ISTE NETS-S in 3D

Hey, ya'll,

I have been remiss in sharing a project I put up one day in ReactionGrid that I hope will provide an interesting destination for teachers interested in learning and teaching in virtual worlds. I did share it briefly at ISTE10 in Denver, CO at the SIGVE Virtual Environments Playground, but I think a few pics online would be a nice addition to the shareout.

This build displays the standards outline for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), which those of us who follow and utilize this kind of thing know as ISTE NETS. There are three "National Educational Technology Standards" sets, one for students (NETS-S) and one each for Administrators and Teachers, each substituting the appropriate letter for the -S in their acronyms.

See them all here.

And now you can visit a visual representation of them in ReactionGrid, the OpenSimulator-based virtual world that has become a staple of my online explorations. Disclaimer: the owners of this beautiful and functional world are becoming friends of mine, so I'm biased as can be in favor of this platform. If Linden Lab took a few cues from their personalized, helpful, and proactive style of service for educators (or for anyone, for that matter), they would ensure the future of Second Life, a future which has come under considerable speculation lately. Don't get me wrong: I love Second Life. Our Special Interest Group for Virtual Environments networks in there and shares fascinating professional development opportunities in a monthly SIGVE Speaker Session every third Tuesday of every month (taking a break for August as teachers get back into the swing of the school year. It's just that the recent elimination of 30% of their employees included, apparently, anyone interested in fostering an education market. We continue on in spite of, not with the help of, Linden Lab. We hope for positive change, as usual.

But I digress. Surprised?

Here are a few pics from the ReactionGrid project, hosted on ISTE Island 1. When you first login to Reaction Grid, look at "Places" on the login screen and choos ISTE Island 1. When you visit, please know that you are invited to visit ISTE's new headquarters on ISTE Island 2 (teleport at the standards build), part of a new project for that organization. And while you're there, feel free to add resources at each level of the standards that illustrate ways to implement them. Don't be afraid to hit the Build button and share away!

View from above

Close up of one standard--fly through and enjoy the view

A side view

An example of one resource for one standard: add your own!

Nashville Sign Project in ReactionGrid

Please visit and comment! Here's a little video that explains a little 'speriment I put together to share a small printmaking exhibit from a high school art class led by Lesley Patterson-Marx. Extending the audience is the goal, as well as encouraging comment on a global scale. We'll see how it flies at Scottsperiment Island in Reactiongrid!

Find more videos like this on Virtual Environment Education Videos!

ReactionGrid Opens Up New Vistas for Teaching and Learning

If you follow my blog Oh!VirtualLearning! you may already know that I have been appointed facilitator of the new ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Special Interest Group for Virtual Environments. Certainly you know of my interest in this amazing, complex, fascinating (and enabling on so many levels) development in online communcation. As SIGVE "Poobah," I enjoy the company of a great many educators more capable than myself in our effort to help make some sense out of all the myriad virtual worlds out in the metaverse, to assess their value (or lack of it) for learning and teaching, and to collaborate on innovative efforts that leverage their functionalities toward the betterment of education.

At last year's National Educational Computing Conference, or NECC, in Washington, D.C., it was announced that future conferences held by ISTE would do away with the NECC name, that the next annual conference would be named "ISTE 2010," establishing the new naming convention for future years, and that it would be held in one of my favorite cities in the world, Denver, Colorado.

I am excited to be planning already for ISTE 2010, and even more so that I received in my email this morning the notice that my Presenter's login is now available, along with a link to it and to my presentation, the Virtual Environments Birds-of-a-feather session, so that I could provide a description for the program. Another email contained news that friend Jan Zanetis's proposal for a "panel of experts" on Distance Learning has been accepted, and she's somehow managed to add me to that panel. I truly do always tell people interested in virtual environments that there is no such thing as an expert, and if you are talking to someone who claims to be one, the best course of action is to run screaming from the room. Still, I'm flattered, of course, and it'll be fun to join Jan, Kecia Ray, Scott Parks, Howie DiBlasi, and Cathi Swan for an hour of fast talking about the future of distance education, and to do it for a target audience of school and district administrators.

If you've read this far, you deserve a little "Easter egg," and here it is: I've entered OpenSim's ReactionGrid by purchasing a region of my very own, and I'm calling it "Scottsperiment."

Here's a SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Scottsperiment/128/128/26 . Note that you must be logged into ReactionGrid to make that link work. Visit ReactionGrid's website to download a viewer that is compatible with OpenSim and come explore. I'll be posting more information as soon as I've finished my initial terraforming and land parceling. It's going to be fun...