Where Have I Been ?

Where have I been?

This is the transcript from my keynote presentation at Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference March 2011. I feel it will fill in the glaring gap present in this blog since last year when Linden Lab announced the closing of Teen Grid. The choice we had was to continue with a company that spoke to supporting education but acted quite opposite, or setting off on a journey of discovery for a New World…

We packed our pixels and left.

As the Worldz Turn – Presentation Transcript

Good Day – Good Evening – thank you for this opportunity to share with you – My name in the physical world .is Peggy Sheehy and days are spent serving students and teachers in a public middle school in New York. I have been on this incredible journey of learning in virtual worlds since 2005, when I established the ﬁrst Middle School presence on the Teen SL Grid –Ramapo Islands. Over the past 6 years I have journeyed with over 4000 students – and I have been humbled by the Ome and energy invested by the surrounding educaOonal community – so it is a great honor to be here – to continue the conversation …I’d also like to remind you that this presentation is available at: http://www.slideshare.net/PeggySheehy/as-the-worldz-turn
Last summer many people thought that the sky was falling – Just as k-‐12 educators were staring to get some semblance of acceptance for our use of virtual worlds, -‐ the most prominent of which was the Teen Grid of Second Life, Linden Lab pulled the rug out – threw us what appeared at ﬁrst to be a lifeline – and then snipped it and un-‐tethered us to ﬂoat in a frothing sea of ambiguity and passive aggressive mixed messages-‐-‐-‐ Many educators were forced to re-‐examine our commitment to using Second life – or even to the plausibility of using VWs in our schools— But we are teachers – and those of us who had witnessed ﬁrst-‐hand – the power of using virtual worlds for learning were not about to go backwards! Images from: h]p://www.disney-‐clipart.com/Chicken-‐Li]le/Chicken-‐Li]le-‐Clipart.php 2
So as the sky came crashing down, and the naysayers got to nod their “I told you so’s” We had a choice to make – Did we go down with the sinking ship – clinging Oghtly to promises or could we look at this as a HUGE OPPORTUNITY Images from: h]p://www.disney-‐clipart.com/Chicken-‐Li]le/Chicken-‐Li]le-‐Clipart.php 3
Rather than abandoning our Virtual campuses altogether or facing a doubling of invoices, if there was to be an exodus there had to be somewhere for us to move to. Just where was the Virtual Promised Land for Educators? My goal for us today – is not to promote one soluOon over another – or to tell you how to best move forward with these decisions-‐ but rather to inspire you to seize the opportunity at hand – to perhaps inform you of some of the many many options available to us – and to remind you of the great importance of the work that we do transforming education in authentic new spaces -‐-‐-‐-‐ CHAPTER AND METAVERSE: h]p://rock-‐vacirca.blogspot.com/ Images from: h]p://www.disney-‐clipart.com/Chicken-‐Li]le/Chicken-‐Li]le-‐Clipart.php 4
So far it appears that many of us have landed – perhaps rather precariously – but landed none the less in OPENSIM For those of you who are new to all of this ( and I count myself among this group-‐ so anyone who has more up-‐to date informaBon – start putting it in the chat PLEASE) –but a really simple explanaBon is-‐-‐OpenSimulator, often referred to as OpenSim, is an open source server platform for hosting virtual worlds. While it is most recognized for compaBbility with the Second Life client, it is also capable of hosting alternative worlds with differing feature sets with multiple protocols. (hOp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSimulator) Any of the worlds built using Opensim,which some even refer to as “the Second Life open-‐source clone”, will give you the same look and feel as your current regions, and in most cases even allow you to use the same viewer. OpenSim allows a virtual world plahorm that schools can run for free on their own servers or can get hosted inexpensively and quickly-‐by a growing number of providers. -‐the space can be up and running within a day-‐-‐ -‐-‐which is a large part of the reason for OpenSim’s appeal. Open sim gives us choices-‐ and allows us to have as much or as little control over our virtual campuses as we desire. More info: h]p://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page 1. Next Stop: OpenSim! THE Journal. By Maria Korolov 01/11/11 h]p://thejournal.com/arOcles/2011/01/11/next-‐stop-‐open-‐sim.aspx 2.CHAPTER and METAVERSE h]p://rock-‐vacirca.blogspot.com/ Images from: h]p://www.disney-‐clipart.com/Chicken-‐Li]le/Chicken-‐Li]le-‐Clipart.php 5
As you can imagine –once the Teen Grid closing announcement was made virtual world developers knew that this was indeed the prime opportunity to make their case – and during the Second Life Community Convention ( SLCC) last year I was approached by many companies– each of them claiming that they had it all ﬁgured out– they knew what we as educators needed and they were ready to have us sign on the dotted line…So with each one of them, I started with one very direct question: 1.  Do you have a teacher on staff?? Or are you consuling with teachers?   The vacant stares that met that question were pretty much all I had to see …. 3.  Image: h]p://www.supermantv.net/posters/movies/gone_with_the_wind.htm 6
But I was baﬄed by the fact that these companies seemed to think they had it all ﬁgured out… And I wondered -‐-‐-‐ if WE, the educators, were still ﬁguring it out -‐-‐-‐ and WE were the ones working with the students and tackling the learning applications of this brave new frontier -‐-‐-‐ how did these companies have it “all ﬁgured out” when there wasn’t even a teacher in the equation ???? Why is this so important to me – and I believe it should be to you?? BECAUSE The last thing we want to see happen – is for “corporate” entities to mold the direction of our EDUCATIONAL spaces (yet again) The last thing we need is to have those who are not even in schools or working with kids – start to make decisions for us .. Finally I sat down with a group of young people who started the conversaOon very differently-‐-‐ what they said to me was: “We are leaders in the ﬁeld of virtual worlds and everything that goes into creating them = supporting them – we are on the cutting edge of emerging new applications – we are seasoned – experienced and about as expert as you can get –‐-‐ But we NEED YOUR HELP to ﬁgure out what educators REALLY NEED-‐ we want to get it right! These guys had my attention – They are PLEIADES – Images from: h]p://www.disney-‐clipart.com/Chicken-‐Li]le/Chicken-‐Li]le-‐Clipart.php 7
Founded in 1999, The Team at Pleiades is dedicated to the use of virtual worlds and serious games as learning plahorms, and they are working with educators to ensure that these plahorms meet their needs and address the unique challenges inherent to teaching. Pleiades is working towards a world in which learning is aﬀordable, accessible, personalized, and recognized across institutionl lines. When I asked the team for a statement I could use tonight – All of my faith in their vision was validated by their response and I am going to ask your indulgence in allowing me to read it – as I read PLEASE think about where we are –

