Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Professional Development
Translator is available without charge. Our guess is
that many different types of HUDs for educational
use—including traditional instructional tools
as well as applications that we cannot imagine
today—will be developed over time.
Various other specialized educational scaffolds
are being developed. A variety of whiteboards that
can display text (and be edited by participants)
are available, as are pre-built science-fair-type
display boards. Eloise Pasteur has developed the
Spidergram Planner, which allows the creation
of 3D bubble-charts or concept maps in SL, and
an Assessment Tool that delivers multiple-choice
quizzes to students. A complete classroom for up
to 20 students is available as the EduBox, complete
with a slide presentation screen, chairs, a filing
cabinet that gives Notecards to students when it
is touched, a tool for collecting comments, and
a display table. Suffern Middle School in New
York State has developed a set of classroom
chairs, called Poinkey's Pods, that facilitate quick
5-minute one-on-one conversations among a group
of students.
The Salamander Project seeks to create a web-
based database of all educational materials—so-
called “Learning Objects” (Wiley, 2000)—in
Second Life. The Salamander Project uses a
cataloging system similar to that of the MER-
LOT project, which catalogs learning objects on
the Web (see http://www.merlot.org/). Interested
participants can wear the Salamander HUD to
mark locations and tools of interest to educators.
The HUD automatically records the location in
Second Life as the user chooses categories and tags
to describe the object. See http://www.eduisland.
net/salamanderwiki.
To summarize, Second Life offers numerous
scaffolds, or supports for learning, provided that
instructors spend some time poking around, talk-
ing to other educators, and experimenting with
the tools and resources that they find.
As we mentioned above, teacher learning is
especially important in the arena of technology
in education; since new tools and resources are
developed at an increasingly rapid rate, no teacher
can afford to stop learning about technology. SL
offers numerous opportunities for such profes-
sional development.
One extremely effective approach is to use
Second Life to provide follow-up support and
ongoing discussion for First Life events such as
conferences or training sessions, or providing
ongoing mentoring for new educators. SL can be
used to provide access to experts, study groups,
discussion groups, ongoing seminars, periodic
presentations of lesson plans or best practices,
examinations of student work, and shared viewing
of streamed video. Of course, using SL or other
technologies to support professional development
does not remove the obligation to pay attention
to best practices that have been developed for
face-to-face activities (NSDC, 2001).
As with other e-learning tools, SL will work
best with educators who are “self-directed,
motivated, and independent learners with some
competence and comfort in computer literacy and
navigation” (NSDC, 2001; p. 13). However, it can
also be used to foster computer literacy, partly
because it represents a fun and engaging environ-
ment that helps participants to get past their fear
of computers. While most so-called professional
development for teachers are one-shot workshops
or institute days, the most effective professional
development is ongoing and intensive, and linked
explicitly to the teachers' grade level and subject
area.
Just as in a face-to-face environment, effec-
tive professional development in Second Life
will create many opportunities for learners to be
active participants in authentic activities such as
“teamwork, discussions, product and project de-
velopment, research, reflection, demonstrations,
and modeling” (NSDC, 2001; p. 5). Learning
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