Emerging Tech Questions 4 Ferdi

These are my responses to Ferdi from working with on Second Life:

1. Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:
A. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
B. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
Building in Second Life, this is almost like being able to give an art show in a virtual world. You can build and create objects from the ground up in SL. Second Life is now emerging as a useful tool in educational technology, new uses are being developed for it on a routine basis. This is can be one of them.
C. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.
D. identify trends and forecast possibilities.

2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
A. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
B. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
Wiki’s can be used to express ideas, and can be edited by multiple groups at remote locations. Not only can multiple groups edit the page of a wiki to keep it updated, it can be viewed by anyone in the world who has internet access.
C. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
D. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

3. Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:
A. plan strategies to guide inquiry.
B. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
C. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
Youtube can be used as a video media site to research and support ideas. There are many resources that are available and recorded about on YouTube, but you will have to filter out which ones are credible and which ones are not.
D. process data and report results.

4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, and Decision-Making
Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:
A. identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation.
B. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.
C. Collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.
Data search bases on the interent can search for existing information and conducted research. When information is gathered from the search, the data can then be analyzed. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making can then be applied in ordr to draw a conclusion or develop a hypothesis.
D. use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions.

5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:
A. Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
Creating a digital video and uploading it to the internet. YouTube is a popular site where users upload the videos that they have created, for a variety of possibilities. You can find informational videos, instructional videos, personal videos, etc. You have to make sure that you follow copyright law and practice ethical behavior. There have been cases where students have been held responsible by the school they are attending for the content they have uploaded to the site.
B. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
C. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
D. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

6. Technology Operations and Concepts
Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students:
A. understand and use technology systems.
B. select and use applications effectively and productively.
Using Second Life to teach curriculum. The first step is to know how to navigate through second life and how to work the operating system. Once that is understood, classrooms and meetings can be conducted in SL. Virtual slideshows, PowerPoints, and other visual examples can be used as supporting examples of how visuals can be used in a 3-dimensional setting.
C. troubleshoot systems and applications.
D. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.

2nd Podcast

In my first show of my two part series podcast, I explained the positive aspects of teaching in a 3-Dimensional world. Particularly teaching visual esthetic's and design. For my second podcast I explain how to use an instructional design approach while building, and conducting a class in the virtual world. I use Second Life as my stage to work on, and then I build from there. I really like the approach that I took, but I think I need to add additional time for a more thorough description of a few steps. There is a stretch where you hear Second Lifes nature sounds in my background, I already made too many changes to my podcast to erase the noise. So just imagine you're listening in a relaxed outdoor setting :-) Take a listen and tell me what you think.

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Scavenger Hunt

I completed my scavenger hunt on Tuesday in Second Life and it was as fun as it was challenging. I nearly completed the hunt before class started and then did a little searching while in class. I reviewed Tiffany's blog on the scavenger hunt and she expressed how difficult it was to find #'s 8 & 9. I found it difficult to find them as well as they were located underwater and in the sky. My effort towards finishing the scavenger hunt then led me to explore new islands and change features on my appearance and before I new it...I was being distracted in class. This is what happens to me in real life with gaming, and it is why I try to stay away from gaming and other addictive technology! I can admit, I do not know when to quit sometimes which is why I try to stay away from my potential addictions. I wonder if this may be a future problem for gamers if trying to work in an online environment? There was a research article that was published this past summer on the addiction of gaming and teens. I'm going to look it up and see if I can blog on it sometime this semester. Anywayz...

My hunt was completed during the week, I'm not quite sure where to post my snapshots though? I sent out a twitter mass message to see if anyone knew but didn't get a response and the files are too big to send through e-mail. So some feedback would be good from any of my classmates in cyberspace! Was it just me, or were the most difficult flags right under our noses?

My Technological Theme Direction

I have been pondering what I am going to do my theme on for a while now. I have a passion for art and design, I've been applying this passion by combining it with the use of technology as of recently. With that explained, I had a talk with Dr. Z. about what direction I should take with my theme and he gave me some inspiration to run with. I want to teach a topic that I have experience and a passion for, but I am not a supporter of teaching graphic and visual elements to an online audience. I say this because I am a visual and I would have a touch time just following a long with a text book that should be read, and assignment layouts that have due dates every other week with no visual support and guidance. I need to interact with my instructor and have examples demonstrated to be effective for me to learn. I could learn graphic elements online, but the knowledge would not be as effective as it would be in a classroom environment for me.
What has inspired me is teaching in a virtual world environment, Second Life is a good example of the capabilities and effective learning that can take place with my topic. Being able to show examples and visual displays in a 3 dimensional setting, or play movies and slide shows are all possibilities. I'm still getting acquainted with SL, so I know I have a lot to learn. But I have a lot of inspirational juices flowing with this subject matter. I look forward to developing it.
I have listed a link below is one that I am reviewing for my podcast. I think it should be beneficial as it addresses how to podcast for education and corporation.
http://www.learningcircuits.org/2005/jun2005/0506_trends

Exploring w/Emerging Tech

We had a fun and active class in Emerging Technologies this past week. I followed through with being active in Second Life and I've been working on my avatar, I've looked a bit crazy at times. There were times when I tried on come pretty funky looking clothes and I also got stuck in a womans figure for a while lol. With some of the avatars that I've seen though, that's not so crazy in SL. I'm just trying to get comfortable with working with the software for now. My professor Dr. Z., had the class get set up with Twitter. It's a short blogging device, I can see how it can come in handy in the world of updating news. I downloaded the icon shortcut to my desktop so that I would not have to log in on the web every time. It worked for a couple days, but now it's telling me that "no tweets are available" and I can't access it at all. I'll try to work these bugs out with in the next few days.

Second Life

Today I finished flying around in Second Life and trying to manage the tutorials. I'm not the most patient man in the world, so I started experimenting with the tools and options before the tutorials were complete. It is so strange, because I find myself interacting with people in the virtual world similar to the way that I interact with people in the real world. I am not one to go up and strike a conversation with anybody, and I often avoid it at times with strangers. I find myself trying not to bump into people, and not "stair" at them if they have on odd attire lol. I was reading my classmate Sarah's blog and she had a lot of frustration with getting to know the software. I had similar problems, but I like the trial and error methods so I just kept testing tools out. Sarah was saying that through her frustrations she can see the value that the software can have on the educational and training fields and I agree. If I'm interacting the way that I would in the real world in this virtual world, I think that learning can also be just as effective. I have some more flying around to do, so I'll be posting on additional findings again soon. In the meantime you can take a look at Sarah's blog and give her some feedback about what you think: Sarah Rad