“We are approaching a turning point in our mission to restore game-‐making, the spirit of a curious, boundless imagination, to the formal education of students. The connected, digital world, to those born into it, is not an extension of the telephone, or of the photo album, or of the video game. It is an extension of the self. It is the chosen and natural medium for expression, identity, and exploration. To a contemporary students growth, online communities, resources, and games are not irrelevant. A school, however, that proscribes or clumsily ignores them, is. As educators—and we count ourselves among you—the onus is on us, ﬁrst to earn the attention of this generation of students, and then to help them ﬂourish and replace us. It is too easy to forget that attention is only skeptically given. We earn it by being elevating, by being inspiring, and above all by being relevant We intend to be a technological enabler, a point of contact, an Earth on which a new and great ecosystem of education will lurch, ﬂower, re-‐make itself, cross-‐pollinate and blossom into every niche and form imaginable or not yet imaginable. With you, we are going to advance into this unimaginable future knowing only that it owns us more than we own it, and that, like our students, we are at our best when we are fearlessly improvising. Our ﬁrst priority is less to build infrastructure up—we have been doing this for years already—but to tear barriers down. The user interface has been a barrier. The price to play has been a barrier. The restrictions against freedom of information, especially where these have come from a mis-‐guided approach to creative rights, have been a barrier. Even the idea of a single, immobile and immutable garden for all people and all purposes, has been a barrier. The world we want you to live in is inexpensive, and permits free passage between regions in a loosely-‐coupled, but searchable and backed-‐up metaverse. It is decentralized, and permits grids to connect to each other no matter who owns them, on terms the grid owners are free to negotiate and agree. It is permissive and operates under the assumption that all content is educational in nature and in use. We look forward to seeing where you, and this generation of students, can take us

