TGIF
Class 2 went great and assignments are flooding into Blackboard. Students occasionally send emails to get clarification and my live lectures were attended by 3 to 7 students each (most are choosing the pre-recorded lectures). The number of questions asked increased a little as they got used to Zoom.
After my second class, I attended one session of a three day conference on Best Practices in Education. This wouldn't be unusual except that I attended in a virtual world called Second Life. I got the invite to the free conference through ISTE (International Society for Technology Education). This is their 13th conference hosted in a virtual world. The experience was amazing.
To attend, I had to create an account and an avatar. Much to the dismay of my motion designer son, I chose one that looked like me. He thought a vampire or fairy would be better. I did invest a little time making her outfit look more like me and the experience was rough, but she looks OK.
I entered the world, had to find the conference center, my virtual packet of information, and finally the room where my session was held. It was much like attending a real world conference in a new city. I made the mistake of picking up some swag and trying on a free space helmet they gave me. The helmet looked dumb on my new avatar and when I removed it... my hair was gone. What a fiasco. Anyway... I got the hair back with some effort.
The conference that I attended yesterday was Designing for Difficulties and Disorienting Dilemmas. What I got out of it was that we need to plan our instruction for ease of use... overall... but we also need to intentionally incorporate challenges in a way that allows for and expects student success but pushes the limits of what they believed they were capable of. So cool.
One of my fears was that I would walk into the presentation room (which was on an asteroid, by the way) and then bumble around the space like an idiot not able to control her avatar. I was thankful that was not the case. I walked in, found a spot and... amazingly enough... got my avatar to sit down facing the presenters and slide show. I saw other attendees struggle to manage their avatars and felt tons of compassion.
So today is Friday and my brain is scrambled. I hope that I can catch up on my administrative duties, plan one more day of online lessons (even if I can't get the filming and Blackboard complete) and then... rest. And by "rest"... I mean spread tanbark.
After my second class, I attended one session of a three day conference on Best Practices in Education. This wouldn't be unusual except that I attended in a virtual world called Second Life. I got the invite to the free conference through ISTE (International Society for Technology Education). This is their 13th conference hosted in a virtual world. The experience was amazing.
To attend, I had to create an account and an avatar. Much to the dismay of my motion designer son, I chose one that looked like me. He thought a vampire or fairy would be better. I did invest a little time making her outfit look more like me and the experience was rough, but she looks OK.
I entered the world, had to find the conference center, my virtual packet of information, and finally the room where my session was held. It was much like attending a real world conference in a new city. I made the mistake of picking up some swag and trying on a free space helmet they gave me. The helmet looked dumb on my new avatar and when I removed it... my hair was gone. What a fiasco. Anyway... I got the hair back with some effort.
One of my fears was that I would walk into the presentation room (which was on an asteroid, by the way) and then bumble around the space like an idiot not able to control her avatar. I was thankful that was not the case. I walked in, found a spot and... amazingly enough... got my avatar to sit down facing the presenters and slide show. I saw other attendees struggle to manage their avatars and felt tons of compassion.
So today is Friday and my brain is scrambled. I hope that I can catch up on my administrative duties, plan one more day of online lessons (even if I can't get the filming and Blackboard complete) and then... rest. And by "rest"... I mean spread tanbark.
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