Proposal

**Proposal Synopsis (Proposal ID# 43604107)** Curriculum Specialists Library Media Specialists Principals Staff Developers Superintendents School Board Members Teachers Teacher Educators Technology Coordinators Technology Facilitators Technology Integration Specialists || Some of the basic skills that completely self-motivated users have developed along their own learning pathways will be sketched out using a master inventory of skills and shared and discussed. These will certainly include: Changing avatar appearance Manipulating camera angle Moving--flying, walking, running, skating, swimming, sitting, gesturing, animation override, and vehicle operation Chatting (text) Voice (audio) Using Search Maximizing one's profile Learning from the profiles of others Friending (and muting) others Instant Messaging Joining Groups (and leaving them) SLetiquette Basic Inventory management Shopping and unpackaging purchases and more... Proposal of this session is largely motivated by last year's "SLedupotential" workshop having veered off into beginning skills instruction/guidance for much of its three hours. My group is also submitting proposals for more advanced workshops and it would be ideal for us to be presenting at least one of those as well. We would be comfortable doing two half-day workshops the same day as well. || No more than 15 minutes will be dedicated at the beginning of the workshop to present highlights from Second Life's history and ISTE's history in Second Life. This latter will be informed by an interview with the primary mover of that ongoing initiative, Jennifer Ragan-Fore (Kittygloom Cassady in SL), either in person, via VOIP, or on film. Individually bulleted/targeted skills (as listed above, in Purpose/Objectives and as ad hoc defined by the needs of the workshop participants) will be addressed in discrete units of whole class instruction and followed up on the spot by individualized. Approximately 30-40 minutes of the workshop will be dedicated to touring four inworld sites whose design and implementation demonstrate best practices in use of the 3 dimensional internet (3Di). At some point in the session, Linden Lab Education Project Manager Claudia L'Amoreaux (SL Claudia Linden) may hold stage in order to welcome our n00bs into Second Life. A group picture will be taken at the end of the session, and prizes will be given out, including several packages of the Second Life currency, Lindens. PLEASE NOTE: There is a 7th co-presenter in the line-up (see bios) and since there's not a 7th spot in the form I'm adding his contact info here. Please include Dean Groom, Aussie that he is... Contact information: Dean Groom Maquarie University 25 Hume Crescent, Werrington County, Sydney, NSW 2747 +6120433379377 deangroom@gmail.com no he is not a student || Also note http://simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL for a comprehensive list of educational institutions using Second Life. A gentle introduction to the platform is needed, if only to bring more creative individuals into Second Life. || Initial "official" co-presenters backgrounds include: Cathy Walker is Technology Coordinator at St. Vincent de Paul School in Rogers, Arkansas. She is a well-known facilitator in Second Life and co-founder, with Miller and Merrick, of MUVErs LLC, an entity dedicated to helping students and educators utilize virtual environments with optimal safety, effectiveness, and productivity. John Miller is RN Faculty at Tacoma Community College in Tacoma, Washington. He is a recognized expert in using virtual environments to teach, and a leader in the field of medical simulations for educations. Lisa Linn, Is a middle school language arts and social science teacher with 15 years experience in public education. She teaches at Vail Ranch Middle School in the Temecula Valley Unified School District in Southern California, where she is the Teacher Technology Leader. Additionally, she is a Google Certified Teacher, and Star Discovery Educator. Lisa has been in Second Life since February 2007, is an ISTE Second Life docent, and is the Founder/Manager responsible for CUE, Inc.'s Second Life presence. She has given several professional presentations including CUE 2007, where she presented a concurrent session introducing Second Life, as well as introducing and managing CUE's first Second Life playground. Additionally, at NECC 2008 she was a co-presenter for the SLedupotential workshop, and reprised her 2007 role as co-manager of the Second Life playground. Peggy (Norton) Sheehy, after a twenty-five year career as a professional vocalist, attended Empire State University and received a BS in Musical Performance and Education. She began teaching in 1997 at Mt. Sinai Elementary School in Mt. Sinai, New York., where the transition from the stage to the 3rd-grade classroom was a natural one and she immediately realized the power of 'edutainment"! During her tenure there she also served as a district technology trainer. After receiving her Master’s Degree in Educational Technology from Stony Brook University, she spent extensive time presenting her ideas and experience