Homemade Portal Video

POrtal: Terminal Velocity from Jason Craft on Vimeo.

The story was posted yesterday on TechCrunch. The homevideo is really well done. We can dream, can’t we?

3DGameLab + NOAA = Planet Stewards

EdTech Insider

Chris Haskell and I like to joke that a lot of our ideas start out with a “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”  …if we offer a gaming camp to teens, if we use quests as pedagogy,  if we had a quest tracker tool to monitor progress on quests?  And thus the birth of 3D GameLab.

Then along comes the DML Badges for Lifelong Learning Competition.  Wouldn’t it be cool if NOAA would pair up with us to do quests in 3D GameLab?  If those quests led to the award of a badge?  If those badges represented NOAA career pathways (non-traditional) instead of content grouped around clusters (traditional)?  And wouldn’t it be cool if students could choose which badges to work on based on their own interest (personalized learning)?

All those “ifs” came true, and Planet Stewards is now in progress!  We feel so fortunate to be teamed up…

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TED.ed Flip this lesson

Repost from http://blog.ted.com/2012/04/25/flip-it-a-new-way-to-teach-with-video-from-ted-ed/

Flip this lesson: A new way to teach with video from TED-ed

Announcing a new way to use video to create customized lessons: the “Flip This Lesson” feature from TED-Ed, now in beta at ed.ted.com.

With this feature, educators can use, tweak, or completely redo any video lesson featured on TED-Ed, or create lessons from scratch based on a TEDTalk or any video from YouTube. How? Just plug the video in and start writing questions, comments, even quizzes — then save the lesson as a private link and share with your students. The site allows you to see who’s completed the lessons and track individual progress. It’s still in beta, but we’re so excited about this feature we had to share.

Watch the short video to learn how it works:

“Flip This Lesson” is an open platform — you can create a lesson from any video, whether from the TED-Ed library, from more than 1,000 TEDTalks, or from any video on YouTube. Read Chris Anderson’s blog post about why we built TED-Ed as an open platform. Read the full press announcement here. And explore a sample lesson Chris made as a proof-of-concept, based on a great new TED-Ed talk.

Then — go forth and write lessons of your own!

REBLOG! RETWEET! SHARE!

KZero Radar Q1 2012

Nic Mitham just posted the 2012 first quarter report yesterday: “The KZero Q1 2012 Radar chart showing virtual worlds by genre and operational status.”

Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge 2012

The Maya Astronomy Center built in Second Life (HMS Center Region) is a Finalist at FVWC‘s Focus Area: Engaging Learning.

Here is the video tour:

Beverly Gay McCarter notes: “www.HumanMosaicSystems.com — This is a BRIEF video tour of the HMS Maya Astronomy Center_Phases 1 and 2 COMBINED.

The Maya Astronomy Center_Phases 1 & 2 is an interlocking kinetic modular learning system that is a resource intensive build. It explores the Maya understanding of astronomical events and how that information impacted their culture and society. This learning module utilizes a multi-floored resource Library, as well as related independent learning modules that expand on the central subject being taught.

The Center is a free standing learning module that is able to be a stand alone exhibit or be integrated into other related builds expanding its capability. It demonstrates a pedagogical model that can be used with a variety of subject matter. The learning environment uses interactive intelligent agents, a HUD learning management system, music and dance to reinforce learning, interactive 3D models, a narrative structure to help explain the complex dynamics involved with the topic and to set the learner on an engaging Quest, hidden traps and reward systems that impact tokens earned, and multiple quizzes that award prizes.

This self-guided immersive learning environment utilizes Maya cultural mentors who appear and guide the participant as they explore the various interactive 3D exhibits in the Maya temple and on the grounds giving the participant more in depth information through the use of interactive 3D models, chat, note cards, slide presentations, web links, and videos.

The exhibits help the participants understand the complexity of the subject by breaking it down into different related units that build upon one another as the participants explore the information in this interrelated learning module.”

 

Be sure to watch this video and tell us what you think! Thanks

Ender’s Game Goes to Hollywood

On Feb 27, 2012, on ARVEL sig Ning, I blogged that while watching the Oscars, the news of Ender’s Game being given the big screen treatment was ongoing. Expected release date is mid 2013:

“I don’t know what you did last night, but my family and I were watching the Oscars and the On The Red Carpet after-Oscar programming…..during which some gossip came about Ender’s Game the movie coming to theaters in 2013 (starring Harrison Ford!). How exciting is that!!!!”

IMDb has the movie listed: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731141/
and Deadline New York has a short piece on it: http://www.deadline.com/2011/04/franchise-hungry-summit-plays-enders-game-with-filmmaker-gavin-hood/

Fandom did not take too long to catch the bug and created some interesting unofficial trailers, such as this one:

Conversation threads: on the original blog, and at the Prophets of Science Fiction group space.

