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Winners of AADES Awards for 2011

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:34:29 GMT

Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools Australasian Awards

Recognised Excellence in Distance Education at the 2011 ADDES Conference in Hobart.

Winners of AADES Awards for 2011

AADES Australasian Distance Education Project Award winner is Skoolaborate / Art Crimes – Mark Kent DECV, Susan Connell CSDE, Chris Knowlman BSDE.

This award is presented annually to a school, chapter or support organisation which has been judged to have developed a project or program that has been outstanding in providing improved educational opportunities for distance education students at a school level.

This has been a collaborative project between 3 schools the Distance Education Centre of Victoria, Cairns School of Distance Education and Brisbane School of Distance Education, and targeted students aged 15-17, to provide engaging, collaborative learning experiences. The partnership has researched, explored, discussed, shared and created an online learning environment. The aim of the project was to build bridges across the three schools involved and foster learning for both students and teachers. It has explored a unique approach to flexible and online learning in a virtual (in-world) learning space.

The project has focused on values, culture, beliefs and transitions within curriculum areas.

Skoolaborate is a global initiative that uses a blend of technologies including, blogs, online learning, wikis and ‘virtual worlds’ to transform learning. The three SDEs have collaboratively designed online units of work for students’ use. They have provided opportunities for students to access information about values, cultures, beliefs and transitions and view tasks embedded within each concept. The project has created integrated curriculum and digital technologies into collaborative actions.

45 students from the three Distance Education schools participated in the Art Crimes/ Skoolaborate initiative. The Skoolaborate project has been successful in achieving the goal of improving educational outcomes for our Distance Education students – particularly those who are disadvantaged by geographical isolation, medical issues and/or lack of opportunity for social interaction. The diverse nature of the students and the communities they represent have added a distinct richness to the learning experience.

AADES Australasian Distance Education Teaching Excellence Award winner is Clare Schinkel

This award recognises an exemplary classroom practitioner who displays outstanding school based leadership. Clare has been involved in a number of projects that have promoted distance education and particularly Brisbane School of Distance Education (BSDE) to the broader regional community. A recent project she has designed, implemented and is now leading other is the Dotcom Kids project for gifted and extension students in upper primary. This has been adopted by six mainstream schools in the local area. One of the major attractions of this project was that it addressed the need to cater for gifted and talented students. This project is not only supporting students but also building partnerships with teachers and administrators as they grapple with implementing digital technologies and pedagogies - Clare's key strengths. BSDE is now seen as a guiding light for these schools in this area of curriculum development and delivery.

AADES Australasian Distance Education Gold Award winner is Jan Kelly

This is AADES’s most distinguished annual award, granted to a distance educator whose contribution to school level distance education is assessed as outstanding. Jan is a leader and teacher of distance education whose contribution to school level distance education has covered 20 years. Jan has had a number of roles including leadership of Face to Face, Curriculum, Professional Development, Languages and Student Materials Development. She has a wealth of knowledge, expertise and passion and will be a loss to distance education with her retirement at the end of this year. Jan has a clear vision for distance education and she is able to excite others to join her. Jan’s strengths lie in her understanding of curriculum at many levels and flexibility in approach to teaching. She is student centred and constantly exploring ways to maximize the learning opportunities for students. She is able to see opportunities provided by technology and lead the implementation. Jan is collaborative and develops partnerships with relevant people both inside her own school and external organizations.

With the closure of Access Media (statewide curriculum development unit) Open Access College had to take on an unfamiliar role. Jan successfully led Open Access College in the establishment of a materials development unit. The transition to a more flexible, responsive, on-line model included the challenge of cultural change for many staff.

Jan has been an active member of AADES for many years and an executive member for 4 years. She has utilised the AADES network to benefit all distance providers. She has a strong commitment to sharing and working collaboratively across Australasia. She was inaugural member of FLX, AADES collaborative resource mode and participated in projects with the NT, WA and the VET Business Certificate consortia. Jan was the key person to ensuring this success of 2008 AADES Australasian conference hosted by SA

AADES Australasian Distance Education Presidential Citation winner is Marcia Harvey

This award is to be given to those who in the opinion of the President, and their colleagues, have made an outstanding recent contribution to AADES.To be considered for a Presidential Citation the nominee must have made a significant contribution to:

- furthering the goal of AADES

- advancing AADES’s organisational development

Much of Marcia’s work has not been seen outside of the AADES Executive. However, her impact on the organization has been huge. Marcia has been involved in distance education as a teacher and Assistant Principal and in taking the lead in the development of learning materials for distance and regular schools in the NT. She currently leads the ICT4 Learning unit tasked with the development of the use of ICT for learning across all schools in the NT. Marcia joined the AADES Executive in 2005; she has been an advocate for AADES over that time. She was secretary for 4 years. She has been instrumental in the development of FLX, a process of collaborative curriculum development between AADES member schools. She has also led the participating teams in the NT. Marcia was also been an active member of the National Materials Development Network advocating for working across jurisdictions in the sharing and development of high quality materials for students in a distance learning environment. Marcia led the successful organization for the AADES Leaders Conference in Darwin. Marcia has worked at a political level within the NT and Australasia wide to support the AADES agenda. She is a team member and is passionate about the work she does. Marcia has high expectations of herself and the projects that she leads. She has successfully made a difference to education in the NT and to AADES.

