It's been a while..

So it's been a couple of weeks, though it doesn't seem like it, since I've posted here. Things got so busy with the Comps and me working on my Literature Review, which has been more difficult than I had originally thought. I am putting a lot of effort into making sure that I don't make claims that I don't have evidence of with a journal citation.

As far as my PLN, I am really loving the Book Club discussion on Google Groups. I don't see any major differences between Google Groups and a discussion board on Moodle or any other site, but I guess that's the point. It definitely is a great way to facilitate discussion and I bet Google isn't blocked at most schools. Though, you do need an e-mail address to use it. Maybe public schools should think about teaming up with Google, like Fairfield University did, so that we can use Google tools more easily without having to either use personal e-mail accounts or to create a new account.

The book discussion has been great, like I said. I really enjoyed reading the book, which always makes a book club discussion better. It seems that everyone really enjoyed the book, which, again makes discussions real and interesting. I would definitely use Google Groups again for a class or for any other reason to keep a discussion going. It is also nice that it e-mails me when a new post has been added. This helps me to keep track of the postings that other people write..

Second Life Experience

Screenshot 1 -My avatar is straight ahead with pink dress

My screenshot 2--Another view--My avatar is the one in the center of the picture, with a ponytail.

I participated in a Second Life Session--SL Education Roundtable--on Tuesday, November 4th at Montclair State University. It is a session that is held every Tuesday, but because it was the first Tuesday of the month, they had a special panel of speakers. An interesting feature of the meeting was that it was voice chat, so I was able to hear the voices of the speakers. Ignatius Onomatopoeia, introduced the session and the speakers that were at the meeting. He is a faculty member at the University of Richmond. There was a person that was transcribing the meeting, which allows the transcript to be available at: http://www.virtualworldsedu.info/slroundtable/.

The guests of this meeting were: Jenaia Morane & Marty Snowpaw of the Virtual Worlds Story Project. Both of these individuals had impressive resumes, including doing work for Scholastic, HBO, CBS, Sony writer, etc. Their current project is to "develop and produce immersive, interactive, and educational Story Quests where people of all ages can embark on learning adventures." The guests began the session of the brief introduction by answering a question posed by the host.

As I listened and participated in the session, I found myself having difficulty paying attention to the conversation. Though what they were talking about was quite interesting, it was difficult for me to listen to a person, who I cannot see, speak. I guess this contributes to my learning style, which is very visually based. I learn better by seeing than I do by hearing. The transcript helped me to better focus on the conversation, but because other people (other participants of the session) were able to add their own comments, it was sometimes difficult to follow what the speakers were saying.

The speakers did discuss about how stories are so important to learning and stated that stories help people to make sense of their lives and understand others. The story that they discussed, specifically, was about a man with HIV/AIDS. By hearing a story about such a situation, it often helps people to understand and sympathize with each other on a personal level. I completely agree with this. With young and old children, storytelling is very important. It is a way to help students to relate with one another on a personal level. I use storytelling in my own classroom to build upon students' literacy and writing skills, but after participating in this session, I now see new reasons why storytelling is important to the listener and not just the writer/storyteller. The stories they talked about that relate to HIV/AIDS demonstrated the idea that stories about personal experiences helped people to understand the disease and prevance of it.

One of the aspects of this session that I was unsure of was my role as a participator. I saw people typing messages about what was being said, but I didn't know if I was expected to simply listen or to engage in the conversation. I found that if I began typing, I would quickly lose my focus on the speakers. Thus, I decided against typing in the dialogue box and simply listened to the speakers discuss their project and the importance of storytelling. I was also confused about the screen behind the speakers, that displayed different photos. When I ran my mouse over the screen, it said, "Hippo Slideshow" and that I was able to Display My Pictures--Did participants simply upload random pictures?

I am happy that I participated in a Second Life session, but I pretty sure that I won't participate in many more sessions. It is very possible that I would enjoy a session in which the communication was done through text instead of voice because of my learning preference. However, I am still not quite sure that I would enjoy that type of session more than I enjoy using others PLNs, such as reading blogs, etc. Google Reader has prevailed as my favorite means of getting information from a variety of sources regarding educational news, ideas, etc.

Twitter...

So, I received an e-mail from Twitter saying that there were numerous accounts suspended accidentally on the evening of 10/31 and that my account was a part of that group..Go figure!

Twitter

So, today I signed into Twitter and posted a link that I found from the Internet of an article about PLNs in the classroom. I logged out of Twitter, but then I realized that I wanted to log back in, so I could take a screen shot of this PLN in action. When I logged in, a message appeared that my account has been suspended. I followed the directions as to what to do when this occurs and sent an e-mail message about my concern that my Twitter account had been suspended by mistake. I received an instantaneous message back, which directed me to reply to the message stating why I believe the account was suspended erroneously. So, of course, I did that, too. Now, I am waiting to hear back. Possible reasons that an account could be suspended include violation of copyright, promoting SPAM, etc. I am very frustrated with the site, because I have NO idea what I could have done that violated Twitter rules. My dislike for the site continues..I will update once I hear back about my account...

2nd Life, continued

So, I've played around with Second Life a bit more, so I think I have a better understanding of how to get around. I have chatted with other avatars, asking them for their help, when I need it. I accidentally found a session that people were having, where I was able to hear their voices. I'm not quite sure what the session was about, but it seemed like the people were simply talking to each other about how to get the sound in check. It was on ISTE island and there was only one other person in the audience. I left the session since I was bored by their inability to get the sound all straightened out. I wish I could've figured out what the session was for, but since I'm a newbie, I'm still learning. Another difficult thing that I've encountered with Second Life is the lack of choices with event times. Because I take class and work during the week, I have been having a tough time finding a session with a convenient time. I have now found a session on ISTE island for next Thursday night, which works for me. However, it is past the due date for the assignment..Hopefully I can get a tiny extension so I can participate in this Second Life world!!