Repost of my comment on Prophets of SF: ” Ender’s Game is an interesting piece of literature for several reasons: It’s been used in classroom to illustrate and analyze different subjects: communication arts in high school, English class in Grade 9, cyberbullying in middle school, in psychology 101 in college, etc. As a prophet of science fiction, Orson Scott Card visualized a battle room (the anti-gravity CAVE), a personal desktop (similar to an iPad), a flash suit ( flash suits exists but they are thermal-protective garment made of heavy weight NOMEX, PBI or other flame-retardant material, that protect from temperatures of up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. However in the sf novel, the flash suit seems closer to a smart textile suit than a fireman protection gear), and Free Play (or The Mind Game, a data-driven game system). The novel explores the use of simulation and technology to train critical and creative thinking and decision-making (the military have been interested in training in virtual reality for quite some times; as well as medicine, surgery, architecture, etc.)”

Today, I noticed that Amazon has started to drum up some interests again in the Ender’s Game novel. So if you do not have your copy yet, go get it, or start hanging out at your local library shop for the fifty-cent deal. I know my library shop has a couple copies for sale last time I checked.

Now, you tell me what you think of Ender’s Game. Have you read it? Have you used it in class?

NMC Horizon Connect Webinar

Message from Samantha Adams, Director of Communications (3/14/2012)

“We’re launching a new series of free webinars, the Horizon Connect series, featuring thought leaders, game changers, and innovators who are making a difference right now in the world of educational technology. Who better to kick off that new series than educator/author extraordinaire Howard Rheingold? Join us for this live event on Thursday, March 22 at 10:30 am CST / 8:30 am PST.

> RSVP on Facebook for “NMC Horizon Connect Session > Howard Rheingold is Net Smart”

In Howard’s newest book, Net Smart: How to Thrive Online, he discusses the use of digital and social media as a source of empowerment. There is a difference between using it actively and passively, and Howard shows us how to bridge that gap.

“Mindful use of digital media means thinking about what we are doing, cultivating an ongoing inner inquiry into how we want to spend our time,” Howard shares. “I outline five fundamental digital literacies, online skills that will help us do this.”

In this Horizon Connect webinar, he will be helping you think more strategically about digital media and answering your questions live.

Learn more about the event and watch a trailer for Net Smart

And, as always, feel free to forward this invitation to your colleagues and peers. The more the merrier! …”

Tweet and retweet this announcement! Thanks

Simulations: Ten Cool Things People are Doing

Last week on http://www.presterafx.com/wordpress, Gus Prestera blogged about simulations and posted a very useful list that summarizes well argument points we want to bring to your next PTA or whoever you are trying to get onboard. Here is the list:

#1: Sims get legit
#2: Sims go to class
#3: Sims creep into page turners
#4: Sims get visibility
#5: Sims go cloning
#6: Sims invade virtual worlds
#7: Sims go back to basics
Read the details of #1 to 7 at Part 1
#8: Sims go 3D
#9: Sims get game!
#10: Sims go mobile
Read the details of #8 to 10 at Part 2

Picture credit: Jonathon Richter at the Tulane Center for Advanced Medical Simulation, New Orleans, 2011

Floody Hell, an app/serious game

Yesterday, Ruben iJpelaar posted a free 2D water game for the iPhone and iPad called Floody Hell.

Ruben: “Pick up your boots and get ready for action. A major flood is ahead. The water rises fast and the lives of your citizens are in danger. YOU have to save them!
Plunge into this adventure and get the feeling of PAC-MAN and SimCity. Beside simple but elegant fun, this is also ‘serious gaming’. Experience the dilemmas of rescue workers and find out the most efficient way to transport people and sandbags before and during the big flood.
Enjoy 4 levels of flooding action now. More levels will become available in future (free) updates.

THIS IS THE FIRST 2D FLOODING GAME. BOOST YOUR DEVICE WITH FLOODY HELL!

Visit my website for more information and game instructions! This game is totally free without commercials or other annoyances. Be so kind to ‘rate’ this game at the App Store. Your feed-back enables me to improve the game and develop new games to promote hydrology and water management.

Go to http://www.water4all.info
Ruben IJpelaar, Hydrologist / Apple Developer”

I recommend that you watch the demo in Ruben’s website to get it quickly. I wish that Ruben had added an audio commentary instead of the text gloss to his video tutorial. The download from iTunes was fast, but controlling the vehicles without a mouse (like in the demo) took a few minutes of adjustment. You can’t regulate the speed of the vehicles so you really are at the mercy of the advancing waters. Interesting game to get kids understand the urgency and decision making by First Responders during flood emergencies. Comment here to share your experience with the app.

NMC Larry Johnson asks…

“If I Only Had $1…..”

Listen to some early responses:

one dollar video

Dr. Larry Johnson was at the CoSN Conference 2012 in Washington, DC on March 5 to 7, 2012. Get the whole story here: http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/video/cosn-if-i-only-had-1

What would YOU answer to Larry’s question?