Art Crimes wins National Award

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:28:12 GMT

The Skoolaborate team consisting of Mark Kent Assistant Principal of the Distance Education Centre Victoria, Susan Connell, Head of Senior School at Cairns School of Distance Education and Chris Knowlman, Head of Department, Virtual and School Services Brisbane School of Distance Education presented Skoolaborate / Art Crimes project at The Hutchins School on the first day of the ADDES conference in Hobart. We addressed a full house who braved the cold and the long walk up the steep hill to attend. The group included teachers, educators, industry professionals and students from Hutchinson school. The presentation showcased the success of the project over the last eighteen months featuring: • the teaching and learning environment in Skoolaborate. • the website that houses all the online units shared on a global scale with Skoolaborate partners. • how we used blended experiences and learning to engage and improve students outcomes. • the importance of developing relationships and building community. • the Art Crimes project successfully exploring Values Education via blend of face to face and innovative virtual experiences. • teachers taking risks in their approaches to teaching and learning. • data that highlighted the engagement and improvement of students’ outcomes. • video clips from industry, parents and students giving 100 % positive feedback. • the increased investment of leaders to actively create national partnerships. • a virtual tour around our Art crimes precinct displaying the amazing landscape and the students’ resolved art work. The presentation concluded with our vision for the future ….Watch this space!!!!!!!!!

Virtual School Update: SEGUK

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:14:31 GMT

The future development of our home town, Bordon in Hampshire Uk, is uncertain. An ‘army’ town; the original government promise was to redevelop Bordon as an ‘Eco Town’ on the massive abandoned lands that the army will vacate when it is redeployed elsewhere in five years time. Plans made to re develop the infrastructure, the schools and housing stock, have been in full flow and forwarded for public debate and approval. Recent political change has placed some uncertainty over the future project, but hopes are still high, that despite inevitable cuts, our secondary school campus at least, will be given the green light for rebuilding and modernisation.

From the perspective of Mill Chase Community Technology College, as our local community secondary school, these plans for redevelopment have been exciting and two possible sites have been ear marked by planners for this purpose. Children of all ages and a wide range of local institutions have been involved in joint projects to plan and debate what they would like to have in their local ‘secondary school of the future’, and teachers have been have been investing their time and energy into innovative collaborative work between schools.

One such venture is the ‘virtual school’ collaboration between Mill chase Community Technology College and it’s local feeder schools. Using ICT and virtual world technology feeder schools are encouraged to upload project work about hopes and aspirations for a secondary school of the future, via the ‘Bordon Cluster VLE’ to the secondary school virtual building team, who build in a Second Life region owned by the Australian based Skoolaborate organisation. Work is installed by the virtual world student team into their self made futuristic 3D school and onto the walls of virtual classrooms each dedicated to one of the feeder schools. Once complete, in-world Fraps video techniques bring the feeder school projects to life, as the virtual world team film project work in situ and download the Fraps videos back to the feeder schools again, via the Bordon cluster Moodle vle. Hopes to utilise Sloodle technology lie ahead for the team in the New Year, which will simplify this kind of in-world and real world communication.

Even after 3 years in Skoolaborate the teenagers originally involved still remain enthusiastic about the technology and can see the potential of crossing spatial and temporal boundaries as they communicate within a virtual space whilst learning a host of IT skills including team work, scripting, co-ordination, building, communication, and presentational skills. Three years in the making, the virtual school is developing into a popular destination for inquisitive Sl avatars from around the globe, as well as from local schools in Hampshire and Surrey. Collaborative projects like ‘virtual school’ have become a means to bringing together educational organisations into a joint collaborative project, exciting and innovative and attractive to all age groups.

Chris WoodICT subject leader

SK & AADES National Partnership

Fri, 27 May 2011 12:12:54 GMT

While Antoine met the Victorian students at Melbourne airport and Chris met his Queensland group at Brisbane airport Susan, Daniel and I prepared the outdoor area where we would physically construct the mural and menu planned with chef Yoss and checked out the sleeping quarters.

The kids arrived around 3pm dumped their bags and we did the introductions.

Interestingly many of the students had met in Skoolaborate but not in Real-Life. It didn't take long for those that had already met in the Art Crimes area to connect the dots and reconnect like old friends. Fascinating stuff.

Student: "Oh, you're that large avatar that I was talking to the other day in Art Crimes"

Outside the students checked out the physical space where we'd spend the next 4 days working and unloaded the bare panels and leaned them against the fence so you could see the scale of the mural. As the work progressed the mural grew in our Skoolaborate space. Check the gallery down below for visuals.

Our fabulous chef Yoss who kept us all fed and catered for the carnivores, the vegetarians and the kosher among us.

Wally spent time with the students mapping out concepts and sketching their thoughts on the whiteboard before it was time to transfer some of these basic designs to the panels outside and the panels in Skoolaborate / Art Crimes.

The students were amazing and they worked together on creating, tweaking and developing their designs. As they worked we live streamed 2 hours a day using a basic laptop and a webcam with a reasonable degree of success back to our schools and over the Internet. Parents and teachers were able to see the students at work.