The contact person is Sasha Rudie <sasha@pleiades.ca> Who is Moo Money in SL. You can visit many of their builds right here in SL – I highly recommend VIRTUAL HARLEM-‐-‐ Virtual Harlem is accessible in Second Life, where it is affiliated with the University of Central Missouri and the New York Public Library. BUT It is also compatible with OpenSim, SO my experience with Pleiades has been a really positive one – they listen to my needs-‐ they respond in a timely manner and when they backed up and transferred all of my content from the teen grid – and I mean all of it – from the terra-‐forming to the very last stray go kart the kids left out-‐-‐-‐ We are gathering resources together and designing a USABLE default inventory for education as well as looking to the future for a shared creative commons content library …

9. But I would be remiss in my responsibility today if I were not to mention some of the other awesome options available to us – JokaydiaGrid is an education and arts focused grid running on Open Sim – Managed by the incredibly dedicated Jokay Wollongong, -‐ an international community from Australia, New Zealand the US Canada Peru and other European countries are members. Jokaydia regularly hosts events for educators and you won’t ﬁnd a harder working avatar anywhere! Instructions for a free account to explore Jokaydiagrid are available at www.jokaydiagrid.com

10.Reaction Grid,– who’s focus is educational, business and entertainment use of 3D environments, has entities such as Microsoft and IBM on their client roster – as well as many universities and K-‐12 institutions. John Lester, formally Pathﬁnder Linden is now on board as Director of Community Development at Reaction Grid.

But in truth, -‐-‐-‐there are hundreds of virtual worlds available just for for kids under 18… And New ones are arriving every day – and many of them are speciﬁcally targeting the needs of educators in their design
So we do have many options – and therein lies our dilemma– Are we going to once again – jockey for posiOon with all of these opOons – and end up with many disjointed –disconnected environments – OR are we going to have the VISION and COMPASS to realize that the ulOmate soluOon must be one that brings us together – rather than separates us into cloistered communities – Images from: h]p://www.disney-‐clipart.com/Chicken-‐Li]le/Chicken-‐Li]le-‐Clipart.php 14

This brings us to the The Promise of Hypergridding and I absolutely believe that this is a huge part of our soluBon Hypergridding is The virtual worlds equivalent of the World Wide Web. When a world is on the hypergrid, it means that users can teleport in and out from other worlds, similar to following hyperlinks to and from diﬀerent Websites. ”Hypergridding is One powerful edge OpenSimulator has over Second Life, -‐-‐which is to say that OpenSim users can teleport from one world to another.( It is technically possible to hypergrid from OpenSim to Second Life – but right now LL HAS NOT ENABLED IT FOR BUSINESS REASONS.) In practice, what this means for K-‐12 interests is that students can take ﬁeld trips from their home base to any of hundreds of other virtual environments already running on the plahorm, including scienOﬁc simulaOons, museums, and, of course, other schools. For example, students can teleport from their schools grid to a]end a lecture or visit an exhibit on another grid, or hop over to grids based in Italy or France, for communicaOon in the naOve language. Hypergrid connecOvity can be turned on and oﬀ at will, or limited to just certain regions of a schools virtual world to maintain privacy and security. For many educators, the hypergrid is the big promise of the OpenSim plahorm-‐-‐hundreds, thousands, and eventually millions of virtual worlds, all connected into a virtual universe.. In fact, for anyone interested in checking this out, John Lester (Pathﬁnder) hosts weekly tours of diﬀerent Opensim BUILDS on the Hypergrid, which he has called the “Hypergrid Adventurers Club. ”

