SecondLife in NY

The first thing that I loved about the Secondlife article was the fact that a professor requires her female students to spend at least one week in the body of a male and vice versa. This is such a cool idea and I am still thinking of my unit that I did in 541, and this is absolutely perfect for it! Further this article stated something that I have been unable to put my finger on, regarding why SecondLife is better or more interesting than IM or email. As the article points out, and I feel silly for not being able to articulate, SecondLife is a visual experience. It doesn’t just allow people to communicate, but it is so much more interactive then email and IM. I would not be surprised if these tools are considered old and extinct in a few years. However, at the same time, I don’t know if I can see SecondLife replacing IM and email for me personally. Not only am is it still relatively foreign to me, but I can’t imagine my dad or mom trying to use SecondLife, as much as I would love to see that day. Although, this week I did finally set up a webcam, in order to communicate with family in Atlanta, which is incredibly cool. It made me wonder about the point of landline telephones, because why simply talk on the phone, when you can talk to and see the person on the other end? It is so much more fun and interesting.

Further, I am aggravated by the comment in the article about the sexual content in SecondLife. If our society avoided everything with sexual content in it, we wouldn’t have MTV, Hollywood, or the entire internet, for Pete’s sake! With every new tool, there are pros and cons, and if we are doing our jobs as teachers, and guiding and modeling for our students how to use these tools appropriately, it shouldn’t be a momentous issue. And since I don’t know, how bad is the sexual content in SecondLife?

Authenticity and Gift Giving

As we rap up 506, I am thinking about the semester that flew by and how much I have changed as a result of this class. I am excited that this class challenged me and encouraged me to move beyond my comfort zone, especially in the context of being a future teacher and what tool I will use in my classroom. I have a much greater appreciation for multimodal literacies and all the technology applications available to me and my students. I have found myself acutely aware of all the technological changes that are happening around me on a daily basis. Although I always read the CNY section of the Sunday paper first, I now read the Business section second, because every Sunday there is something pertinent to our studies in 506. Further, I have been consistently thinking about how I will use these tools in the near future and although my next project isn’t for educational purposes, I am very excited about it nonetheless and would love to share it with my brilliant classmates. I am going to make an iMovie for my mom’s 50^th birthday. At her surprise party, I will be shooting footage of all her friends sharing their favorite memories of, about and with my mom. Further, my mom was recently at a graduation party and someone had made a DVD slideshow of still images, synchronized with music, of the graduate’s life. My mom told me that she has never witnessed or received a cooler gift. Thus, I plan on making her a DVD picture slideshow, along with the movie footage, all synchronized to music from the various decades of her life. I am really excited, and already have my aunt and cousins on board to help me. The next problem.. Finding a mac lab to use over vacation…

Digital Driving

There was a very interesting article in the Syracuse Sunday paper this past weekend. It was entitled “Driving a Digital Highway” and was all about how Toyota now has a simulator test which assesses safety features of cars in a digital town. The test simulator gives drivers a 360 degree view of land, signs, people, and side streets. A personal Japanese touch: is also has a view of Mount Fuji. It delivers “the sensations of driving while computer graphic imagery on the sides of the dome gives the impression that the trip is real” (Post). However, the test isn’t 100% digitalized. The test takes place in an actual car that resides within a 15 x 23 foot dome. This reminds me of those arcade games, and the picture in the paper is also reminiscent of a virtual game. Does anyone else know what I am talking about? The test has also been found useful for testing other safety features, including “warning beeps about oncoming cars…and analyzing how drowsiness and intoxication affect driving” (Post). Despite all the progress that has apparently been made with these simulator exams, there is still one problem. The biggest challenge, which I know my fellow 506ers will appreciate, is “understanding the human brain and other aspects of human behavior” (Post). So despite how advanced technology gets, it seems we have yet to be able to digitalize the human mind. I thought this article was incredibly interesting. I wonder…if technology is sophisticated enough now to have car safety stimulator tests, what will the future hold. One thing that I considered was if teens will still have to take actual road tests in the future, or will it be a digital exam?! Just some things that were on my mind…

PS: I started having dreams set in SecondLife…what is up with that!?

