EDUCATION BLOG

I finally got to see the eeePC this morning and man, is it cool!  Here are some of the features:

• 7 inch display -small, but that is part of what I like about it
• Linux OS - I do not have a lot of experience with this, but the desktop and navigation are incredibly user friendly
• Comes loaded with Open Office and a link to Google Docs - ready for 21st century collaboration. No need to load lots of apps
• Built in web-cam and speakers for online collaboration
• Small HD - 4 GB (can get 8GB) - but not an issue if you have network storage or store all your docs online!

We are opening a new elementary school in August and this small laptop would be great for the students! And at $399 it is highly affordable. The one big complaint I see online is that some users do not like the small keyboard and display - but I am thinking this is a benefit for Elementary students!

In the past I've shied away from talking too much about my actual real life in this blog except in broad generalities, and I'll probably still be somewhat circumspect, but as more and more people whoIn the past I've shied away from talking too much about my actual real life in this blog except in broad generalities, and I'll probably still be somewhat circumspect, but as more and more people who I actually know read it and tell me they are hoping for commentary on this or that, I find myself more inclined to be slightly more autobiographical.  You may have noticed in the past that one of my more annoying quirks is sometimes contorting to avoid actually mentioning anyone I personally know by name (Mason being the notable exception) or to simply abbreviate their name as the first letter of their name.  I've tired of this and am slowing moving towards actually referring to people by their name or handy nickname if they are so fortunate to have one, so if you find yourself mentioned as I write, feel free to contact me and tell me you don't want your name on here and you too can quickly be abbreviated back into anonymity.

If you know me personally and in real life away from this blog, then you probably know about the color parties, but I'll assume that not all of you do so bear with my short explanation.  When I was in college in Charleston, my friends Eden and Noodle started throwing color parties: they deck out their house in said color, we all dress up and come have a fun time.  Their parties were great and turned into competitive color challenges for those of us who took them seriously, leading to me responding to Leslie and Janan's green feather-duster feather covered shirt and lettuce (yes, real lettuce) skirt challenge by showing up to the silver party wrapped in a makeshift silver cape which gave way to reveal a loin-cloth covered in broken mirror pieces and wore a cast aluminum mohawk (yes, real aluminum).  Our fate was sealed and the arms race continued until I left town and Eden and Noodle tired of the color party extravaganzas (though not before they did site specific pattern parties like polka dot put-put golf).

Once in New York, our ever growing group of former Chucktown kids decided we missed the color partying and that three of us were living under the same roof and had the space for occasional soirees, so (with Eden and Noodle's blessings, of course) we decided to dive in.  The SC color parties had grown out of E&N loving the orange parties that friends of theirs had thrown in Portland, OR, and so had started with orange when they did their series, so we decided to honor the pedigree and start with orange the same.  This was also made easier by the fact that several of our walls are orange and we had at the time a couple of orange chairs.  Not being ones to slack off, we have in the course of the last year had orange, blue, pink, brown, white, and green parties.

Six blowouts in the course of a year (not counting the building-wide 4th of july party, our Thanksgiving get-together, our Christmas tree trimming party, and innumerable cookouts) can leave one fairly exhausted, but I still like throwing the shindigs and find myself always looking around for potential props for the next party.  Already we are planning Red (no date set) and if I have my way, the music for the party will be nothing but Hawaiian music and jock jams.

I'm writing about all this (and probably boring the hell out of everyone who has heard me explain all this crap a thousand times before) because more than a couple of folks have asked me to write a little bit of a round-up about the most recent: the Green Party.  I don't think I'm capable of doing a full run down, so I'll impart a few thoughts on the party and gripe about bad party etiquette and things that make me annoyed.

I'm pretty imperious about my get-togethers and have been pretty demanding that people dress in said color or go the hell somewhere else.  And I mean it.  Partially because if I (and my roommates) am(are) going to spend two weeks turning my apartment in to a full color environment, weaving a network of green dreamcatchers over my entire ceiling out of green clothesline string with real branches and faux seaweed hanging from it and cover my walls with astroturf and wrapping paper and blow up God-knows-how-many ballons then you can do better than blue jeans and a green t-shirt.  But I don't really have that much against folks who are chickenshit about dressing up or are attending their first color party and are shy in their thematic pigmentation except for two things:

1)This is New York and their are always more people who will come to a party if there is any remote fun to be had and there is a limit on how many people an apartment can hold, no matter how big your loft is and the easiest way to draw a line with a theme party is to tell the folks who aren't going to get into the theme that it is pointless for them to be there and to go away.