http://becunningandfulloftricks.com/hypergrid-‐adventurers-‐club/

SO for now, at the very least please consider this a prerequisite to any choice you make for your virtual campus– We must begin to build the METAISSANCE and we must build it internationally…

http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2010/10/a-‐hypergrid-‐glossary/ h]p://becunningandfullo{ricks.com/hypergrid-‐adventurers-‐club/

THE METAISSANCE is not a group – it is not a company – it is not a place-‐ IT IS AN IDEA-‐ A VISION – a MINDSET if you will – it’s an attitude – that demands we remember that any virtual community must be part of a larger global community – we’re all in this together –and together we can take learning into the future…

Image: h]p://www.raineandhorne.co.uk/Pages/FranchiseTechnology.aspx

And we must have a larger conversation than in the past -‐-‐ again there are scores of groups and organizaOons out there who are trying to provide a forum for sharing our work-‐our ideas, our experiences but again most of these initiatives are focused on a speciﬁc interest group – be it K-‐12 or higher ed or developers or researchers—and we all need to hear each other-‐ learn from each other and gain perspecOve from each other-‐-‐
The Virtual World Education Roundtable is one group that gets this! They meet each week to talk about issues that concern ALL educators with regard to using virtual worlds as a teaching and learning tool. The Roundtable has been meeOng for 3 years now, and they highly emphasize the importance of the community. Whether it is a special focus meeOng where a guest is the featured speaker or just a general discussion-‐ the meeOngs take place with everyone sisng around a big roundtable and anyone has a chance to share. all are welcome –at the VW EducaOon Roundtable there is always a seat open. Your contact PERSON in SL AJ Brooks OR OLIVIA HOTSHOT More info http://www.vwer.org

The Immersive EducaBon Inititiative is a non-‐proﬁt international collaboration of universities, colleges, research institutes, consortia and companies that are working together to deﬁne and develop open standards, best practices, platforms, and communities of support for virtual reality and game-‐based learning and training systems. Thousands of faculty, teachers, researchers, staﬀ, administrators and students are members of the Immersive Education Initiative. IED HAS oﬃcially launched its K-‐12 Technology Working Group (K12.TWG) The Group is chartered to deﬁne, evolve and maintain a range of immersive learning experiences (virtual worlds, learning games, simulators and mixed/augmented learning experiences), best practices, guides, tutorials and communities of support for primary and secondary education. http://mediagrid.org/news/2011-‐02_K12.html

AND ONE OF MY main sources of up to date relevant information is REZED -‐ the online hub for practioners using virtual worlds, oﬀering access to the highest quality resources and research in the ﬁeld to establish a strong network of those using virtual worlds for learning. Powered by Global Kids there are areas devoted to podcasts, aha moments, discussions, research and news and it truly is my ﬁrst stop for up to date information

Until the past few years – I cringed at the inclusion of “game worlds” in any discussion about virtual world education and I think it is important for you to know the back story to this path – When we were pioneering Virtual Worlds for education we not only had to counter the “x-‐rated” hype then associated with Second Life – but also the negaOve stereotypes about video games-‐because the uninformed listener lumped the two together… Any of us who have spent time trying to explain to people what a virtual world is – has usually had to explain the diﬀerence between a virtual world and a game– if fact when I used to docent in Second Life at ISTE Headquarters – it was the people who arrived with gaming experience that were the most perplexed – since there was no game engine guiding their experience—they were truly at a loss as to how to begin living their Second Life-‐-‐-‐ For years I had to make this distinction to audiences – and the more I did the more I wondered what the similarities actually were-‐

3 YEARS AGO THE CONVERSATION led to a group of SL avatars entering World of Warcraft together to explore this other “game world” that was so popular-‐-‐-‐and to investigate the possible applications to learning—to curricular design and to student engagement

SO our GUILD was formed; Catherine Parsons, (Victoria Gloucester in SL) spearheaded the exodus for us.