at technology conferences and workshops throughout the Northeast region. She received the Technology Teacher of the Year for two consecutive years from ASSET, (Association of Suffolk County Supervisors for Educational Technology) where in 1999, 2000, 2001 she presented "Tomorrow's Classroom Today". In 2001, Peggy moved to Greenville, South Carolina where she taught fourth-grade at Stone Academy of Communication Arts. Named Teacher of the Year at Stone Academy, she attended the University of South Carolina at Columbia to begin her MLIS, and moved into the field of library and information science. Ms. Sheehy is currently continuing her studies in the MLS program at Southern Connecticut State University. In 2003, she returned to the New York area and now serves as Instructional Technology Facilitator and Media Specialist at Suffern Middle School. In 2006 Sheehy established the first middle school presence in the virtual world of Teen Second Life. After profound success with the first group of 400 8th grade students, Ramapo Islands has expanded to six complete sims to support 1400 students. Ms. Sheehy has presented her work at NYSCATE, TECH EXPO, NECC, EdNet,CLMS, COSN, NSBA T&L, SLEDCC, LHRIC, NYSCATE, NMC, BLC, and many other venues, including ISTE's Best Practices Conference in the virtual world. In 2007 she established MetaVersEd Consulting Ltd. to offer support services for the proposal, design, acquisition, and implementation of educational environments in the virtual world of Teen Second Life. Working in collaboration with many of the finest educators in the country, she is constantly expanding her vision and sees no limits to the potential of virtual world education. Ms. Sheehy believes that engagement, edutainment, and the authentic applications of 21st Century technology in education is paramount to preparing our students for success in the “flatter” world. Jeff Agamenoni (http://teacherman79.wordpress.com/) is a middle school mathematics instructor living in the big sky country. He is a lifelong learner and lover of emerging technologies. He has a beautiful wife and two wonderful sons. He thinks the applications found in environments like TSL, SL, twitter and other microblogging tools, Social Networks and read/write web tools have changed the way we need to teach our students. Jane Wilde (aka Esme Qunhua in SL) - Learner, geek, educator. A twenty-five year veteran educator, Jane has taught at every grade level from Kindergarten to Graduate School. She currently teaches graduate courses in the MAT program at Marlboro College Graduate Center including a course called Teaching and Learning in Virtual Worlds. She is a doctoral student at the University at Albany, NY, where her research emphasis is on communication in virtual classrooms. As a consultant she provides tech integration training to faculty of k-12 schools. A self proclaimed computer geek, Jane thoroughly enjoys technology and loves to teach people how to use it. She has the rare combination of technical skills and the ability to speak English (rather than computer-ese), and she can show you how to engage your students and enrich your curriculum with computers, the internet, and multimedia materials. Having begun her teaching career in Special Education, Jane enjoys working with even the most computer challenged student. Dean Groom is Head of Teaching and Learning Design and Macquarie University in Sydney. He has been a classroom teacher and Head of Information Technology. He is a formally trained teacher in Secondary Education, is a trained mentor Buck Institute and New Technology Foundation in Project Based Learning. He has successfully designed and delivered Australia’s most advanced Web2.0/Enquiry Based learning classroom environment. He has a background in Advertising and Communications, with international awards and is a fellow in the Powerful Learning Practice Network. He’s a founding member of Skoolaborate (Teen Second Life) and a resident educator in Second Life (Jokaydia). Dean is an ISTE Docent on ISTE Island. || 316 38th Avenue NE Great Falls MT USA jeff_agamenoni@gfps.k12.mt.us || 1305 Paseo Hermosa Oceanside CA USA llinn@tvusd.k12.ca.us || 12416 103 St Ct KPN Gig Harbor WA USA jsvavoom@gmail.com || 80 Hemion Road Suffern NY USA classacteach@optonline.net || 903 NW A Street Bentonville AR USA padln@hotmail.com || PO Box 221, 882 Moss Hollow Road Marlboro VT USA esmequnhua@gmail.com || ||  || **Co-Presenter #7** || Dean Groom Maquarie University 25 Hume Crescent, Werrington County, Sydney, NSW 2747 +6120433379377 deangroom@gmail.com ||
 * ===Category/Subcategory Selection=== ||  ||
 * ||  || **Category/Subcategory** || Workshop -- Hands-on ||
 * ===General Information=== ||  ||
 * ||  || **Session Title** || Introduction to Education in Second Life: n00bs UNITE! ||
 * ||  || **Session Description** || Highly experienced ISTE Second Lifers will help interested but "skills-challenged" educators explore this rich virtual platform for its value in teaching and learning. ||
 * ||  || **Theme and Strand** || 21st-Century Teaching & Learning:Multimedia/Video/Virtual Reality/Newscasting ||