2)people at theme parties who don't dress for it and invest in whatever silly idea you are working to immerse people in are the ones who are rude, make fun of people's costumes, drink all the booze but don't bring any and then complain, etc.  Basically, those folks that know what the theme is and don't get into it are not fun to have at your party.  As Christian told one obnoxious un-green girl who asked him where the beer was after people had resorted to hiding it from the non-green types, "It is at the corner store.  You should go buy some."

Anyway, most people really go all out and the white party had almost completely everyone in all white and some insane costumes and for green we had some serious outfits that folks went all out for.  Colin made a giant four-leaf clover outfit that kind of blew me away and then there was the dress made out of green tea bags and another made out of all green velcro and a fellow clad in Green Giant labels.  Machine and the Dazzle contingent as always pleased and the mesh-fronted, assless, fuzzy caterpillar costume sported by Pretty Boy was certainly the most gawked at and show-stopping get-up of the evening.  I unfortunately missed it when he did the caterpillar in said costume in the hallway.

The Ralph Nader Love Pit was done mostly as a joke but didn't go unused but I wasn't the among the tree-hugging folks down there so I'll leave it at that.

I was happy to hear that people have begun getting together and having pre-color party get-dressed parties, which we used to have in Charleston and are almost as fun as the main party itself.

All in all it was a fine night and one which I am getting bored of recounting.  I got a long over-due review of Oh Death which I've promising a few folks so I'll save my limited bloggy attention up to hopefully attempt that tomorrow.

Curious about this? Click here to learn more.

    St. Louis based author Patricia McKissack, along with her husband and co-author, Fred McKissack, did her an Author Visit over Elluminate today (connecting with educators in the Clovis Unified School District- and her son- in California)!  This was their first experience using Elluminate.  As I showed her the ins-and-outs of the Elluminate program, I asked her if learning all of this reminded her of the first time she did a videoconference (nearly a decade ago!).  The answer?  YES!  There were mics and a camera to think about; the chat was a new aspect to her presentation, however, and she nailed it!  Pat shared with the audience... (remember, one she couldn't see)... about her early childhood and listening to stories from her mother, meeting Fred, moving to St. Louis and being a teacher. She also spoke about how she became an author, and her inspirations.  She had a stack her books that she was able to hold up to the camera to share with audience. Rob Darrow, our site coordinator in California, had uploaded illustrations from several of her books into a PowerPoint that both ends could clearly see.  What a great way to end the week!    

Haymarket, VA and Zierikzee, Netherlands (March 28, 2008) Take Shape Share (TSS), The European Repository, has added Hot Lava Software as a mobile learning project partner. This strategic partnership will allow TSS partners the opportunity to author, deliver and track mobile learning via Hot Lava Software’s Learning Mobile Author (LMA) and Mobile Delivery and Tracking System (MDTS). The impact of this partnership will facilitate the mobile sharing of educational content among a European community of schools and colleges as well as improve, in general, the quality of learning and vocational training. The excitement of this partnership abounded during an interview with Drs. Albert de Vos, Project Manager for the Take Shape Share project.  

During May 2008, in London, the first training will take place for teachers and staff members from four countries. They will learn how to use formal educational content according to the content chain. This is made possible by using metadata in conjunction with the harvester to search and locate content that lives in many repositories and databases—all based on knowledge sharing standardization. 

 “For this project we are focusing on eLearning as well as mLearning materials. We expect that Mobile Learning is becoming more and more important in the field of education, but there is still a lot of work to do, for example on Mobile SCORM. The Hot Lava MDTS fits exactly in this project because the MDTS has all the functionality needed to develop into the most important repository for using, re-using, storing, searching and finding mobile content on an international scale.” says Drs. Albert de Vos, CEO, I.C.O. Europe. “If we manage to integrate Mobile Learning into the learning environments of educational organizations, and companies through the harvesting system, and we can position the MDTS as an international repository for mobile content, we will make a huge leap towards the realization of collaborative learning. The LMA makes it possible to create content on demand for anytime anyplace learning.” 

Sharing knowledge on an international scale that is easily accessible for students, teachers, company trainers, business employees, managers, etc. are the main objectives of the TSS European Repository Project. Easy to use tools for content development, such as the LMA, for mLearning, and tools like Wimba Create, for eLearning, and others with the restriction, that those tools are able to work with standardization protocols like XML-, IMS-, and SCORM- compatibility is just what the project needs to succeed.    

