Ideas for Lesson


Below is from an email from Rogelio regarding a "back-up" plan to use if we don't get a "Sandbox" or land use approved.  It sounds pretty good to me, and I think will satisfy the requirement that we work within the 2nd life environment:

 

"Here is an idea, instead of building the square, triangle, etc... We can have the learners look for an object that represent it in SL.  Once they find it they can take a screenshot and open with paint, once they open it paint they can draw the lines or circle that will show the triangle, square, etc...  They must then post that image to the wiki page give a short description of the term. Just an idea."

 

 

CONGRATS  TO  FABIAN! 

Ideas:

 

Fabian Salcedo

 

I am ok with doing part 2 .  Sorry for not checking here earlier but wife just had our baby (Samantha 1:44 p.m Friday 2/12/10) and we brought her home yesterday Sat and we've had so many people drop by that I had forgotten all about this.  I will be out for 10 working days so you can call me (956-455-0909/ fsalcedo@bisd.us).  If I have not answered please call me again as I am trying to help my wife as much as I can with the baby.  Take care and sorry for not posting before. 

 

 

Roy Campa

I think that math is a univesal language, why don't we do one on math, and see what we come up with.  The tutorial can be based on integrating technology with algebraic terms, I wrote a case study on it and I think that we can follow it, and pin point where we need to tutor on

 

here is a link to my case study that I wrote for one of the classes. 

http://butleratutb.pbworks.com/The-Perfect-Case-Study  

 

Lynda - Math is good with me unless someone wants to give me a Spanish lesson. I think we should use some kind of lesson that could be better taught in Second Life or at least taught as well as in the classroom or we are wasting our time. Can we find some way in 2nd Life to teach the math lesson that uses something specific or unique to 2nd life?

I just looked at your case study, Roy. What if we did a Geometric Shape Scavenger Hunt? Bring the group together at the UTB island and show examples of all the shapes, then send everyone out on a scavenger hunt to find them. Set a time limit and the one who returns with the most shapes in their inventory wins.

See also Scenario Page 

 

FROM  JOHN - Great stuff, folks. My thoughts:

 

I'm okay with any content - if it's math, then I'll have to be one of the "learners".  Let's try to figure out how to make it as complex for the learners as for the teachers (or simple for both).  Otherwise, the "teachers" will be doing all the prep work, and the learners will have it easy.

 

Maybe a very "media-rich" unique 2nd life project is going the wrong way for us...  Perhaps we should keep it simple, even conventional, and analyze how 2nd life effects it.  I was imagining a home-bound student who needs the regular school curriculum taught to him/her through some remote medium.  So answering Lynda's point, I'm thinking we wouldn't be improving a classroom environment, just adapting it to a situation where distance learning was required. Just a thought...

 

Perhaps the tutor doesn't want to invent a whole new curriculum, but wants to adapt an existing one?   Then we could analyze how the 2nd life format effects the teaching, and the asking of questions, the quiz process, the communication, etc...

 

I guess I'm worried that if we try to do a "flashy" 2nd life-unique teaching technique, then we'll quickly get in over our heads... and, frankly, are we really going to master this medium in this semester...?

 

Who is the math teacher in the group?  Is there something modular that could be taught someone like me in a single lesson?  I wouldn't mind hearing about trig again... I kind of snoozed through that in high school...

 

 

Roy Campa- Lynda and John, now that I think of it a scavanger hunt is good, instead of using digital cameras to take pictures, now they can use 2nd life to find the objects.  I like the idea of have them go out and find them.  Algebraic terms, square, diamond, hexagon, triangle, circle, rectangle, etc... I performed this lesson with 2nd grade students and they had a blast, I  think it will benefit them more because they are already familiar with game style (playstation etc....) remember we are not actually building this, but it sounds feasible.  John you mentioned that we should keep it simple, this is just the case here, it will allow the student to get tutored in math and associate it to 1st life.  Let me know if you all want to go foward with this.  I can be the teacher, and you all can be the students.  What do you say? 

 

Thanks

 

FROM JOHN I'm okay to go ahead with this, if others are.  Here are my concerns: we are all beginners with the graphics, so that might be a struggle.  I have played a little with "create", however, and it's easy to make shapes.   Also, as we report on our experience "learning", or do we imagine we are 2nd graders, or how does that work?

So February 14 is the next date for the Abstract - let's get that fixed up - I took a shot at it - it seems like if we are going to do tutoring, we should take Roy's lesson individually, as if we were home-bound learners  (this will distinguish us from all the classroom instruction SL stuff that is already all over the place out there, at least at the TCEA conference this week!)

 

FROM JOHN - I'm adding Lynda's suggested work break-down:

 

We could break the remaining work into 5 parts:

1) overview of the research and theory/references (I would be happy to do this unless someone else would rather)

2) description of 3 interesting and useful education/training resources in SL (Fabian has found these)

3) scenario - our experiment (Roy is the tutor)

4) compilation of team's experiences and perceptions including experiment -- John says okay to this

5) visual documentation - screenshots, video, etc. (Alfredo?)