Cognitive Dissonance (is on the Sisters of Elune server, Alliance)and it was chartered in December 2007 as a group of educators exploring MMORPGs and theirrelationship to education. It has grown to a guild of colleagues and friends exploring theplatform and experiencing the implications and applications to teaching and learning whilehaving fun! Cognitive Dissonance is also an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding twocontradictory ideas simultaneously. It became our name in honor of the conﬂict in thoughtbetween traditional learning structures and the ubiquitous use of technology in education. Learning to game together, learning about gaming together, and in general learning from oneanother constitute the general domains of scholarship investigated by the group. We work tointroduce new members to the game through meetings, resources, and events, and supportone another from n00b to raiding at 85 through our guild structure and server-based guildalliances. Remembering the concept of “play” being an integral part of learning, we haveestablished an arena to recall it for ourselves and include it within our teaching. A MMORPGguild has become for us an extension of our personal learning networks. We are educators…who play.

http://cognitivedissonance.guildportal.com

SO our GUILD: Cognitive Dissonance (is on the Sisters of Elune server,Alliance) was chartered in December 2007 as a group of educatorsexploring MMORPGs and their relationship to education. It has grownto a guild of colleagues and friends exploring the platform andexperiencing the implications and applications to teaching and learningwhile having fun! Cognitive Dissonance is also an uncomfortablefeeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. Itbecame our name in honor of the conﬂict in thought betweentraditional learning structures and the ubiquitous use of technology ineducation. Learning to game together, learning about gaming together, and ingeneral learning from one another constitute the general domains ofscholarship investigated by the group. We work to introduce newmembers to the game through meetings, resources, and events, andsupport one another from n00b to raiding at 85 through our guildstructure and server-based guild alliances. Remembering the conceptof “play” being an integral part of learning, we have established anarena to recall it for ourselves and include it within our teaching. AMMORPG guild has become for us an extension of our personallearning networks. We are educators… who play.

http://cognitivedissonance.guildportal.com

-‐-‐What Is a Game? Weve all played games, but because of the wide variety, it can be challenging to nail down what makes a game a game. My colleague Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins – has clariﬁed it by identifying three basic characteristics:

“1. A goal: Every game has a win condition: the combinaOon of events and accomplishments that players need to achieve in order to end the game. In every good game, the goal is clear,. Ultimately, whats most important about the goal is that players care enough to want to accomplish it. 2.Obstacles having the necessary tools to reach the goal should be part of the game, but diﬃculties and challenges should be part as well. Without those obstacles, winning wouldnt mean much. There’s nothing worse than a game that’s too easy…

3. Collaboration or competition: Games come in two basic ﬂavors: those in which success comes by defeaOng another player, and those in which winning is determined by beaOng the game itself. The former can create compeOOon among players. The second encourages a player to compete against him/herself or to collaborate with others to beat the game. Why is gameplay important to the virtual world community? ? The team at

Pleaides sums it up well: “Gameplay is instinctive and compelling. It provides perpetual challenge. With virtual worlds, right now, we have an opportunity to go one step further, into game-‐making. As a student steps up to this challenge, he or she must master the concepts at hand, experiment with rules, literally re-‐cast the concepts of mathemaOcs, or chemistry, or history, or literature, into the pieces of a game, and then apply the critical emerging skills of programming, scripting, level design, information design, modelling, texturing, animaOng, and debugging. Here, if it is anywhere, is the epitome of the interdisciplinary, thematic, outcome-‐based unit of educational advancement.” (part of the Pleiades mission statement)

