Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

I would like to share an article that two of my amazing pioneering students and I wrote about our experiences on Reaction Grid and in virtual worlds.  I promoted these two students to estate managers of Digiteen Island and the F.L.A.T.S. and they have done amazing work with it.  This was printed in the Fall Issue of the SIG Innovative Learning and Technology newsletter which I've embedded at the bottom of this post. If you're not on this Special Interest Group for ISTE and you love technology - you're missing out!  You can see Trent and Tyler interviewed on Leon Cych's blog Post about the Open Source Virtual World Pioneers . Virtually Open Source by Vicki Davis, Teacher Trent H  and Tyler R, Students and Co-Estate Managers Digiteen Island and the F.L.A.T.S. (Flat Learning Area for Teaching and Sharing) From Vicki Davis, Teacher - Moving My Class Into a Virtual World: Driven By Students to Innovate When my 2008 Freshman class was brainstorming their ideas ...

Kurt Cobain singing Bon Jovi, a sacrilege according to his widow and estate manager, Courtney Love .  Even though she licensed the use of his image as an unlockable guitar hero in the new game by Activision, her lawyer says: " Love’s lawyer told the TMZ.com Web site : “Activision is exploiting Kurt’s image in a manner anathema to the very essence of his music, spirit and essence. I along with Ms. Cobain hope those who love Kurt’s music strongly voice their sentiments to Activision and demand his image not be debased by singing the songs of Bon Jovi.”" We are now entering the time of some sort of reincarnation through the avatars of the deceased. People like John Wayne , Kurt Cobain, Fred Astaire , and yes, Michael Jackson take a lifetime to build a personal brand and the time is fast approaching where they can be reincarnated to be in video games, web apps, cell phone apps, and eventually movies yet again.  Since Courtney Love approved the use of Cobain's likeness -...

Fridays are always reflection days here -- when we share what we learned via blog post, discussions, or video. Today, we ustreamed. Several times my mouth went open. Like, when one of the terraformers (these are the people who make the land ) talked about the vision for the island and the creation of good "badguys" - people who are trustworthy to operate the avatars of the villains who roam the island and try to get students to give out inappropriate information. So, let the students speak for themselves. Listen to our terraforming team talk about our island, the uses of Open Sim in schools (We use www.reactiongrid.com and LOVE it!), and their vision of what they'd like to see happen. Also, hear the reflections of the other students about their work in virtual worlds. Free Webcam Chat at Ustream This is a great group of students and they are doing wonderful work! We're getting ready to start on their book. So, what am I teaching them, what are our objectives? A...

Over the next days of break, we've scheduled student reflections on the Digiteen Dream Team and the protest of Google lively shutting down to post on the Dream Team Blog. As part of their reflection, I asked the students to tell me if the protest was worth it since Lively is still shutting down and Google hasn't responded to their requests. Today's reflective post from Krysten , says it so well: "I feel that our efforts were worth all the trouble we went through. We had people say mean things about us but we kept going. I learned to not let other people's opinions keep me from doing what is right. Some people think that we should not teach others about digital citizenship because they think it can be taught in twenty minutes and that it wont help. But the fact is that more and more people are using the internet and if they dont know how to use it properly, it could be dangerous." My goodness, such wisdom for life and for so many things.   Hope you'l...

Simulpost with techlearning Perhaps the first trial for a virtual world murder is going to happen in Japan.  (Technically it is for hacking as the crime.)  The article Japanese Woman Arrested for Virtual-World 'Murder ' tells the story: " A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday. The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy." To me, this comes back to the emphasis of WHAT we should be teaching students: Online behavior has offline consequences.  If we can teach them in small things, then hacki...

People with special needs and learning differences are near and dear to my heart, so this is one that has to be passed along. Whether or not Second Life is the platform of our future, if you're attending conferences like NECC and listening to academicians, 3D virtual worlds USED WELL can reach kids who we're struggling to reach everywhere. Today, this is what is happening: Louise Later (SL), who is legally blind, will be with us to discuss how Second Life is used by the visually impaired. She will demonstrate two scripted objects currently under development designed specifically for the visually impaired: a mobility cane and a guide dog, and she will also talk about how EVA (an screen readin g tool) benefits visually impaired users, and her work with Virtual Ability , a Colorado-based startup developing products to assist people with different type of disabilities to utilize Second Life. For more about accessibility in Second Life, click here: http://wiki.secondlife.com...

Now this is a fascinating idea! I cannot pass along EVERYTHING I get, however, this is a really great one that I've got to share. There will be a 24-hour multilingual conference about using Second Life to Teach. It will be held entirely within Edunation at Second life -- the times are: Starts: 10am PST (18.00 GMT) 23 May 2008 Ends: 10am PST (18.00 GMT) 24 May 2008 This is what I like about this. What is the best way to teach language? Immersion. But not every child can afford a trip to Spain or Italy or China or wherever. With 3D immersive experiences, I believe (researchers please listen) that we could see richer, more meaningful ways to increase language learning. I believe that languages represent an INCREDIBLE opportunity for 3D immersive worlds. So, pioneering language teachers, get a friend to take you into Second Life (DO NOT GO IN ALONE!) and learn how to navigate. And sign up and head on over to this conference. Here is their slideshare: | View | Upload your own Th...

This is a fascinating portal to virtual worlds used to teach literature. IT IS NOT in second life but is an example of Web 3d. I have not explored these, but have heard that they are great tools to use. "Western Michigan University English professors and doctoral students working in 2006-07" created this site! The novels that are included: A Midsummer Night's Dream Democracy An Island Like You Mrs. Dalloway The Tempest 1984 Things Fall Apart Take a look and let me know what you think. I want to know more and am very excited about this resource. Let me know what you think. (Hat tip to my new friend Ellen Ullman for pointing out this article she wrote for District Administration magazine last year. What a great resource!) I look forward to hearing your thoughts! How can high school classes use these? tag: Web3D , education , teaching , literature , , Vicki A Davis , coolcatteacher

a simulpost with TechLearning As I read about the evolution of the Web , I just feel that many of the experts are missing it! (Perhaps the 3D web is part of the " intelligent agent " idea, but I'm not so sure.) Yes, I think the semantic web is important (see the W3c specs ) and inherently part of the future of the web, but I think there is one overarching evolution happening right now under our feet that is inexorably enmeshed with the semantic web. It is there amidst the video games and "fun things" that most educators refuse to recognize. With "Web 2.0" barely taking a "bit" part in most of today's classrooms, the next evolution of the web, I predict, is not Web 3.0. I think it will be Web 3D. The 3D web! Lest one think I have come up with this, visionaries have been discussing this for around 15 years. The 3D web has really been around since the Sims went online and allowed people to virtually live next to each other. Howev...