Flat Classroom Project

                                                                              
                                                   



          Beginning my journey with the flat classroom project, I was excited about working with students throughout the world. First we had to select a topic we are interested in. The topic I selected is "Personal Learning Environments and Social Networking". After selecting which topic I would like to be an Expert Advisor of, I introduced myself  to my group in the discussion board. The discussion board is how expert advisors and students stayed connected and communicate with each other. After posting my introduction, many students replied to me by introducing themselves and told me where they are from and the schools they went to. For example one of the students attends Midpark High school in Ohio, and another students attends Mount Carmel High School. From there I begin to think about how great it will be to be able to watch students across the world work together online on this project.

I kept update with the project by staying connected with students and checking there progress on there work. As we know, working in a group project can be a little difficult at times, and this is where some students experience this at first when they first started on the project. One student question their teammate "Is anyone else working on this project besides me?'' But as time progress the students started to work on their projects together. I think it's great how they worked together on this project. This showed me that we don't have to be together in person to collabortively work together, we can have a global collaboration.

Here is a video from past flat classroom students where they share their reflections and experiencs of the flat classroom project!

Quest 4!!

 For this quest we had to change the look of our avatar. We had to take a before and after picture!!

This is the BEFORE picture!!

 Here is this picture I was wearing a pink dress with white spots on it, with a black belt wrapped around my waist, with black leggings, and black heels!!! My avatar was looking pretty dull I must say.

Now here comes the AFTER picture!!



The AFTER picture



Here, Ms. LovelyBlu18 is now wearing a nice short sleeve blue top, with black pants, and open toe flat shoes! I wanted to change my avartar clothes where fits my avatar's name. Besides the clothes, I also changed the size of her nose, her eye color, the muscles of her legs, and her height. I wanted her to be a little bit taller than what she was before. Now below are a few snapshots I shot while browsing around in Second Life.

Here in this picture I was in a women's store again looking at there products. I did want to buy a shirt that was $25, but it turns our I have $0... I really had a sad face then. That made me wonder how can I make money in Second Life??



In this picture I decided to take a ride on the City Bus!!!! I didn't know that I could actually ride on the bus in Second Life but I did!!



After finishing touring around on Lionheart Orientation Island, I decided to go to LONDON!!! Once I appeared in London so many people was greeting and socializing with me! I felt welcome to the community immediately! Here in this picture I was at a gathering. As you can see the other's were dancing and enjoying themselves!

Quest 3!!

Reading directions in orientation

In Quest 3 we had to go to Lionheart Orientation room where we had to follow a green arrow and read directions on how to use tools in Second Life. I had no trouble  following the green arrows, but I did have a struggle picking up the beach ball.

Dancing after sitting on the green ball

 To your right this a picture I took dancing after I took a seat on the green ball!! I didn't know what she was doing at first!! I had to capture a picture of me dancing in second life!

Completeing Orientation

This picture on the left shows me completing orientation! After orientation was completed I did some site seeing on the island. I even tried chasing after the a bus I seen moving just to see if I could catch up with it! I also visited a women's clothing store too! It had some nice clothes in there!

Second Life Quest 2

I thought the quest 2 was pretty cool! We had to find certain things, and run around in the courtyard like a MADWOMAN!!!! That was great!! This quest actually help me to practice the tools that i have learned. I really enjoyed flying and taking snapshots! Here are a few shots I took from the quest!

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Second Life

Second Life Quest 1



From the very beginning when I was first introduced to second life I thought it was very cool! Now begin apart of it excites me even more. I enjoyed watching the videos to learn more about second life. The video basically showed us how second life will be like and different ways of using second life. The spokes person in the video broke down everything on how to use second life and the great things we should expect from it! The first thing we had to do was pick our avatar! Picking an avatar and name was exciting! I wanted to choose an avatar and a name that I think best fits me! Now that I'm a member of second life, I do look forward to learning and experiencing new adventures within the second life community.

Is Gaming Educational?

 

                                                             Is Gaming Educational?

       The game that I selected to play is Farmville! I've seen many of my Facebook friends playing this game, so I decided to give it a try. My first time playing this game was very interesting. It made me see different ways of how this game can be used as an educational tool when it comes to learning about math and science. When it comes to math I had to manage my money correctly in order for it to last. I needed to decide on how much to spend on crops, and that took me back to when I was in school learning how to add and substract money from statements dealing with solving problems with money.
      With science I thought about different farm animals students can learning about. With these in animals in the game students will have to make sure they are properly taken care of at all times. Another thing that came into mind when I thought about science was crops. Students will also learn about different crops (vegetables) from this games and how to take care of them. These are a few things I thought about when I first played this game. I think this game is kind of cool and it can be used as learning tool in grades K-4.

Technology in the Schools

Are we introducing our children to technology
                      early in age?


This is a question we must ask ourselves as parents, caregivers, eductors, and guardians.While reading the book "Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds, and What We Can Do About It?" by Jane M. Healy, Ph.D, I have learned the importance of why we should introduce our children to technology at a certain age. Healy stated "During the early years, the brain has a staggering number of developmental tasks to accomplish, and environments influence its formation."

Which means from ages birth to five is where their foundaton of learning development begins. During these years is where our children will master these developmental task:
Learning in a social context,
Learning to use all the senses,
Learning to be a powerful learner, learning to pay attention,
Learning visual imagery and memory,
Learning to think logically, and
Learning new symbol systems.

Children will begin to learn the importance of play through physical development with their body and mind, playing with their peers, and they will begin their language development as well. From birth to five, our children are "Concrete Learners" which means they learn from things in the real world and from their families. Overall if a child is introduced to technology too early, it can affect their learning development, so it's very important to keep that in mind while deciding what is best for your child.

For educators who are having a hard time deciding when to integrate technology within there lessons, read this article by Murphy, L., DeQasquale, R., McNamara, E. (2003).  http://journal.naeyc.org/btj/200311/techinprimaryclassrooms.pdf. In this article the authors share their experience from integrating technology into their lessons.