Showing posts with label Sloan-C. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sloan-C. Show all posts
Friday, October 5, 2007
Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning
According to an e-mail message sent to the SLED (Second Life EDucators) listserv this morning, the Sloan Consortium "has embarked on an initiative to help online educators gain a better understanding of how the technologies available today can help make their classrooms better." To accomplish this, Sloan-C has launched a new website. The site was designed to support Sloan-C's upcoming conference on emerging technologies for online education, but the site and its forums are open to anyone interested in this subject, not just people who attend the conference.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Ning in Education
On August 3, we held an organizing meeting for Sloan-C SL-NET (Second Life - Networking Education and Technology). The suggestion was made that we should have some place on the web where we could have asynchronous discussions.
Sloan-C's Moodle-based community pages seems the obvious choice until a friend I met through Second Life suggested I look at Ning, which provide free (and premium) social-networking sites. He pointed me to the Classroom 2.0 social network, which has 2408 members right now.
This seemed ideal, so I created the Sloan-C SL-NET social network. The primary advantages over Moodle are its public visibility, the ability of members to start forums and form groups, and the accessibility of RSS feeds. I'm using a Ning site for a hybrid technical writing class I'm teaching this fall. (It's private for the obvious reasons.) I've also joined a social network for educators who are using Ning in education.
Sloan-C's Moodle-based community pages seems the obvious choice until a friend I met through Second Life suggested I look at Ning, which provide free (and premium) social-networking sites. He pointed me to the Classroom 2.0 social network, which has 2408 members right now.
This seemed ideal, so I created the Sloan-C SL-NET social network. The primary advantages over Moodle are its public visibility, the ability of members to start forums and form groups, and the accessibility of RSS feeds. I'm using a Ning site for a hybrid technical writing class I'm teaching this fall. (It's private for the obvious reasons.) I've also joined a social network for educators who are using Ning in education.
Education and Second Life
I've been trying to comment on a post by another student in the class, but my comment hasn't shown up. I thought I'd post it here as well:
Second Life (SL) has a lot of potential for education, as many people have recognized, and probably even more for professional development as we figure out how we can use it.
I joined SL last May just in time to attend sessions at the Second Life Best Practices in Education 2007 Conference. Videos of some of the addresses are still available in the video archive.
Last week, the New Media Consortium held a Symposium on Creativity with an education track in SL. I heard some very positive feedback from a friend who attended.
The SLED (Second Life EDucators) listserv has over 3500 subscribers. In addition, a lot of colleges and universities, libraries, and professional organizations have bought sims or created groups in SL, including ISTE, AECT, and the Sloan Consortium.
Even though K-12 teachers can't actually use SL for their classes because of the age limit (though there is a teen grid for 13 to 18 year olds), ISTE is extremely active in SL. They have an island and weekly activities.
AECT has a group in SL, but I haven't found out any more.
The last couple of months, I've been working with the Sloan Consortium to organize networking and professional development activities for college and university educators in SL.
In using SL for educational purposes, we just need to be careful not to try to do things with it that can be done better with other tools.
Second Life (SL) has a lot of potential for education, as many people have recognized, and probably even more for professional development as we figure out how we can use it.
I joined SL last May just in time to attend sessions at the Second Life Best Practices in Education 2007 Conference. Videos of some of the addresses are still available in the video archive.
Last week, the New Media Consortium held a Symposium on Creativity with an education track in SL. I heard some very positive feedback from a friend who attended.
The SLED (Second Life EDucators) listserv has over 3500 subscribers. In addition, a lot of colleges and universities, libraries, and professional organizations have bought sims or created groups in SL, including ISTE, AECT, and the Sloan Consortium.
Even though K-12 teachers can't actually use SL for their classes because of the age limit (though there is a teen grid for 13 to 18 year olds), ISTE is extremely active in SL. They have an island and weekly activities.
AECT has a group in SL, but I haven't found out any more.
The last couple of months, I've been working with the Sloan Consortium to organize networking and professional development activities for college and university educators in SL.
In using SL for educational purposes, we just need to be careful not to try to do things with it that can be done better with other tools.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Blogging for IT 6750
I'm starting this blog to meet the requirements for a class I'm taking at UCD: IT 6750, Current Trends and Issues in Instructional Technology. Lately I've been thinking that I'd like to move into instructional technology and out of teaching because I have the most fun with the technology, so I registered for this class to see if that's what I really want to do.
In January I started my first blog, 4R x T, to record my experiences using technology in my classes. I have a second blog that I use for my classes at Red Rocks Community College.
This summer I've been exploring Second Life trying to figure out how it can be used for education. (I've chronicled my adventures there in my main blog.) Using Second Life and other MUVEs (multi-user virtual environments) is definitely a current issue in instructional technology. For me, the best use of Second Life is networking and professional development.
A couple of months ago, I ran into the executive director of the Sloan Consortium at their site in Second Life. I mentioned to him that it would be nice if Sloan-C had networking events for folks in higher ed the way ISTE was doing for K-12. He told me to go ahead with that idea, and I have.
First we put a questionnaire on the web to find out what people were interested in. Its presence was announced to the Sloan-C and SLED listserves. I created a listserv for the people who responded, gave the group a name (SL-NET, which stands for Second Life - Networking Education and Technology), held an organizing meeting, and set up a social network site. Last Friday night, we had our first activity: a dance. We also have plans for other activities: social, professional development, and training in SL skills. It's a lot of fun, and I've met some great people!
In January I started my first blog, 4R x T, to record my experiences using technology in my classes. I have a second blog that I use for my classes at Red Rocks Community College.
This summer I've been exploring Second Life trying to figure out how it can be used for education. (I've chronicled my adventures there in my main blog.) Using Second Life and other MUVEs (multi-user virtual environments) is definitely a current issue in instructional technology. For me, the best use of Second Life is networking and professional development.
A couple of months ago, I ran into the executive director of the Sloan Consortium at their site in Second Life. I mentioned to him that it would be nice if Sloan-C had networking events for folks in higher ed the way ISTE was doing for K-12. He told me to go ahead with that idea, and I have.
First we put a questionnaire on the web to find out what people were interested in. Its presence was announced to the Sloan-C and SLED listserves. I created a listserv for the people who responded, gave the group a name (SL-NET, which stands for Second Life - Networking Education and Technology), held an organizing meeting, and set up a social network site. Last Friday night, we had our first activity: a dance. We also have plans for other activities: social, professional development, and training in SL skills. It's a lot of fun, and I've met some great people!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