SO when you take all of these elements and add students as avatars, an incredibly 23 rich 3-‐d immersive world and a huge community of players – you have World of Warcraft and LET ME TELL YOU – You have a powerful learning environment-‐

Azeroth is the name of the world in WoW– and it is an extremely complex. Visiually beautiful and diverse world. As a new gamer I experienced the scaﬀolded learning that unfolded as the game TAUGHT me how to play it– but more importantly – I was once again put in the role of novice-‐ and I remembered how it felt to be reluctant to ask a quesOon less I look foolish – I marveled at how I would fail at a task and be eager to try it again – and I slowly started to unpack the elements of the game design – and understand why 12 million people play (and pay 15$ A MONTH TO DO So) but now the task at hand was to identify the learning principles and see how I could incorporate them into my instruction -‐ and then I thought about the rich backstory of Azeroth – the vocabulary I had encountered in game and the problem solving and criOcal thinking (no less the map skills and the Ome management) and rather than trying to reinvent the wheel (which in this case was invented by a 1.1 billion dollar corporaOon ) WHY NOT “DISCOVER” THE LEARNING INSIDE-‐ AND GUIDE MY STUDENTS THROUGH IT– IT WAS THIS IDEA THAT LAUNCHED…

Learning With the Lich King – Using World of Warcraft in School – Lucas Gillispie (NEWTON APOGEE IN SL) AND I COLLABORATED IN AN AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM FOR AT RISK STUDENT POPULATIONS – Our students collaborated via ventrilo – VOIP and all of the learning principles we had hoped would be at work were manifested in the students’ level of participation, collaboration –they were reading and writing -‐ and working together to solve complex problems – coordinating there eﬀorts – learning to lead – or to be a member of a team – they formed a guild and held elections for oﬃcers—all of this involved reading and writing and communication – and THEY LOVED IT! Image Credt: Chalkboard Image -‐ <div xmlns:cc=”http://creativecommons.org/ns#” about=”http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/35034353562@N01/525197419/”><a rel=”cc:attributionURL” href=”http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/iamthebestartist/”>http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/iamthebestartist/</a> / <a rel=”license” href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-‐nc-‐sa/2.0/”>CC BY-‐NC-‐SA 2.0</a></div> Lich King by – Johnboy007007 on Deviant Art -‐ http://jonboy007007.deviantart.com/

AND THEN LAST SUMMER – LUCAS AND HIS LEAD TEACHER, Craig Lawson, DID THE PAINSTAKING WORK OF BULDING A Formal CURRICULUM AROUND IT ALL –THAT’S RIGHT – A Common Core STANDARD-‐ALIGNED ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL students – CREATED IN MOODLE AND (HOPeFULLY) SOON TO BE SHARED WITH THE WORLD– Diane Lewis from Seminole County schools came on board, and adapted the course to the needs of her students-‐ and both she and Lucas will be sharing that experience in presentaOons here during VWBPE

What is the diﬀerence – what sets this kind of learning experience apart from tradiOonal learning -‐ This isn’t a case of “kids hate school – kids love games – bring the games into school – but much deeper – kids are invested in their learning – they are immersed in experiential learning – not only of the mandated curriculum – but of the “hidden curriculum –participating in fan ﬁction – receiving experience points and achievements in lieu of grades – where the learning experience IS INCLUSIVE OF THE ASSESSMENT!!! where they have opportuniOes for developing – self-‐esteem – social skills cultural awareness and EMPATHY Classroom Cataclysm (…or, what happens to “school” when learners become heroes.). By: Lucas Gillispie, Instructional Technology Coordinator, Pender County Schools Founder, WoWinSchool Project (http://wowinschool.pbworks.com) Original background image by Blizzard Entertainment. Rock Background -‐ h]p://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=85052 27

The best way to get involved is to simply jump in! Already researchers from universities, teachers, college students, and even high school students are getting involved. Helga Brown from Elizabeth City, NC has written some incredible lessons. We need more! We need them aligned to standards. We need folks to discuss logistics, funding, and more! Since May, the wiki has had over 10,00 visits came from 114 countries. 28 registered authors contributing, supporting research, funding ideas, logistics info., and most importantly lessons.