“The TSS project will be evaluated at the end of 2008, with knowledge dissemination as one of the key issues for the European Commission. So, as the project manager I have to travel a lot in Europe, for instance, the EdReNe conference in Slovenia (edrene.org). I also travel within the U.S. For example, I attended the Nashville IT conference in November 2007 as well as the Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT) conference in Washington, D.C. I target these important conferences so that I can learn about the application of new and cutting edge technologies in education, such as Hot Lava Software.” states Drs. de Vos. “In the TSS project we integrate this new technology and share this knowledge with our partners. That’s the reason that Hot Lava Software came into the picture as the leading company for mLearning solutions, as well as Hot Lava’s intense focus on innovation and their drive to be the best in their field of education and mLearning technology.”  

“We are extremely honored and excited to be a part of such an outstanding project as the TSS Project. They are really making the Mobile Learning market come alive in Europe. Mobile Learning technology is fast becoming a very important part of everyday life in a lot of countries around the globe.” says Bob Sanregret, CEO, Hot Lava Software. “Making learning easier and more accessible through handheld learning is exigent for the continuance of today’s educational experience.” 

“We have to invest a lot of effort in making people aware of the possibilities of Mobile Learning. In the Netherlands, the first projects initiated by the government have begun to investigate the possibilities for mLearning within Universities and Higher Education. In the UK, there are already huge conferences organized for Mobile Learning. In Germany, Mobile Learning is in its infancy. One of our main goals is to prepare an infrastructure in Europe for producing mobile content with all the possibilities users and developers need.” adds Drs. de Vos “People ask me many times: why Europe? The answer is very simple—Anytime, Anyplace Learning is an international activity of people all over the world and it is, in my opinion, a good idea to connect people with the purpose of making formal educational content (that is, content related to curriculum development), for eLearning and mLearning, available for all learners. For more information please visit: tsseurope.eu. 

Contacts: 

Bob Sanregret, CEO, Hot Lava
bobs@hotlavasoftware.com

+1 (703) 754-1218
www.hotlavasoftware.com  

Drs. Albert de Vos, CEO, I.C.O. Europe

avjdevos@zeelandnet.nl

00+3(111) 855-8900

www.icosales.eu  

Laisa Bernard, Marketing Specialist, Hot Lava

laisab@hotlavasoftware.com

+1 (479) 524-8468

www.hotlavasoftware.com

In my discussions here about the educational system, I've mentioned that while post-secondary education and especially adult or vocational education tend to be much more flexible than the primary and secondary education. This seems to hold true of teacher certification, and especially of policies that recognize learning that takes place outside the classroom (prior learning, life experience.)

One of the things I don't think I mentioned yet is that these types of education seem to be more flexible when it comes to things like scheduling classes and student progress. Adult students are often given the choice between day and evening classes, in recognition of the fact that most adults either work outside the home during the day, or perhaps have small children to care for. Adult students can also be offered a self-paced program, or a distance program. There are even computer-assisted programs today, in which the "lectures" take the form of a web page or a CD-ROM that may incorporate video or audio, as well as text. An adult can actually complete a professional or vocational certificate, or even a university degree, without ever stepping foot into a classroom!

Just as an example of a professional certification with such flexibility let's take a look at Key Realty School. You can enroll in this real estate school in Las Vegas and attend lectures in their classrooms, but if you prefer to study at home you can do this instead. They also offer a unique program that allows students to combine classroom and home study. The modular design of the program allows prospective students to begin each Monday: the four component courses take five days each, and because each is a standalone unit there is no waiting for a new program to begin. A student can choose to start during the course on Realty and Personal Property, or perhaps during the Finance & Appraisal course.

A highly motivated student may choose to take both day and evening classes, which allows them to complete the program in 2 weeks. Or they can choose just one and take 4 weeks to work on the certification. And for those who are having difficulty or like a little extra review, Key Realty School guarantees they can continue attending classes until they pass the state real estate certification exam. If it takes an extra month, they attend for an extra month. But if it takes longer, it's all still included in the initial fee for the program enrollment.