English Club Website

The website I made for 506 is for the SUNY Cortland English Club. However, I still plan to make one for myself over our Holiday vacation, because after our conversation last night, I can see the benefits of having a personal site/e-folio. The address for the English Club site is as follows, but please wait a few days before checking it out, as it is still in the process of being approved by the tech center. Thanks.

http://studentweb.cortland.edu/McKenney64

A Mandy and Amanda Production

In response to the blog prompt for the week of Thanksgiving, I have been putting it off until this week, because Amanda and I spent a lovely, yet somewhat frustrating day in the MacLab working on our iMovie this past Monday. Who knew that a 5 minute video would take hours to create! In retrospect, I love our finished product and cannot wait to share it with the rest of the class and get some feedback. However, reaching that final product was one of the most challenging projects I have done in a long time, possibly ever. I thought I was advanced last spring when I finally made my first power-point as a senior undergraduate. I really appreciate all the hard work that goes into using new technology tools, especially this one. I am still wondering about MovieMaker, and some of the problems that Amanda and I encountered with it, and if these are perhaps addressed in the newest version. For example, one of the most frustrating aspects of using this application is that neither of us could figure out how to change the speed that the movie plays, without it changing the textual material that we added for each clip. When we slowed down the speed that the video played, the text also slowed down and eventually was playing with the wrong clip. As far as we know, there is not a solution to this problem, which is aggravating, because it forced us to get it right the first time, and limited how much we change the speed. However, despite the setbacks, it was very easy to import video content, photos and audio. I wonder how different it is from MovieMaker? I know that my mom’s school recently got rid of their MacLab and the district is now strictly PC’s, so as educators we might be limited to what applications we can use with students. Who else is working on an iMovie? What have all of your experiences been like?

I-Reports on CNN

Let me reiterate once more that I am obsessed with CNN and my obsession has moved beyond merely looking at the website on a daily basis, in order to keep up with current events. I now also tune into Nancy Grace regularly, and sometimes watch Glen Beck and Larry King Live. Anyway, during my online browsing today, I was drawn to an “I-Reporters” article about the Malibu fires, which led to me a new CNN webpage that I have never seen before entitled “I-Reports.” Apparently, the I-Reporters are everyday people who capture content and then post it online for others to view. Sounds a lot like what we have been talking about in 506, especially in terms of regular people being creators and distributors of information, rather than just consumers. Anyone can be an I-Reporter, and post videos, photos, and/or blog. There are a ton of links to choose from, but some that I found particularly interesting include one about SecondLife, one about the writer’s strike in NYC, and several about weather and other global issues.

OLPC

You know the One Laptop Per Child is really getting big when it makes the Syracuse newspaper. There was a short article in The Stars section of The Post Standard entitled “You can give a laptop, get a laptop” and it discussed the OLPC project, which was first announced in 1995 and how it has evolved over the years. Although the laptop is around $180, you can’t buy it without also purchasing one for a child in a developing nation to ensure that “Americans don’t snap up the supply and keep kids who really need these laptops from getting them” (Fastoldt 24). I find it interesting that this article is apeparing at the start of the 2007-2008 holiday season, perhaps as a reminder for people to be charitable this year.  Further, the laptops are very well equipped. They are rain and dust proof, have a solar recharger (Go green!), a long last battery, audio ports, microphone and camera, among other applications.

 The author of this short article has his own technology column that appears in the paper but also online at this site.

E-Field Trips, Online Dating, and IMs…Phew.

I love browsing CNN.com and I found this article in the technology section. Check it out. It is about e-field trips and very interesting, and best of all– its free for teachers!

I couldn’t help reading about online dating and what this article had to say! A little slow in the beginning, but it gets into some interesting new developments about Facebook and Myspace and safety for teens.

 And last but not least, read this article about teens and IM-ing. I can appreciate the absence of  face to face interactions and how this may be easier for teens to handle some of the issues they encounter during adolescence. However, should we be worried that they are getting into the habit of dealing with difficult problems solely via technology?? Interesting to think about.

Let me know what you think.

