February 9, 2009 Professional Development Day

 Quest Atlantis

"Quest Atlantis is a Multi-User Virtual Environment modeled after Second Life and World of Warcraft.  In the game, students control an avatar who travels through the world and attempts Quests.  According to the QA website:

 

A Quest is an engaging curricular task designed to be educational and entertaining. In completing Quests, students are required to participate in simulated and real world activities that are socially and academically meaningful, such as environmental studies, researching other cultures, interviewing community members, and developing action plans.

 

Quests are also tied to one of seven “Social Commitments”:

• Social Responsibility
• Compassionate Wisdom
• Creative Expression
• Diversity Affirmation
• Environmental Awareness
• Healthy Communities
• Personal Agency"

from The Tehnorate Teacher

 

 

 

Link to Quest Atlanis

 

December 4th, 2008 Meeting

 

 

 5 Sites:

 

1.    For professional development: KnowSchools

offers week-long (Moodle-based) pro-d on topics from podcasting to digital storytelling

 

2.    For professional development: webinars from International Society for Technology (ISTE)

Contact Karen West to view these archived webinars

 

3.    For K-12Google Lit Trips

a great site that ties Google Maps together with literature: Picture books to novels

 

4.    For grade 5 up (& professional)  educational bookmarking: Diigo new Educator Account

 

5.    For Science: Planet Science from the UK

 

 

 

5 Tools:

 

 

1.    Inspiration/Kidspiration  (software) visual learning environments to create diagrams, outlines and mind maps.

 

2.    Screen Capture: 2 examples: Jing  and Bug Shooting  (both are free downloads)

 

3.    Video collecting/sharing tool: Vodpod (can add a 'save video' button to your toolbar) 

 

4.    Web-based image manipulation tools:  FlickrToys (includes mosaic maker, captioner and others that allow students to represent & share their learning) 

 

5.    Cartooning tool:   Make Beliefs Comix no user name/password, can't see work of others

 

 

 

May 8th, 2008 Meeting

 

Stew Savard:

 

• Google Sketchup 

        "great (free) constructivist application--ask Tech Dept to put on your data set."

 

Jan Smith:

 

• VoiceThread 

       "students & teachers can create on-line media albums, then invite others to view and add voice or text comments--free web-based application, very powerful"

Karen West: 

 

• HippoCampus

 

        "a rich and growing site--its goal of is to provide high-quality, multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students free of charge" 

•  OER Commons (0pen Educational Resources)

 

        "a network where teachers can access their colleagues’ course materials, share their own, and collaborate; uses Web 2.0 features (tags, ratings, comments, reviews, and social networking)"

 

 

Keith Barnard:

 

• Keith Barnard shared briefly about WebMath and praised the quality of this solutions-based site.