Apart from learning skills in photoshop, photo impact, paint, elements of graphic design, spatial relations, area, etc our virtual world has proved a fantastic vehicle for developing relationships, building community and providing opportunities for meaning communication.

Over the next four days the students worked tirelessly on their piece under the tutorlidge of Wally. Just looking over the gallery photos provide a snapshot (pardon the pun) of the level of their engagement.

On Friday morning with half an hour to spare we downed tools and stood back to admire our collaborative work.

Yoss had prepared a sumptuous feast for the inveiling of the mural by Assistant Regional Director Richard Huilen and around 11.30 Art Crimes was officially presented to the community.

The unveiling was covered in the newspaper, channel 7 and live streamed to the world.

In the afternoon the kids - who had by now become firm friends - said their goodbyes and flew home. Promising to meet again soon in Skoolaborate and continue the story.

Can't wait to see what eventuates.

Teen Work

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 17:02:44 GMT

Last night I spent some time in Skoolaborate for the first time since it has moved onto the main grid. My login has only just been sorted! Skoolaborate teachers were invited to see the work that has been done by a group of teens. The students were there, ready and more than willing to show off their work and even though they were teens they were very childlike in the demands to looks at their poster next! They were anxious to talk about their work and their experiences. I was very moved by what I saw. On the surface it is a simple, but very well presented poster display, but the notecards given by the posters were very distressing and clearly were inspired by first hand experiences. After writing about their experiences the students had done research and suggested ways to cope and move forward.

Short quotations from the posters...

SMACK!!!!
My mom once experienced domestic violence when she was married to my sister’s dad. She told me that one day she and my sister’s dad got in an argument. When he smacked her so hard that she started dripping blood from her nose. She was wearing glasses so they scraped her nose really hard.

If you’re Latino you won’t be able to get to college because you are going to drop out. That’s how people talk about us. They also call us wetbacks and lazy. They don’t think we deserve an education.

My grandfather died from drinking alcohol. I was 10 years old when my mom told me the story. I felt sad but at the same time mad. I know that alcohol is bad for everyone. I always wondered why he had to drink to his death.

So many people don’t even care about what they do to the earth. For example the factory that burns many things, the smoke is changing the weather. Ok, what about me? You? What are we doing to kill our planet?

It was a Saturday night. I knew something bad was going to happen. My dad was out with his friends drinking. I was with my sisters in the room when. All of a sudden, I heard, “BOOM!” the door closed real hard.

Smack!!!! My older sister got hit by her future husband. My sister started to cry. Her husband told her to stop crying. I got my little baby niece out of the room but I was too afraid to go in the room.

I have seen bald eagles and their tree’s have been cut down. And bald eagles build there nests in houses. Or in city lights around neighborhoods. Because there trees have been cut down and they have no homes.

The statistics for domestic violence and alcohol related problems where they live are horrifying. These are teens.... it is so sad that they have to live through these things :-(

by Carol Rainbow via Carol's thoughts on life, ICT, and whatever comes...

Art Crimes by AADES

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:02:40 GMT

I am writing to you in my capacity as the Assistant Principal of the Distance Education Centre Victoria (DECV), executive member of the Australasian Association of Distance Education Schools (AADES) and co-leader of an innovative collaborative national curriculum project called Art Crimes.

Art Crimes is a project currently being successfully implemented using ICT and Virtual Worlds. The project involves a small team of Queensland and Victorian leaders and teachers as a National Partnership. In 2010, Susan Connell (Cairns SDE) Chris Knowlman (Brisbane SDE) and I successfully secured an AADES Innovation Research Grant to develop the Skoolaborate a SecondLife project. The development of Skoolaborate was further supported by Susan securing PCAP funding.

As with all cutting edge technologies and programs, there are teething problems and setbacks that would deter even the most enthusiastic educator and technician. Not so with this group. Every setback, roadblock and piece of departmental red tape was worked through, worked around or renegotiated. The level of support provided to each member of the team by their individual schools executive and collectively by AADES has been very much appreciated and vital to the success of the project.

Research indicates that eLearning is the fastest growing educational sector worldwide and technology is an important tool in facilitating changes to education that will improve outcomes for students. The Skoolaborate project involves our three schools, and aims to explore different pedagogical approaches to flexible and online learning. It involves students directly in the project and in a new learning experience.

Project outline:

The project focuses on values, culture, beliefs and transitions across curriculum areas.

Skoolaborate is a global initiative that centres on a ‘virtual world’ but involves a blend of technologies including, blogs, online learning, wikis and the virtual world to transform learning. We used these tools with the aim of providing engaging collaborative learning experiences for students aged between 14 and 17 years. The three distance education schools have collaboratively designed online units of work for students’ use.

The Skoolaborate project has directly provided opportunities for students to access information about values, cultures, beliefs and transitions and view tasks set in line with each concept. We have endeavoured to blend real world and in-world experiences to make learning more meaningful and engaging. The project integrates curriculum and digital technologies into collaborative actions.

The virtual world ensures discussion and contribution by all students participating, no matter where they log in from. Everyone can contribute and positively feedback to others working within the online / inworld community. We anticipate that over time the units of work will be modified by the students as well as the teachers and will grow to reflect the diverse nature of our communities.