What high school allows students to self-pace, or to keep attending a class until they feel ready to take the final exam? None that I know of! Public school is all about staying with the class, following the teacher's schedule, and writing state prescribed exams when everyone else writes them. Either you're ready and you pass, or you aren't and you fail. And failure can mean summer school, repeating a class and losing an elective credit, or maybe even repeating a year. If you're lucky. I know of an intelligent young man who was simply told he couldn't enroll in his hifgh school anymore because there was no way he was going to get the requisite number of credits before he turned 18. So they relegated him to a "special" program - one that didn't lead to a high school diploma, in a province that doesn't even recognize the GED.

If you're looking for a flexible program for your homeschooler after high school, you may want to present some schools like Key Realty, that offer a variety of options and not just straight classroom time. Professional certification, such as a real estate license, is also something to discuss vs a traditional college education - particularly if your son or daughter is considering a degree that does not lead directly to a job. A B.A. in English or Political Science may be worthwhile purely as a learning experience, but young people with such degrees are no longer guaranteed a job. Spending tens of thousands of dollars on college, and then ending up in a job at the local fast food restaurant is pretty disappointing. It's a good idea to offer our kids plenty of post-secondary options, rather than teaching them that a university degree is the "only way to go."

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

It's nice to see a mainstream business outfit like Forbes - home of the annual Forbes 500, and a business person's bible - give some column inches (is that the term for it on the Web? Or should it be "scroll depth?") to SL education. This also shows that education in SL may actually be gaining some traction in the business establishment.

A co-leader of a school in Germany has set up "Second Life English" and since February, the site has had upwards of 75 visitors per day. The island is an ESL resource center for both students and teachers.

"The richness and multitudes of environments seemed to offer fantastic opportunities for exposure to language," said the teacher, Kip Boahn.

Boahn both creates holodecks with a variety of learnings within them, and also has used role-playing to teach ESL students new language skills - though the one example he cites does seem a tad silly:

"I once dressed up as a pirate, had a ship and everything. I was kind of rough on the students," he admits. "I put some of them in cages, and had them confront language in a shock-and-awe kind of way. They seemed to like it, and they learned all sorts of new words, like 'loot' and 'booty."

The article also includes a somewhat interesting sidebar that Forbes (it has to be a list at Forbes, doesn't it?) calls the Top 10 Life Lessons From Gaming.

You're a post-secondary English prof, and your students are bored stiff with the same old 500-750 word essay assignments. Not to mention, you are bored stiff teaching composition to freshmen. You toss around new ideas: group collaborations? Re-workings of classics of literature? Field trips? What does one do?

Well, an enterprising professor at Macon State College in Georgia has decided to add some zing to his first-year composition class by having students write for SL.

According to Dr. Gerard Lucas, "Second Life al­lows us to look at issues like identity, identity building, gender, sexuality and race. It brings all these ideas to the forefront in a way that students can engag..."

First-year students can be a fickle, distracted bunch. So, Lucas was impressed with the 3D nature of SL, saying that the program's interactivity appeals to his students.

Interestingly, Dr. Lucas uses his own Web site as a teaching tool for his classes, where one can read about his intentions using SL in his class. He's even setup a student wiki, and has a companion Web site where he writes as Jerry Lucas, exploring, critiquing and reporting on science fiction.

The report, written in the Macon State College paper student paper, neglects to hear comment from administrators at the school, which would be pretty interesting. On an academic level, how does learning composition in a 3D environment track within a more traditional liberal education? I mean, we're not talking about studying Nietszche or Marshall McLuhan here, but teaching in an entirely new medium. I wonder what the dean thinks of it all...

1. Preschool games: Cartoon builders and rhyming are some games nursery students enjoy. Kindergarten packages are very popular.

2. Subject-based games for elementary students: They are great ways of introducing your kids to online learning fun. For instance, math games and history quizzes help elementary school students learn faster and getting over their subject hitches. Various websites allow you to download such games free. It even has ways to teach chemistry equations faster and with complete online learning fun.

3. Interactive games and activities: This type of online learning fun involves brainteasers, puzzles, general knowledge quizzes, flash cards, word games. Halloween games are another fun activity that is available on the Web.

4. IQ Tests and Logical Thinking: They help hone students’ learning and reasoning skills. These may include reading, writing, manners, social norms, techniques of friendship and many more topics.

5. On-line storybooks: They can help safe guard children’s reading habits.

6. Stress-buster games: These Internet games give updates on stress factors and ways it can affect you. They have additional features like fun games that help relieve stress. These games are tailor made for executives.

7. Card games: This is a favorite among all, from homemakers to corporate honchos. It is the ultimate in online learning fun and there is one great thing it teaches everyone and that is patience.