MUVEs+and+Professional+Development

Week 5

MUVEs-Jennifer Pepper The multi-user virtual environment that I revisited was Activeworlds. This MUVE has many options such as web browsing capabilities, voice chat, streaming video, and instant messaging. This site gives users the ability to develop in-depth interactive environments that they can explore on a global level (Activeworlds, 2011). A professional organization in Activeworlds is the Active Worlds Educational Universe. The AWEDU is an educational community that helps educators explore new concepts in social learning, learning theories, and creative curriculum design. There are links to Activeworld forums and an Activeworlds newletter that can keep the user informed about new and emerging technologies. An additional resource that I located is the ActiveWiki. This is a virtual encyclopedia that discusses different events and changes that take place in Active Worlds. There are community forums for discussions as well as links to other information related to this MUVE.

In order to engage colleagues in professional development workshops, virtual classrooms could be created that represent some of the different issues that teachers face. One idea that I came up with relates to classroom management. It would be a great training tool to put together a classroom with multiple scenarios that mirror behavior and learning styles. This would give teachers the opportunity to solve the issues with the help of ideas from colleagues both locally and globally.

References Activeworlds. (2011). Activeworlds. Retrieved from []

Jennifer, It seems as though the MUVE you chose was much more up to date and offered a lot more resources. That is great and would lead me more towards wanting to use Activeworlds. Have you ever used a MUVE in your classroom? I am interested in finding out how they truly work from someone who has had experience with using them. Thank you for the information! Colleen Colleen-I have never used one in my classroom, but I think it would be an interesting tool to incorporate. Might be something to work on over the summer when I have a little more time.

MUVEs - Colleen Davis

I decided to revisit Whyville.net. It is focused on middle school age students and provides them with a great deal of authentic experience in math, science, art history, journalism, and civics. It is sponsored by big names, such as NASA and the School Nutrition Association. Students complete different activities and interact with different students to earn clams. They then create a budget so that they may buy houses, cars, etc.. Although it has received a lot of press, the most recent blog entries were from 2008 and 2010, which for something like this seems to be out of date. They do have a Facebook page, which would be a great way to discus different ideas and develop lesson ideas, as well as keep up to date on emerging technologies.

To help teachers see how students would enjoy this, I would have the teachers log on and complete the task just as the students would do. They would be able to have conversation through the MUVE of what they are learning and lesson ideas they have thought up.

References: Whyville. (2009). Whyville. Retrieved from @http://www.whyville.net/smmk/nice Colleen - I have never used a MUVE, and actually, had never heard of them until this week. Whyville definitely looks inviting and keep your students engaged. I like how they are able to have conversations with others about the skills they are currently working on, and how to keep things going. I am assuming you would have to work with your students at first to get them aquinted to the website and review its functions. Once students are working independently, are you able to monitor the students progress on the website? If not, you could always work it into literacy and have them write about their progress, etc. -Amber

Colleen- I also chose Whyville.net. I love the concepts that it has and the things that it allows students to do. I just found it this week and I am already looking for activities to complete with my 6th grade math class. The first thing that I have had to complete though is to get it approved by my districts filtering systems. When that is complete I look to start working with this and my students right before the Christmas break. What things have you been able to complete with your students? I am sure that, like me, you have a million ideas right now. Such a great site!! -Erinn

Benjamin Thornton - MUVEs
For my MUVE, I decided to research more about Minecraft in general and [|MinecraftEdu] in particular. This project is still near the beginning of it's development, and as new versions come out more and more features will become available to students and teachers. Because of how new it is, there are no organizations that have a presence in this MUVE yet, however as it becomes more developed, I feel that many organizations like [|NCTM] will become more interested in working out modules. Minecraft is an excellent tool for learning about science, engineering, and math in its basic form, and with the additional tools that MinecraftEdu provide to break through the barriers of learning that plague many MUVEs.

With users like Joel Levin at [|The Minecraft Teacher] providing additional support and ideas, Minecraft is something that many schools will be able to take advantage of in the future.

It would be easy to provide an example of the usefullness of Minecraft to teachers by creating a sample program for them to run through. By showing the ways that it will make the students think things through, they will see the benefits the way that I do.

I chose to talk about [|Arcademic Skill Builders]. I was having a lot of difficulty finding a site that is relevant to my professional development as well as my grade level (elementary). I felt as though many other sites were geared more towards the upper grades, which really wouldn't help me in the long run! Arcedemic Skill Builders is a free website for students to play multiplayer standard-based games. Such standards include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, money, fractions, time, geography, language arts and typing. It is extremely useful because it isn't just focused on one type of area. Students can work individually or play against one another to see if they can beat each other. Motivation is key, and the success stories have really displayed this. Teachers are then able to track students progress through student monitoring providing on the site. As stated by another teacher, (her success story), "//Many of the students play video games all the time at home. This was a way to let them enjoy their playing time, but to practice a skill at the same time."// Based on studies students increased their knowledge playing the games when being compared to using the standard flash card (math), and test scores were improving. While this website is more geared towards the upper elementary grades, it is a great resource to share with everyone.
 * Amber Cregan - MUVEs**

Arcademics (2011). Arcadmic Skill Builders. Retrieved on December 4, 2011 from []

Hi Amber, What a great site! This will definitely be a motivator for students. My daughter is in the 4th grade and would love to practice skills using this site. I also like the feature where teachers can track their students' progess. This is always a plus to have a tangible way to see their progress. Judith

Erinn Blasco- MUVEs

The site that I have chosen to discuss is the Whyville.net. I chose this site because it is geared towards my middle school students and it allows them to work with real life items to help them learn. I really like whyville.net because it is not only educational for the students but it is also fun for them. The goal of the site is to engage its users in learning about a broad range of topics, from science and math to language arts and art. The best thing about this site it that it is inventive and gets the students thinking and working together with others. I love that it is so interactive for the students and allows them to play games and learn through real-life experiences.

The best way for a teacher to learn about the MUVEs that we have discovered this week in class is to have them get out there an look at them for themselves. When they see how interesting that they are for them they will quickly see how useful they would be in the classroom. I know that once I started looking at some of these sites I instantly learned about things that would work best for my students and would get them more actively involved in the lessons. Erinn-I think that some of the benefits of the different MUVEs is that fact that you can incorporate content in a way that is interesting and fun for the students. Enabling students to be interactive with their learning and giving them an environment that is outside the walls of the classroom will hopefully motivate them to be more engaged in their learning. -Jennifer

MUVEs - Judith Buzzell I chose to visit and discuss Second Life. I have to admit all this is new to me. It was very different and I did not see how this could be used in education. As I explored though I saw there were many universities on the site as well as businesses. They use this site for distance learning and online collaboration. I also searched to see if I could find support for teachers who want to implement these types of sites into their classroom. One site I found was Teaching Through MUVEs. [] This site provides support and examples of ways to use these online environments as well as articles about how others have used MUVEs. Finally, I also found a site through Harvard called the River City Project [] that allows students to explore scientific inquiry and 21st century skills.