Skoolaborate - our virtual learning space is secure and accessible only via invitation. Students from the three Distance Education Schools have been invited to participate. We began with a group of students from Cairns SDE. We have used our initial experiences to improve the skills and understanding essential in achieving our goal of improving educational outcomes for our students – particularly those who are disadvantaged by geographical isolation, medical issues and/or lack of opportunity for social interaction. Last week students at Brisbane SDE worked with a recognised expert in graphic arts and graffiti culture as well as your expert teaching staff from BSDE and CSDE and me to successfully deliver and engage the students in a very powerful program of learning. I have included some of the students’ artwork in the Virtual World at the end of this correspondence so that you are able to see some of the outcomes of their labours.
On March 10th and 11th fifteen of our Victorian Distance Education students will participate in the Skoolaborate / Art Crimes project and continue the work begun in Cairns and further developed in Brisbane.

In May, five students from each of the three distance education schools will meet in Cairns at the CSDE for a four day workshop that will see them collaborate and produce a real world 3.6m x 2.4m graffiti wall that will be simultaneously developed in our Art Crimes area inworld. This collaboration will be streamed live via the web to each student’s school and also be accessed via the AADES website.

In summary, teachers’ expertise in this project aims to improve engagement and explore new pedagogical approaches to flexible and on-line learning for all students. Skoolaborate / Art Crimes has directly contributed to building a culture of collaboration across distance education schools that will continue to grow as we embrace the challenges of the national curriculum.

Skoolaborate is an international partnership that promotes professional learning and sharing amongst distance educators. It has created opportunities for educators to network with others in like schools across the AADES membership. AADES was formed in 1993 and currently has in excess of 1200 members in all Australian states, New Zealand, Asia, North America, and Europe.

Our pilot project has brought together students, support staff and teachers from three of the (AADES) Distance Education Schools. The research outcomes associated with the project will be published and the learning shared with all AADES schools. The Art Crimes project is now getting some attention from school communities overseas that are exploring teaching and learning in virtual environment. The potential to build a global community is here now.

One possible scenario

A recent addition to our build in Skoolaborate / SecondLife is a virtual studio and gallery and who knows, by establishing a Studio in Art Crimes and exploring some connections to the business and arts worlds we not only bring realism to the virtual environment but ultimately we may provide greater access for young people to engage in the Arts in a Second Life model in partnership with artists and industry.

Evaluation

Take a four minute tour and hear from a parent and students about their experience at:

http://www.wpsvideo.com.au/work/Brisbane%20Skoolaborate%202011.wmv

Specific acknowledgment and thanks to:

Cairns SDE –
Susan Connell / Alison Butler / Principal: Doug Quadrio

Brisbane SDE –
Chris Knowlman / Eileen Furlonger / Janelle Cameron / Sue Michelmore / Principal: Neil McDonald

Distance Education Centre Victoria –
Antoine Toniolo / Matt Auman / Yang Huang / Justin DeLima / Principal: Bronwyn Stubbs

Regards
Mark Kent
Assistant Principal
Distance Education Centre Victoria

Travel and Youth Activism

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:07:13 GMT

On December 1, 2010, the World Affairs Council hosted an event in the Skoolaborate Social Action Forum. We were very happy to have students in the Seattle area as well as students and educators in Sydney logged in to participate!

Our expert speaker, Greg Tuke, challenged participants to think about how to maximize their learning during travel opportunities. Students offered wonderful suggestions, including this idea from Joyce: “Well, one thing I've learned to do is try to see what people around me are doing and copy them so that I can experience how their lives are. Like walking more or taking a bus, instead of getting in taxis all the time. It's good to get outside of your comfort zone.”

We also learned about Mercy Corps’ Global Citizen Corps program, which helps young people around the world learn leadership skills, spread the word about root causes of global issues, and mobilize others to make a difference. Greg shared photos from his recent trip to Gaza and Iraq, where young Global Citizen Corps members are truly thinking globally and acting locally with projects that range from blood drives to civic education to tree planting. Very inspiring!

Lastly, we watched a short video that touched on stereotypes about Muslims in the Middle East and challenged us to look beyond those stereotypes and see all that we have in common. If you missed the event, please check out these videos:

“Generation Islam” (YouTube, 3 minutes): CNN's Christiane Amanpour interviews youth in Gaza who participate in Mercy Corps' Global Citizen Corps.
“Us and Them” (YouTube, 8 minutes): This very lively, youth-made, 8-minute video from Global Citizen Corps features youth in Gaza talking about how they view Western civilization and what they admire in Western culture (especially sports, arts, punctuality, and technology). Great to use with a club or class!

This event was a terrific example of learning together. Both adults and students shared ideas and gave book recommendations to help us extend our learning. Skoolaborate members may look on the Google group to find a resource document that includes those recommendations as well a list of links for students who are interested in global issues. (See especially the resource packet in #11 if you have students who are interested in travel or study abroad opportunities.)

Once again, we found that the Skoolaborate community and the virtual world technology allow us to bring people together for global learning in ways that we could not otherwise do.