 * ||  || **Keywords** || virtual environmnet 3Di Second Life ||
 * ||  || **Primary URL** || http://noobsunite.wikispaces.com ||
 * ||  || **Exhibitor Status** ||   ||
 * ||  || **Commercial Content** || Yes ||
 * ||  || **Audience Type** || Chief Technology Officers
 * ||  || **Exhibitor Status** ||   ||
 * ||  || **Commercial Content** || Yes ||
 * ||  || **Audience Type** || Chief Technology Officers
 * ||  || **Audience Level** || All ||
 * ||  || **Audience Skill** || Beginner ||
 * ||  || **Prerequisites** || A willingness to engage in hands-on, challenging, and rewarding exploration with experienced "guides on the side." ||
 * ||  || **NETS•S** || 1- 6 ||
 * ||  || **NETS•T** || 1- 5 ||
 * ||  || **NETS•A** || I- VI ||
 * ===Workshop Information=== ||  ||
 * ||  || **Workshop Length** || Half-day ||
 * ||  || **Workshop Lab Requirements** || MAC Lab ||
 * ||  || **Workshop Maximum Capacity** || 30 ||
 * ||  || **Multiple Workshop Presentations** || No ||
 * ||  || **Workshop Scheduling Preferences** || No evenings not ok ||
 * ===Proposal Summary=== ||  ||
 * ||  || **Purpose & Objectives** || In a supportive hands-on lab environment, absolute beginners in Second Life will be mentored by experienced volunteer educators (ideally in a minimum 1:2 teacher:student ratio) to introduce and improve their skills in the virtual environment to the point at which they will feel comfortable building on skills learned in the workshop to master the platform for their own learning and teaching. It would be marvelous if this workshop could take place early in the conference so that accomplished "non-n00bs" then could attend some more advanced sessions later on the same week.
 * ===Proposal Summary=== ||  ||
 * ||  || **Purpose & Objectives** || In a supportive hands-on lab environment, absolute beginners in Second Life will be mentored by experienced volunteer educators (ideally in a minimum 1:2 teacher:student ratio) to introduce and improve their skills in the virtual environment to the point at which they will feel comfortable building on skills learned in the workshop to master the platform for their own learning and teaching. It would be marvelous if this workshop could take place early in the conference so that accomplished "non-n00bs" then could attend some more advanced sessions later on the same week.
 * ||  || **Outline** || We will have only 180 minutes, and we will need to be very aware of the time. A timekeeper will keep us on task. We will choose a very large and very loud human for this task.
 * ||  || **Supporting Research** || See research listed at last years' SLedupotential workshop, at https://sledupotential.wikispaces.com/Supporting+research+sources, which has continued to grow since the event it was created to support.
 * ||  || **Presenter Background** || Scott Merrick presented the successful SLedupotential 3-hour hands-on workshop at NECC 2008 in San Antonio. He was joined by 8 other educators from 8 other states, building upon collaborative work done by all 9 over the months leading up to the workshop. By NECC2009, his work as co-founder and consultant with MUVErs, LLC will evidence significant leadership in the field of Virtual Environments education and he will have taken part in a panel on Virtual Worlds at the Internet2 annual meeting in San Antonio, TX (see http://events.internet2.edu/2008/fall-mm/sessionDetails.cfm?session=10000185&event=911). Haven proven his ability to rustle up collaborators, he intends to bring at least 10, ideally 15 ad hoc volunteers co-presenters to this workshop in order to achieve as high a mentor/n00b ratio as possible, at an ideal minimum ratio of 1 to 2. Scott (http://scottmerrick.net) teaches K-4 technology at University School of Nashville (TN) and is Teacher-in-residence at the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach. He volunteer docents for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) at its ISTE Island headquarters in Second Life and manages resources for ISTE at the Islands Bloggers Hut and Podcasters'' Place, two popular destinations for educators visiting the regular events held in that virtual space. He has presented workshops for teachers in Web 2.0 applications (http://scottweb20.wikispaces.com) and in Second Life for teaching and learning (http://sledupotential.wikispaces.com), and he is the host/producer of Snacks4theBrain! (http://blogs.vanderbilt.edu/s4theb/), a regular podcast about science, math, and education.His full teaching portfolio/resume is available at [|http://members.home.net/~scottmerrick/portfolio].
 * ===Equipment Information=== ||  ||
 * ||  || **Whiteboard Requests** ||   ||
 * ||  || **Videoconferencing** ||   ||
 * ||  || **Videoconferencing Description** ||   ||
 * ===Additional Presenters=== ||  ||
 * ||  || **Co-Presenter #1** || Jeff Agamenoni
 * ===Additional Presenters=== ||  ||
 * ||  || **Co-Presenter #1** || Jeff Agamenoni
 * ||  || **Co-Presenter #2** || Lisa Linn
 * ||  || **Co-Presenter #3** || John Miller
 * ||  || **Co-Presenter #4** || Peggy Sheehy
 * ||  || **Co-Presenter #5** || Cathy Walker
 * ||  || **Co-Presenter #6** || Jane Wilde