Blog 14

First of all, I think my thesis will be "Is there an audience in Teen Second Life classrooms?" I want to focus on whether or not these Teen Educational Projects are actually being used, if there is actual participation and how it works. Is it a voluntary classroom, where people can go in and out on the weekdays or weekends, or is truly a stand in for a class where attendance is mandatory, and held as substitute for holding class in an actual concrete classroom.

I think the Outline macrostructure would work best for my project. I want to have the first node be a brief overview of Teen Second life (How to register, avatars, acceptable members, etc).

I want the second node to be about what Educational Projects are in detail (How to set one up and who can set it up, How they function, etc).

And I want a detailed node about what the percentage of teen second life is being used for educational purposes, in comparison to the website on a whole.

I hope this is a bit more focused. I am having a very difficult time with the thesis.

Blog 15

My username on Wikipedia is Lissa724. My text was

Skoolaborate Islands - a global virtual learning space in the Teen Grid in Second Life that is only accessible via invitation. It was initiated in 2007 by Westley Field at MLC School Sydney. To date, 22 schools/organizations from Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Chile, Portugal, the UK and the USA are participants. Teens are the primary builders of the island, although teens and teachers alike run and host the learning experience.

So far nothing was taken down, and nothing was said. However, that's probably because this page has been inactive for a while. Before my post, it hadn't been touched since March 4th. I would be happy if they flagged my post, because it would mean someone was looking at this page! I am going to keep an eye on this, to see if anyone talks about anything on this page, and hopefully about something I posted.

Blog 13 Research Plan

Purpose

I want to show educators how exactly to set up Teen Second Life Educational Projects in their classroom. I want to be able to provide the benefits of using Teen Second Life so that educators can propose it within their school district.

Detailed statement of your research question
I am not quite sure of a thesis statement yet! I need to work on this further!

List of the information you need to gather
- What are the capability requirements you need on your computer to use Second Life (i crashed my computer when i used to use it!)
- What are the restrictions

List of Sources
http://warburton.typepad.com/disruptive/documents/SL_handout.pdf
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Teen_Second_Life
http://tesl-ej.org/ej39/int.html
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ778625&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ778625
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki
http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses

Blog 12 - Wikipedia Post

So, I posted my own entry to Wikipedia. These are the links i used as a reference

http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/virtual-learning-and-teen-second-life-project/


http://www.skoolaborate.com/

So far, so good! Nothing was taken down.


Here is my entry. This is the page it is located on and what my entry is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teen_Second_Life

Skoolaborate Islands - a global virtual learning space in the Teen Grid in Second Life that is only accessible via invitation. It was initiated in 2007 by Westley Field at MLC School Sydney. To date, 22 schools/organizations from Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Chile, Portugal, the UK and the USA are participants. Teens are the primary builders of the island, although teens and teachers alike run and host the learning experience.

Blog 11

I am still doing my topic of Teen Second Life in the Classroom. My focus is on how teachers can use the Education Projects in Teen Second Life to hold online classes at home.

1.) Who uses the site?

Primarily teachers and students. Although, parents are a possible audience as well.

.2.) Where are they?

They can be in their classroom, at home, a meeting (where they introduce this), their office, their bedroom, etc.

3.) What do they want from this site? They will want to learn what exactly Teen Second life is. What are the benefits, and the issues. How it can be used in the classroom. How they can register, how they can set it up, and how to get their students to sign up and be involved.

4.) How does the text of the site address the users? The text will include simple step by step instruction on how to register for second life, what compatibility needs you must have in terms of your computer, how to set up your own private educational project on the Teen Life Grid, etc.

5.) How do the graphic elements of the site address the users?I want to add images of Teen Second Life as it's going on. Maybe screenshots of actual classes going on, or screenshots of the online schools (what the buildings look like, what the avatars look like, etc).

Blog 10

I am going to do both the Wikipedia assignment as well as the hypertext assignment on using Teen Second Life in the classroom.

These are the links that were provided to me, by Dr. Chandler. I have some of my own for the wikipedia, which i will post.

http://3080sp08.blogspot.com

http://warburton.typepad.com/disruptive/documents/SL_handout.pdf

I am not sure if i myself will be able to log into teen second life, since i am an adult. i think i may try emailing them and letting them know i am a soon to be teacher, working on a class assignment. we'll see how that goes!

Blog 9

I am sorry that I am so late in posting my blog. I decided to go to Chicago for the weekend and played the 'priceline lottery'. Although I got a great price, i unfortunately had to leave on thursday morning at 6am! so, i only saw this article today in class.

I will finish this later, when i get home!