Thanks to all the participants!
If you have any questions, or would like to receive a copy of the hand-out, please contact Laura at the World Affairs Council at ladriance@world-affairs.org

Using Skoolaborate in Rural Schools

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:53:20 GMT

The Frontier Learning Network superintendent and assistant superintendent are presenting this week at the Oregon School Boards Association conference in Portland. The theme of the presentation is Expanding Course Offerings in Rural Schools. Located in a rural and remote area of Oregon where the four-legged animals outnumber the two-legged ones, some high schools only have enough students to justify four teachers. There is no combination of teaching licenses and endorsements which would enable those four teachers to provide for all students the courses needed for a basic graduation diploma, let alone the variety of quality educational opportunities available for students in the area.

Fifteen years ago, the local educational leaders began brainstorming ways to collaborate and offer alternative approaches to expand course offerings. They began a cutting-edge approach using technology, and what we now refer to as hybrid or blended delivery, to allow teachers highly qualified in business, computers, health sciences, and natural resources to offer courses to students in six school districts in a 3700 square mile area. With the use of high-tech mobile classrooms, interactive video conferencing, itinerant teachers, these courses were a great boon to the area.

As a side note, you may ask why health sciences and natural resources. Health sciences is because in this rural area, all emergency services are provided by volunteers—first aide, paramedics, first responders, firefighters. We wanted to be sure to train our own quite well. As for natural resources, we sit on top of the largest mammal fossil depository in the continental US. I may also note that the center of our area, Condon, is the home of two men who were awarded two Nobel Peace Prize winners.

As technology has grown and enhanced, we have embraced immersive environments, desktop share, group applications, and all kinds of collaboration opportunities. Our courses cover grades 3 through high school and into community education with a greatly expanded offering of courses. Also, we are now opening up our membership to the Frontier Learning Network to other schools. Our course and service offerings are covered in the presentations below.

Expanding Course Offerings OSBA 2010

View more presentations from Rinda Montgomery Conwell.

Contact Mike Carroll or Rinda Montgomery Conwell for more information.

Dobby's Airport

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 11:12:33 GMT

Dobby wrote:

"Second Life Airport was built by DobbySEGUK, it was built because i have a great interest in aviation and hope to become a pilot once i have finished college. The Airport as you can see from the photos is based on Airports i have visited over the past year, at the current time there is no arrivals area but there will soon be one. I erge avitars to fly in and out of this airport with their creations or package aircraft using the brand new, self made script which mimics ATC. I also hope you check out my new build which is the WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER which is in the amusement park area, you cant miss it!"

For those who haven't seen it yet, it's high above the Amusement Park, and a very cool replica of an airport complete with check-in area, baggage conveyor, and even some functional planes on the tarmac. Take a look at the gallery below to see some images taken from the build.

Virtual World Conference 2010

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:17:02 GMT

Westley and I attended this year's Virtual World Conference in Second Life as presenters to discuss pedagogy, experiences and how the dissolution of the Teen Grid affects the educational community. We tried to cover as many of our partner projects as possible in the time we were given, and left about 20 minutes for questions from the audience. The attendees seemed to be especially interested in the differences between teaching in a virtual space as opposed to a real classroom, and of course, what our thoughts were about Linden Lab's policy shift and the relaxation of the age limits on the Main Grid. Overall, it was a successful presentation, and if you are interested, please take a look at some of the videos captured during the event below.

Special thanks to our host, Claus Nehmzow for inviting us to speak, and congratulations on a successful conference!

FLN Update 2010

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:32:35 GMT

The Frontier Learning Network is a collaboration of schools in the Pacific Northwest of the United States focused on bringing hybrid-platform high-quality learning opportunities to member schools. Last year, we piloted our first venture project into incorporating digital/virtual worlds into our multiple platforms with a course entitled Emerging Technologies for Collaboration (ETC). We joined the Skoolaborate initiative the summer of 2009, and in June of 2010, the director of ETC presented at the Consortium of Oregon School Administrators. See her presentation videos below.

Out of that presentation, we added our newest school, a charter school just beginning this fall in collaboration with its local high school and community college with an emphasis on industrial sciences. This fall, 40 new students will be embedding the Emerging Technologies for Collaboration curriculum into their project-based learning model and entering Skoolaborate to learn initial skills, then go on to build and create projects. Their first assignment is to design their own learning space in physical reality in their new schools. We are exploring together what constitutes ideal conditions for learning and collaboration, and those concepts will make their way into Skoolaborate as models for consideration. We are excited to participate with this new venture as they explore Skoolaborate and learn and create together with our global community.

Rinda Montgomery Conwell
Assistant Superintendent
North Central Education Service District

Business as Usual

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 10:56:58 GMT

Today Linden Lab announced that they are closing the teen grid. This business decision helps them to refocus in order to become a more sustainable business long into the future. Personally, I thank Linden Lab for sticking with the teen grid for so long. The grid was never an area that made money for the company. The support the Linden's provided education, via the provision of the platform, the forums and the teen grid itself, has provided a chance for us all to experience the fantastic benefits of virtual worlds in education.

