Today was the last day of class for Emerging Instructional Technologies. We were able to finish our video editing and prepare for our presentation.

The afternoon consisted of presentations from each of the three groups. Our groups presentation was on digital citizenship. We had made a podcast about copyright and pirating. Overall, I feel like the presentation went well. You can listen to our podcasts or watch our videos by going to digitalcitizenship.wetpaint.com, the digital citizenship wiki we set up for this project, or the website, http://bluegroupproject.googlepages.com/ we made with the teacher resources for this unit.

The second group presented using digital tools with authentic writing. This was very informative to me because the majority of it would be beneficial in a elementary setting. Some of the tools they presented were blogs, wikis, VoiceThread, Google Docs, podcasts, and videos. Their presentation was geared for a teacher inservice. It reminded me a lot of a inservice I attended at Keystone AEA this spring. These types of inservices are so valuable for teachers. In many cases, teachers don't get other opportunities to learn what is available and the idea sharing that happens is priceless. The wiki for this presentation is authenticwriting.wetpaint.com.

The third did a presentation on using social networking. Ning would be a great start because it can be controlled and private. In my classroom, Ning could eventually take the place of a classroom website because of the privacy. Then I could actually post discussions, show student work, post homework discussions, and upload video, podcasts, and pictures. I think a social networking site would be an excellent idea for buildings. Teachers could use this site to post questions, ideas, or use just as a way to communicate when you don't see each other.

As I think about everything we learned this week, I completely agree with Kevin's blog posting and others who have commented on how important it will be for us to go back to our buildings and try to convince others how beneficial this technology is. Yes, one way it might work is to convince them it is not another project, but instead enhancing what they already have.

Feeling more confident about Second Life

The majority of today was spent learning about Second Life and working on our final group project. Before today, I had figured out how to walk, fly, and change my appearance. I now have friends, know how to communicate, know how to find other places, and teleport myself or others to name a few. I even have found new outfits and even know how to change my clothes. We had the opportunity to have Dan Powers tell us a bit about his company and show us his the Iowa Island he has developed in Second Life.

I agree completely with Karen C's blog posting about Second Life. Using Second Life does make you consider the possibilities available for education and business. Second Life, along with many other "new" technologies has opened my eyes this week and I am looking forward to using them in my classroom and/or personal life.

Our final group project is going to be about digital citizenship. Some of the concepts we will cover are copyright, plagiarism, fair use, cyberbulling, creative comments. I think this is very important for students to be aware of and also something many adults need to be aware of.

This morning we did spend some time discussing nings. We used Skype to have an interview with Steve Hargadon, the creator of the classroom2.0 and the ning in education. I liked how he explained how social networking differs from other web 2.0 tools, such as wikis. He described a ning being more about conversation than web production. He gave ways to use nings in classrooms and also explained that there are settings to set up whether the ning will be private or public and whether postings need to be approved. I look forward to becoming more involved in the classroom 2.0 ning and the ning in education.