Guest Speakers

Wow today in class we had several guest speakers. The first thing that I must mention is that a few of them were not even in our classroom! They used a video conferincing called Skype and a virtual world called Second Life. I have not explored Skype yet, but I intend to. I have blogged about Second Life previously.

Bringing guest speakers to the class in this method gives students a sense of belonging to a larger world. I imagine it would also be easier to line up guest speakers since you are not limited to a location. My third graders would not be able to meet a speaker in Second Life, but could benefit from Skype. Since each classroom in my school has a projector, my students could easily be a part of the conversation. It reminds me a lot of ICN on a larger scale.

Our first guest speaker, Steve Hargadon, created the classroom 2.0 ning. He said something that really resonated with me and I believe will have the greatest, easiest impact in my teaching. He commented that in school he wrote many papers that he still has to this day, that were only viewed by his teacher, himself, and his family. Students want a broader audience for the work they do. By publishing student work on the web, then others could view it. This could be by posting to a class blog, class newsletter, or in the final step of the writing process, publish to the web instead of a nice handwritten copy.

Our other guest speakers expanded my awareness of educational uses of Second Life. I also heard about the NETS, which I suspect will be used by many schools in the future as they write their standards.

Blogging Assignment about Multiplie Discussions

Before I begin my thoughts on multiple avenues for chatting, I want to send my best wishes to those affected by the floods. As someone who has loved ones that have lost their house, I am thankful for all the help and compassion being shown.

Last Thursday night, June 5, my class held a discussion. This online discussion was unique because it was being held across three venues, a chat room, mebeam, and secondlife. I found it hard to follow a linear conversation. There were several side conversations going on in each venue. Digital Natives would have an easier time with this multi-tasking. I however, am a very linear person and found myself getting confused and perhaps a little frustrated.

I do have a little pride that I was able to attempt all three. You do need the right equipment (microphones, speakers, cameras, high-speed internet, sound cards, video cards, and lots of other equipment I can't even comprehend) to make it the most successful. If you have the right equipment, I could see mebeam being benefically the most because you can have images and sound.

Deb, another student in my EIT class also tried to use all three. She saw some value in using mebeam and chat. She said in her blog, "As far as an aspect of distance learning, chatting and mebeam are a couple of venues which make it possible for individuals from a large geographical area to come together and share thoughts at one time. "

It was a great experience that encouraged me that I was more capable than I previously thought!

I am off to do more sandbagging.