Community has always been the strength of Skoolaborate. We have learning units of work that connect our partners around the world, we have processes and systems to make using virtual worlds as easy as possible, and we have a committed team who are very determined continue our success. What we have always said, at Skoolaborate, is that we will use the best systems available to deliver these learning opportunities to our students. At this point that 'best system' is Second Life. We have been and will continue to work with Linden Lab to explore the next option.

It is great to see that the Lindens have offered time and support to work with all of us to help us work through this time of transition. We will continue to work with Linden Lab and use our own research to ensure that our global community thrive. I feel confident that, when the time comes to change over, we will have made the best possible decision for our partners and students. I just hope we can either stay with the Lindens or find another solution that offers such amazing support and encouragement.

I would like to thank the Lindens for all the great times that they have provided us so far and for leading the way with virtual worlds. Their work has truly inspired educators and students world wide. Finally, one more thanks for the tremendous, thorough and professional support that the Lindens have provided to myself personally and to Skoolaborate over the years. I hope their business plans bring much deserved success and that somehow we can continue working together. Cheers to the pioneers.

To close I want to re assure our current members and future members that this is simply another challenge for us to learn from. The last 4 years have provided many such challenges and, together, we have converted them into exciting and stimulating learning opportunities. This is yet another opportunity. We will continue to provide the best possible learning opportunities for our students wordwide. I can't wait to see what that looks like.

Westley Field

NEW PARTNER: Sherbrooke Community School

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:59:16 GMT

Sherbrooke Community School is a P-12 alternative to neighbourhood schools. It is small, yet through its innovative structures, provides a comprehensive P-12 curriculum for a wide range of student abilities and aspirations.

Our overarching goal at Sherbrooke Community School is:

“To develop a school community of empathetic and critical thinking citizens with a sense of purpose and an ability to make an effective contribution to the world”

The guiding principle of Sherbrooke Community School is that the school is a cooperative endeavour involving students, parents and teachers in all areas of decision making and in all aspects of the school. A solid structure is in place to support communication and participation and to provide a decision making process that is transparent, efficient and accountable.
Innovative curriculum practices support the effective delivery of the state government current initiatives in Early Years literacy & numeracy, Middle Years student engagement & Later Years VET and VCE courses of study. Educators from around the world contact the school to gain insights into our innovative programs such as the “Connected Curriculum”, “Roundtable” Student Assessments and our democratic teaching and learning practices.

SEGUK 2009-2010 Review

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:06:01 GMT

Overview

It has been an interesting year for SEGUK schools, characteriesed by the consolidation of existing projects and attempting to attract more schools and students. In fact we have had a drop-off in student numbers but those students have been more actively engaged than last year. We have also had new schools join and a lot more members of staff, including volunteers who have been helping with language teaching and machinima projects. We have also hired in a developer to do some SLoodle development that has allowed us to create some interesting language learning tools that interface with a Moodle platform, a virtual learning environment that a lot of Secondary schools use here in the UK.

Ahoy

Virtual School Build

After a busy year in Skoolaborate the "building team" are well underway constructing their first 'VIRTUAL SCHOOL' of the future based on 'Building Schools for the Future' guidelines. Once the school is built the collaboration already under way between our secondary school and its local junior schools, will really come into play. Ongoing meetings have been arranged for younger students to exchange ideas and present their work on Bordon Eco-town to install into the virtual building, whilst the building team is 'up and ready' at the sharp end to postion and place the material in-world.

The year has been full of collaborative and training events, such as skills-based construction lessons from Ahoy, Clairdustykins, Dobby and Mudblud, and joint membership between the building team and Britta's Machinima group. The virtual lands have had many visitors from all over the world such as Canada, South America and Portugal, our World Leader and his team have endeavoured to make them very welcome and to guide them around the site. The team has made numerous presentations to governors, teachers, county architects, local councillors and other students in various schools. All have been stunned by the quality of work produced!!

As teachers we have been thrilled by the way students have taken to the concept of virtual learning and are now almost completely independent in their progress. The Virtual Team leaders have learned scripting; importing Google sketchup files into Second Life; creating, buying and selling clothes and buildings to other Skoolaborate members, in what could

become a small 'economy' in its own right!! Now that the present Sl team is experienced with some members moving on to higher education, it is time to teach the younger enthusiasts what they have learned, and next academic year it will be their responsibility to pass their knowledge on.

MillwoodMC

Lingualand - teaching and learning languages

Lingualand is nearing completion and attracting much interest from the Second Life community!

There are 3 main sections for each language 'parcel' of land:

(1) The teaching chalet.

Here, learners can interact with each other and their teacher, and .. most importantly .. with objects which relay their activitiy to a Moodle site.

Elektra has had tution from Fire on how to set all this up. In summary, the moodle site can generate a script which is placed into the SL objects thereby getting them 'talking to each other'.

Pupils enter the chalet and click on the registration booth. This automatically links them to the Moodle which can keep a record of their activities and successes.

A Vending machine allows them to collect any items which the tecaher wants themn to have .. a written task . a sloodle T shirt .. or even a Galaxy Cow!

Once clicked, the chat console will send a record of any text chat made during a session .. great for keeping a record of what has been done an dfor letting peopel who cannot be in Second Life feel part of it all.

Assignements can be easily posted into the Assignments box .. making it an easy job for learners to submit them, and teachers to collect them.

