is another effective way to see if Twitter is right for your classroom. http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2699/a-professors-tips-for-using-twitter-in-the-classroom At first, David Parry didn’t see any educational benefit to Twitter but he decided to try it anyway. He found out right away that Tweeting helped to build a sense of community in his classes. He also brought up a negative aspect to Tweeting. Some students had to pay a text-messaging fee every time they had a tweet sent to their phone. Reading the professor's blog also gives the reader the opportunity to read comments left by other teachers. Teachers may find the responses left by the readers of the blog may be more beneficial than the actual blog itself.

Teachers today are very lucky to have the benefits of Web 2.0 technologies. http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_118cfb8msf8 This is a collaborative presentation made by teachers using Twitter in the classroom. It is shows 25 ways to creatively use Twitter in the classroom. A benefit to watching this presentation is that the viewer is exposed to screenshots, tutorials and new tools to make Twitter better. For example the website, Twitterfall, can let a student watch real-time tweets fall from the top of the page of the latest and most popular trends on Twitter. Students can customize and search for the Tweets they want displayed. http://twtpoll.com/new.php is a quick way to poll your students and with http://beta.twiddeo.com/ students can tweet with video. These are a few examples of how the presentation shows Twitter as an effective educational tool.

The British government is seeing the benefits of using Twitter in education. They are proposing that primary students should be taught the core subjects plus media and web-based technology. Teaching primary students blogging, podcasting and teaching with Twitter is making the biggest change in primary schooling the British government has seen in the past ten years. http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/please-sir-how-do-you-re-tweet-twitter-to-be-taught-in-uk-primary-schools/

With all of the good reasons for using Twitter, there has to be some bad reasons to using it in the classroom. http://www.scribd.com/doc/2286799/Can-we-use-Twitter-for-educational-activities brings up some points that need to be considered if teachers are thinking about using Twitter in the classroom. Having students and getting parents used to this new technology can be a long frustrating process. Tweeting during a lesson may be too distracting for students with disabilities. Students tweeting each other can impede learning and lead to off-task behavior. Teachers may feel pressured to check or respond to tweets outside of the classroom.

Please check back soon for Using Delicious in Education.

Blogging about Blogging

Hello! My name is Karen and this is my first blog. I looked through five different articles about using blogging in the classroom. I came across that blogs are being used in the classroom setting a lot more than I thought. The second article I read about using blogs in the classroom reported, “51.5% of all blogs are being developed and maintained by ages 13–19.” (Henning, 2003) I have not used blogging in my classroom yet but after reading these articles, many ideas of way I could incorporate blogging started emerging. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to the Blogoshere


This is an excellent article for any teacher that is not familiar to blogging and may be looking into using it in their classroom. The article clearly describes the origin of blogging and how it has evolved into an effective teaching tool. It gives not only examples of how teachers can use blogging in the classroom but also suggests that teachers can use blogging to collaborate with teachers from other school districts. A few main suggestions this article gives on how blogging can be used in the classroom are: instructional resources, collaborative tools, and showcases for student projects.

The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom

This article would be great for administrators or teachers interested in increasing the usage of literacy strategies in the classroom. It walks you through the study of their hypothesis, can blogs be an important addition to educational technology and promote literacy in the classroom? It makes the reader understand the importance of literacy in children and adolescent development. It gives suggestions on how to use blogs across several disciplines. Concluding, the article calls for more research to be conducted and suggests that blogging will be even more popular than it is right now.

Think blogs are a passing fad?

This article would be more for a first time teacher looking into using blogs in the classroom. It gives a personal account of how on teacher uses blogging in his classroom. It also touches on safety concerns and blogging. Richardson (2004) stresses, “We can keep our students safe with thoughtful teaching and clear policy.” Multiple examples of how to use blogs for educational purposes were also included in this article.


Blog On: Building Communication and Collaboration Among Staff and Students

This article begins by reminding us that blogs started out more for personal use and are now being used as an effective teaching tool. Poling (2005) states, “Blogging as a classroom application allows for enhanced comprehension and communication among students as well as the ability to build deeper understanding across the curriculum. This article goes into detail about the different types of blogging students can use. It then gives a detailed example of how to use each type of blog in the classroom. Some examples of the different types of blogs are: blogging to support learning, individual blogs, classroom blog and collaborative blogs.


'Blogs’ Catching On as Tool for Instruction

This article is a lot like the previous article I reviewed. It is written for any teacher thinking about using blogs in the classroom. It gives many reasons why blogging is helping students become more creative in their writing. It is has opinions and examples from multiple teachers using blogs in the classroom. This article is also useful for obtaining ideas on how to use blogging in the classroom.