Dripping With Literacy…

I read Dripping with Literacy, a Jazz Fueled Road Trip, a Place to Breathe, and I found it to be very inspiring and thought provoking, especially in relation to the question of “what should English be?” I especially liked Maya Wilson’s take on the ideal English classroom, and how English is about stories, an idea reminiscent of Pink. Further, I was reminded of the speech Jonathan Kozol gave this past weekend at the NCTE convention, in which his ideas can easily be connected to Wilson’s. He spoke about his discouragement regarding the fact that many classrooms he sees are not places “of refuge in school systems plagued by the urge to quantify, sort, standardize and manage” (Zancanella, 71). In our day and age, where these factors often describe the majority of schools, I think we have an obligation as ELA teachers to challenge these practices. I also found the second to last paragraph written by Wilson to be significant, because I can appreciate the power of stories, and story-telling. I also enjoyed the 3^rd section of this text, by Arthur Applebee, because he

 considers the implications of technology in our classrooms, but he also had a wonderful quote that I keep re-reading. He writes, “the English classroom should be what it has always sought to become: the place where students learn to master the power of words and symbols—theirs and other” (73). I thought this was profound and inspiring, because Applebee not only hits the nail on the head regarding ideal ELA classrooms, but at the end of his section, he also emphasizes that this must be achieved in conjunction with media tools and technology.  Other quotes that I found significant include one by Tatum, where he states “the high school English curriculum must continue to serve as one of society’s pulses where young people can define, refine, and outline their existence” (74). As he suggested, this can be done by creating meaning and relevance through all the texts that are explored in ELA classrooms. I also loved that Rudy Miera brought considered the political implications of ELA classrooms when he writes that they should be environments where “Democracy can be reborn through literature” (75). Amen to that.  

SecondLife at NCTE

One of the first things I noticed when I walked into the NCTE presentation on SecondLife was how few people were present and I don’t think the audience exceeded more than 35 people. This number may seem like a decent amount, but I was in other sessions that were standing room only, and probably had more than 100 people in attendance. However, the session was awesome and it was all about using SecondLife in ELA classrooms. Not only did the presenters advocate for the use of SL in schools, but they showed the audience specific examples of how they have utilized virtual worlds to enhance literacy experiences. Interestingly, they had to show up their examples via powerpoint because the venue didn’t have internet access. Ironic, eh?

The first presenter began his discussion by asking the audience how many people actually knew what SecondLife was. I think ½ of the room did, and about ¼ of the room had registered accounts. This gentleman proceeded into a brief discussion about the last 20 years, and the evolving technology surrounding the desire to work with virtual worlds. He talked about Tolken, and wondered what he would think if he could see SL. He also talked about ancient video games that I had never heard of from the 80’s and early 90’s such as Zork and Moo. He showed the audience the interfaces for these games and my god, are they a far cry from SL! This man also walked us through various settings in SL that could be used to supplement classroom literature, such as a Dystopian society, gothic settings, Shakespeare’s virtual theatre, Young Goodman Brown’s forest etc. Essentially, his argument was that SL can make reading experiential and thus, hopefully more enjoyable for many students. However, I thought one of the most interesting things he mentioned was that there is a teen grid, which is for SL users under the age of 18. Who knew?! If you weren’t convinced about SL before, think about it now. SL users are going to get younger and younger, and this will happen faster and faster. He also mentioned that for now, since SL is a business, it is not as accommodating to education as we may hope. But this could change in the future.

The second presenter was absolutely fascinating. She is the presenter who stands out most clearly in my mind because through her, I finally understood the magnitude of how SL could be used in classrooms. She began using SL when she realized that Harvard had bought land there to do mock-trials for their future law students. After some hard work, she finally succeeded in backing the creation of “Literature Alive.” Within this area of SL, she has students take a Canterbury tales virtual pilgrimage, and each student is secretly one of the characters. Throughout the journey, they have to stop at various stations and answer questions like their character would, proving that they have read the material. At the end, they try and guess who is who. She also does a text set with Gloria Naylor works and Dante’s Inferno. Within SL, are you ready for this….she actually created the 9 levels of hell. We only got to see pictures of 2 of the levels, but this whole idea was so inspiring. What a great idea for those teaching this classic text, in order to get kids more interested, and perhaps enhance their understandings of this complicated and ancient piece. I also admired this woman because she emphasized that the technology doesn’t replace the book. Instead, it enhances the reading experience.

After the session I was eagerly describing it to my mom and our friend, neither of who have heard of SL. It was very challenging to explain it to them, but they both admired the Inferno idea immensely. Their nativity simply reinforced some of the ideas we have talked about in class. Many people simply don’t know what is available for use in their classrooms, which is the first step, in my mind, in helping to reshape the pedagogy. Once I told them about SL and they were “in the know”, they were genuinely interested. I plan to take them on SL tomorrow to give them a better idea of what I mean when I say, “you know! One of those cool virtual worlds…?”