Golden cups await you in the 'Scavenger Hunt' corner .. just pick up a clue which will take you to the next cup, and with each cup found you will be rewarded with points! This can be a fun way of showing that you understand instructions written in different langauges, gives you some physical activity, and could take you on an interesting tour of all teat Skoolaborate has to offer!

Take the modern, glass elevator to the next floor where you will find some sloodle quiz chairs. Sit on one and answer the multichoice questions which appear bottom left. If correct, your chair will move up and your marks will be added to the scorebaord. Can you get the highest marks for the week?

Meet up with your teacher and frineds on the top floor to carry out quizzes which can be timed to give that little extra 'buzz'!

(2) Arcade games

Either take the elevator back down to the ground or walk off the roof ... and you will find yourself in the zone for playing arcade games. Thsi si where you can come even if noone else is there ... see how high a score you can get, and the person with the most points at the end of the week will win a prize!

(3) The beach!

Finally, you may want to chill out and relax in converstauion with others. So head for the beach where language areas are defined by flag-coded sun umbrellas and cushions! This is the most important part of the island .. we want people to enjoy themselves .. play games .. and talk!

ElektraAS

Machinima - 'Follow the digital road'

Work has begun on a new machinima with a team comprising students and staff from 3 SEGfL schools. Led by Britta, progress this year has been brisk and we already have a basic plot, a rather bizarre parody of 'The Wizard of Oz'.

This year we aim to use expertise of some of the staff to produce versions with audio in different languages e.g. French or Spanish.

The machinima group meets every Wednesday at 8 p.m.

What is the basic plot?

A new take on 'The Wizard of OZ'.

The two main characters, ordinary boy and girl, have been 'binge surfing' and get sucked into the Internet. As the two main characters follow the 'digital road' in this new world, they encounter a host of different characters in their individual settings/habitats.

In their search for a way home, the two main characters encounter both beauty and danger, in so doing discovering the truth about themselves...that the way home lies in their own hands and that there is nothing in life to discover...absolution lies within themselves.

Each setting/character is a metaphor for the possibilities that exist within the Internet...both good and bad.

Visit the Skoolaborate Machinima NIng website

Ahoy

Orientation Tower Upgrade

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:02:44 GMT

The main hall of the Orientation Tower has been simplified. Rather than posters of the partner school webpages and basic tutorials, we've added large panels explaining the movement controls. This should ensure that new avatars focus on learning to walk and fly first.

In addition, we've added some animated arrows to make it more clear where to go next. Avatars must still jump or fly up to the entrance, which presents a light mastery of the movement controls.

Inside each tower, the newbies will be presented with two options for their tasks. The left side is for those using Viewer 1, and the right side is for those using Viewer 2. The new panels are color-coded to match the application icon for each viewer, so it shouldn't be too difficult to know which version they are using.

There are only three short tasks in each level now rather than four or five. For Viewer 1 users, they can click on the panel and open up a webpage of the task tutorial in their browser. For Viewer 2 users, the tutorials are displayed using live webpages directly embedded on the panels. This means they can use the in-world browser controls to zoom into the page and scroll.

We've also added a Google Translate tool at the top of the page so that students of another language can change it into their native tongue. It's not perfect, but it should be sufficient to help them understand the task tutorial.

We had some issues in the previous Orientation Tower with the HUD. Sometimes teachers could not find it, and sometimes it was confusing to operate it. We've since changed the system so that anyone can advance to different levels in the Tower by right-clicking on green arrows and teleporting to the next room. This will allow the new avatars to progress through the tower at their own pace.

Now, at the back of the room, there are green arrows to teleport down, and red arrows to go back up.

So far, we've only had time to upgrade the Red tower, but in the next few days, I will be changing the Green, Blue, and Yellow towers as well. Hopefully this will make the orientation process much simpler and more efficient...

NEW PARTNER: University of the Incarnate Word Prep

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:01:59 GMT

UIW Prep is a unique, thoughtful and innovative online high school that welcomes students from all backgrounds. For more than 125 years, we have helped students attain their educational goals at the University of the Incarnate Word, and we are pleased to bring that sense of history and mission to UIW Prep. It is also our sincere hope that you will be strengthened in your faith by your interactions with us.

Students who complete the UIW Prep curriculum are well prepared to move on to challenging studies at the university level.

UIW Prep Philosophy

We are deeply rooted in the mission of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, and are dedicated to providing excellence through knowledge in the context of our Catholic faith. We believe that the integration of truth and values in a true faith-based curriculum distinguishes our community. We believe this integration stimulates the imagination, inquisitiveness, and interests of each individual student while teaching to the whole person.
We believe that UIW Prep provides students the opportunity to think critically, communicate effectively, and strive to achieve a level of excellence according to their own ability. We believe our rich history combined with our strong academic philosophy will prepare students for higher education and develop a sense of social and moral justice.

NEW PARTNER: Peace Corps International Project

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:51:08 GMT

Today's world is filled with many challenges. As a digital, global citizen in the 21st century, it is important to be informed, engaged, and internationally competent. The Peace Corps WorldWise Schools in partnership with Delaware's Department of Education have developed this dynamic, interactive online project to provide participants with experiences to develop understanding in real, worldwide issues. This exciting, virtual adventure will provide opportunities to collaborate with an international team to investigate real-world issues through research, data collection, analyzing and synthesizing information, and creatively presenting solutions to a panel of community leaders.

