Teen Grid Sunday Mtg - 3-16-08
March 16th, 2008
Today, I attended the regular Sunday meeting of the Eye4You Alliance on the Teen Grid. I learned about the various exciting projects on which people are working. See their blog for more information. I took the opportunity to mention our sim opening on the main grid tomorrow evening. Our new Professional Library is hosting an exhibit entitled “Outstanding Young Adult Authors” which is sponsored in part by Eye4You. In addition, I discussed further information about a sponsorship offer from a company for bringing authors to future events on the teen grid.
Virtual World: Libraries, Education, Museums and More Conference
March 8th, 2008
This weekend I attended the Virtual World: Libraries, Education, Museums and More Conference. This fantastic conference occurred totally within Second Life. It was a convenient method to be connected to resources and colleagues from an international community. As part of the conference, Wendy Ennes, a museum educator from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, and I delivered a special presentation entitled “Ancient Mesopotamia: Engaging Online Resources from the Oriental Institute”. (download ppt below) I also enjoyed browsing through the exhibit area to learn about various programs and organizations that work in Second Life.
Wendy Ennes presents at the Libraries, Education, Museums and More Conference
A presentation I attended called “Using Second Life Tools to Enhance Exhibits” by Abbey Zennith and Bucky Barkley
Ancient Meopotamia PowerPoint
ancient-mesopotamia-oriental-institute.ppt
Museum of Music in Second Life
February 17th, 2008
The Museum of Music (or MuMu) recently opened in Second Life (SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island%20International/22/188/44) According to the curator, Bucky Barkley, “The house is meant to be a typical U. S. home in the early sixties as the sounds, sights, and styles of the British Invasion began to have an influence. Pictures, posters, magazines, etc. hold notecards too. Explore, click, and enjoy!” That is just what visitors will do in this feast for the senses currently featuring an exhibit about the British Invasion. Do stop in for a visit soon!
“Festival of Authors” in Teen Second Life - Feb 2, 2008
February 3rd, 2008
On Saturday, February 2, 2008 the Eye4You Alliance teens, in collaboration with TeachingBooks.net and Chicago Public Schools Dept of Libraries, hosted the “Festival of Authors”. This event showcased the best young adult literature for teens. See the Flickr pics. See Eye4You’s blogpost with links to teen blog reviews and press coverage. Read the pre-event info.
One of the highlights of the event was when author Barry Lyga appeared in avatar form to share information about his books “The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl” and “Boy Toy”. He showed a filmclip from his website and even held a drawing for free, autographed copies of his book. See his blog post.
We were also pleased to receive a special visit from author Marc Aronson who shared information and responded to questions about writing works of historical non-fiction. Another highlight was a display of author easels, featuring information about top authors of young adult literature with links to further information, podcasts, and video provided by TeachingBooks.net. A special presentation was provided by teens from TeenReadNC who shared information about how they conduct mock Printz Award nominations.
At the same time that the “Festival of Authors” was occurring on Teen Second Life, there was a Literary Festival happening on the main grid for adults. Chicago Public Schools Department of Libraries created similar easel displays for the adult festival as they did for the teen program. (see below)
Weekly Teen Grid Planning Mtg - 1-20-08
January 20th, 2008
Today, I attended a planning meeting on the Teen Grid to discuss upcoming events there. Some items on the agenda included the establishment of a virtual Model U.N. program and a teen greeter volunteer program. Several adults expressed an interest in receiving teen-created space artifacts and machinima to be passed through by Lindens for use on the main grid. We also discussed my upcoming project - a literary festival that will take place on both the teen and main grids on February 2nd. I received delivery of a copyable, scripted easel -created byone of the teen builders - that we will use for our author displays from It was good to hear about so many projects and interests occuring on the Eye4You sim.
Maintaining Intellectual Freedom - ISTE Social 1-17-08
January 18th, 2008
Last night, ISTE invited us back to continue Tuesday’s discussion about maintaining intellectual freedom. As we gathered around a virtual campfire, attendees took notecards from Tuesday’s event, new discussion questions, and a link to Doug’s website. Despite a sim restart about halfway through, we had an excellent conversation. Folks shared experiences about filtering in their schools, including issues with over-agressive blocking and student tricks for circumventing their districts’ filters. We shared thoughts about how much responsibility the school has towards blocking and how to help students make intelligent decisions about websites they access. We were fortunate to be joined by Doug Johnson himself, who ended the meeting by sharing ideas for using filtering in ways that foster students’ intellectual freedom. We closed with a recommendation that people follow up on this discussion at Doug’s wiki.
“Maintaining Intellectual Freedom in a Filtered World” - 1/15/08
January 16th, 2008
Last night, the Chicago Public Schools Department of Libraries hosted the program “Maintaining Intellectual Freedom in a Filtered World”. The presentation was delivered by nationally recognized librarian/technologist, Doug Johnson. During the presentation, Mr. Johnson discussed issues related to Intellectual Freedom, student’s rights to access information, and the implications of CIPA. Also, he provided information comparing filtered versus non-filtered networks. He led the attendees in several conversations related to their experiences with filtering in their schools and ideas about the students’ and teachers’ responsibilities in using the Internet safely.
Mr. Johnson created a companion wiki to this presentation so that others can continue the conversation. His full PowerPoint presentation is also available online. See it at https://dougjohnson.wikispaces.com/Intellectual+Freedom+resources. In addition, read his website at http://www.doug-johnson.com and his well-known Blue Skunk blog at http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com.
What’s New at the China Cafe
December 20th, 2007
Recently, the China Cafe has held several events. On Sunday, Dec 9, we learned about the origins of Chinese fashion. On Sunday, Dec 16, we overviewed how Christmas was celebrated in the US, followed by a Christmas party. Read about these and other China Cafe events at http://chinacafe.cuipblogs.org.
ISTE Campfire Social - 12/13/07
December 19th, 2007
On Thursday, Dec 13, I was invited to host a presentation/conversation at an ISTE campfire social. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the leading organization which develops educational technology standards for K-12 educators. During their weekly Thursday socials, educators have the opportunity to gather to discuss items of common professional interest. My presentation overviewed my work with the China Cafe, a group which meets to provide a forum for practice of English conversational skills with Chinese persons while learning about various aspects of Chinese culture. Those who attended the campfire session also sampled various virtual Chinese teas and received free Chinese jackets. Following group discussion about how culture and language instruction can be shared in Second Life, we had a short firecracker display.
Dec Virtual Librarian Learning Community Meeting
December 11th, 2007
Yesterday, Chicago Public Schools Dept of Libraries hosted our December Virtual Librarian Learning Community (LLC) meeting. Members of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), the ISTE SIGMS, and the Illinois School Library Media Association were also invited. This month, we discussed the new AASL standard #2 “Learners use skills, resources, and tools to draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.” We started the meeting with introductions. Next, attendees shared overall impressions about the standards. Next, we focused on sub-set skills, dispositions in action, responsibilities, and self-assessment strategies. For each section, we discussed challenges and successful strategies for implementation. Our next virtual LLC will be on Monday, January 28 at 9pm ET/8pm CT/ 7pm MT/ 6pm PT.
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