So, how do you start your own program? Here are a few Tips… First, do your background research. Here are some suggested TItles… “Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning” by Marc Prensky, “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy” by James Gee, and “How Computer Games Help Children Learn” by David Williamson Shaﬀer. Also check out the lengthy research list at: h]p://wowinschool.pbworks.com/w/page/5268741/SupporOng-‐Research

If money is a big issue, there are perfectly viable free alternatives. Lord of the Rings Online is a great example.

One option available for younger students that appears to be really promising is Lego Universe – not only is it an MMOG where the gameplay is social and safe – but unlike many MMORPGs there are in game building opOons! Every player gets their own piece of LEGO Universe property! There you can FreeBuild anything you like— LEGO brick by lego brick— and bring your creations to life! But most importantly when my colleague Marianne Malmstrom who we all know and love in Sl as Knowclue Kidd contacted LEGO – they responded with great eagerness to WORK with her to help align the product with educational goals – they have set her up as a pilot and they are listening – LEGO has made education a priority-‐ http://universe.lego.com/en-‐us/thegame/default.aspx 3

In conclusion, think about our role as teachers-‐-‐-‐What does all this mean to us as educators? There is general consensus that education is in trouble, that skill and drill -‐ no child left behind, diminished recess, elimination of the arts programs … … are all leaving many students AND many teachers dissatisﬁed and not having much fun. But All of the ranting and raving about education being broken is not going to ﬁx it-‐-‐however, the fact that you are here – logged in FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD-‐-‐ demonstrates that you have a desire to enact change-‐ and the most important change you can make is in your own practice, whether it be in your own classroom….with your own students or in your design headquarters—or just in your thinking -‐ by reintroducing curiosity, playfulness, risk-‐taking-‐ and experimentation that embraces “failure” as a NECESSARY step toward success– and beginning that re-‐introduction by using games and VWs is a “no -brainer” !

Those of us who are involved in new worlds for learning are the seeds of The Metaissance and if we are exploring what are BEST PRACTICES –we know that they are still evolving –But Here’s what I DO KNOW WITH EVERY GRAIN OF MY BEING When Students function as avatar – immersed in experiential situated learning – a whole dimension of new aﬀordances for learning take place. We must be learners along with our students – we must model the risk-‐taking and the curiosity we hope to inspire in them We must be champions for these kids – if we don’t bring their learning into the new age – we are sadly failing them and their futures!

Remember that with all of the trials and tribulations associated with radical change—the future simply overﬂowing with opportunity. We are 10 years into the 21st century – The future is not something way oﬀ in the distance—THE FUTURE IS NOW AND YOUR CLASS IS IN SESSION!.

Images from: h]p://www.disney-‐clipart.com/Chicken-‐Li]le/Chicken-‐Li]le-‐Clipart.php

Please feel free to contact me in any world if I can help you in your journey! SKYPE: maggiemarat TWITTER: @peggysheehy World of Warcra{: Sisters of Elune Server, Alliance, Maratsade, Sheehredd, Mairet CogniOve Dissonance Guild: h]p://cogniOvedissonance.guildportal.com WoWinSchool: http://wowinschool.pbworks.com/

Ramapo Islands Blog: http://ramapoislands.edublogs.org

PeggySheehy

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Suffern Middle School in Virtual Worlds

A running account of the process of the proposal, acquisition, development and integration of a virtual presence for education at Suffern Middle School, Suffern, New York, USA.

Where have I been?

We packed our pixels and left.

As the Worldz Turn – Presentation Transcript

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