PROJECT GOALS

Through this virtual collaborative project, participants will:
Work collaboratively with peers from partnering countries to solve problems
Develop an awareness of global issues and how they impact all people
Develop an understanding of and appreciation for different cultural perspectives
Gather, synthesize, and present information
Use evidence to support an argument or opinion
Enhance knowledge of technology tools that promote communication and facilitate the sharing of information
Develop an understanding of volunteerism and how service to others forms the basis of good citizenship
Understand the mission and work of the Peace Corps and other World Wide organizations that promote services to others.

Mrs. Roe is the project director for the virtual collaborative project, Facing the World's Challenges One Village at a Time: An International Approach. She is a master teacher of 25 years and holds the position of Instructional Technology Specialist in the Cape Henlopen School District, Delaware, USA. She designs and coordinates project based activities that utilize technology as an integral part of curriculum. She is certified through Ed Tech Leaders Online as a course developer and has created and facilitated several online courses for the state of Delaware and Wilmington University. Mrs. Roe has been actively involved in other international projects, such as Rock Our World, Global Collaborative on Ning, and STARTALK Program. She is married and has three children, Julie, 24 years, Cameron, 19 years, and Trevor, 10 years old.

You can learn more about Mrs. Roe by visiting her professional website: http://web.me.com/lori.roe/Roe/

NEW PARTNER: North Shore Middle School

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:54:32 GMT

North Shore Middle School, an interactive learning environment made up of educators, parents, students and community members, is dedicated to the growth of every learner.

Through empowering students with tools for continuous development, learners establish a foundation for risk-taking and the confidence to create solutions. By practicing civic responsibility, they become contributing members of local and global societies.

We share resources in partnership with the community, provide learners with choices to ensure ownership, and integrate the arts, health, culture, exploration, technology and knowledge within a rigorous and responsive curriculum.
North Shore embraces the uniqueness of each learner and celebrates individual growth, resulting in the enrichment of the learning community.

Things We're Working On

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:42:50 GMT

First of all, we're creating a login on the Skoolaborate home page for members which will then take you to our new Member's Site. From here you will be able to access all of the online tools from one location (ie. the Online Units, Avatar Registry, etc.). We are also building in a few extras that should help make things easier...

Manuals

This was a request a while back from a few account managers who wanted tutorials on the various procedures they needed to do like creating avatar accounts, proposing projects, etc. I have finished a basic manual for new managers already, and am working on one for teachers and one for students. They will be available on the website, but also as a downloadable PDF.

Tasks

Our developer is paying extra attention to the Online Units at the moment, and we should have a system in place to create, track, grade, and record tasks within the Online Unit. In other words, teachers can add questions or assignment prompts that the students will be able to answer within the unit. Their answers will then be published to a page where teachers can add grades and comments, and then print a student's results when the project is finished. We've done most of the development for this already, and it should be ready very soon.

Discussion Forums

We've been using Google Groups as a discussion board for sometime, but to make things easier, we need to centralize everything onto one page. This is the reasoning behind the Discussion Forums, which should also allow us to create discussion categories based on subject or other criteria. This may also make it easier to find suitable partners for collaborative events and projects.

Bulk Uploading for New Avatars

For managers, creating more than 10 child avatar accounts can be tedious. In our current system, only one account can be created at a time through our online form. Bulk uploading will allow managers to upload a CSV file (which can be exported from MS Excel or any other spreadsheet software) that contains all of the necessary information. Just one upload and it's done.

So, I hope you will all be happy with the new changes. We're still working hard to make it an easier system for all of you to use. As these new features come online, I will make individual announcements with links to tutorials so that each of you may try them out.

Thanks,

Chris, Westley & Rob

Linden Lab Changes Direction, Friends Move On

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:22:27 GMT

Last Thursday it was announced in a press release that Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, have begun a process of restructuring. As a result, Claudia Linden (L'Amoreaux), whom some of you met at the partners meeting two weeks ago, will be moving onto bigger and better things. Claudia is seeking out opportunities with organizations/companies 100% focused on Education 2.0. It's an exciting time to be involved in education and technology. She describes this time as challenging, and filled with possibility. We are greatly saddened to hear that she is moving on, but also thank her for her professionalism and for all the support and opportunities she's given us for the past few years.

There are many theories about what this change means for projects like Skoolaborate. There are a number of scenarios that could be beneficial to Skoolaborate's future, and of course there are a few that will force us to make some changes. At the moment, no one from Linden Lab has issued any new policy announcements nor have they given any indication that the service they provide will change. As far as the users are concerned, it's still business as usual.

Westley will be traveling to San Francisco this week, during which time he will meet with Claudia (and others from Linden Lab) to find out more about what this announcement means for Skoolaborate, and Second Life educators in general. We will keep all of you updated with any new information that comes our way, and I'm sure we'll have some big things to discuss at the next partners meeting. In the meantime, please continue doing what you are doing as we head strong and determined as always into unchartered territory, such is the life of the innovators.