CDB Barkley, Anya Ixchel and Kim Pasternak discuss the drama.

On Saturday, Anya Ixchel (Angela Thomas) and Kim Pasternak (me, Kim Flintoff) presented our session at the New Media Consortium’s Symposium on Creativity in Second Life. We used aspects of Process Drama to develop a structure that can be used to explore issues and concerns through roleplay in the virtual world. The basic premise was that we located the story in the future - 2009. This was a time 2 years after several changes had been made to the governance of Second Life communities. Many existing (2007 reality) freedoms in Second Life were restricted or outlawed in the fictional future.

The material requirements for the drama were quite simple -Angela has some good pictures on her discussion of the event and JoKay Wollongong also. We used a mock up TV studio, a couple of sofas, a changeable backdrop screen (with international locations), a poster and a collection of role badges to help identify the general roles played by participants, and a Polling station.

We introduced the pretext material, randomly distributed role badges (Parent, Student, Admin, Teacher) and asked participants to group in their roles. Each group was asked to determine a representative who would appear on a TV debate. I played the TV host and Anya Ixchel was our roving “vox pop” reporter. The title of the debate on the TV was “Disneyland or Jurassic Park: What kind of Second Life do YOU want?”

The entire drama came and went very quickly - our 50 minute session was barely long enough to contain the interest and buzz that developed. Initial feedback after the session indicated that participants found the process engaging and effective.

Some nice photos from the event can be seen here.

The wiki was initiated in January 2007, intended as a venue for Digital Chalkies to post links related to the various categories associated with the group blog. But with time and devotion missing, a change of direction was made in August 2007. The wiki has now became a repository for “web2.0 in education” related videos. Click on the web2.0 video wiki tab above to access. Please free to recommend any videos by editing the wiki and adding recommendations. There is a lot of interest in the question of how web2.0 tools can add value to the knowledge generated by students and teachers in class.  The issues and technology at hand are complex - video is often an effective way of communicating understanding and ideas.

Anyone can edit the wiki pages. Contributions are welcome. Follow the how-to video tutorials mentioned in the previous post or here. Notifications of your edit will be sent to Digital Chalkie moderators.

Many teachers have shown an interest in using the power of wiki in the classroom. But the learning curve in using wikis can be a little steep. I like to have video tutorials when I am learning new software. I like being able to go through the steps at your own space you’d like to view some video tutorials on how to use a wiki these may be of use.

If you are using a free Wikispace for educators there are some how-to videos here for perusal at your leisure here. This video takes you through the Wikispaces “history” function.

PBWiki have some free wikis for education too. These PBWiki video tutorials at Atomic Learning which are free until Sept 30th and should be very useful in helping you and your students develop skills and understanding of the use of Wikis in education.

When talking about wiki I always like to refer colleagues to the Terry The Tennisball Wiki by students of Grade 3-4 in Geelong run by John Pearce. To my mind many wiki are in essence like a mini Choose Your Own Adventure story. The CYOB format for storytelling is an engaging writing and reading literacy tool at teachers disposal. Students with iPods may be interested in downloading a free version of a story called ‘The Abominable Snowman’ from this website. At my last school I set up an Instiki Wiki and it really helped engage students in a collaborative writing project for a Year 4 English class. As a read/write ‘web’ and functional literacy experience the students built a wiki around their hobbies and tried to add to each others writing - we developed a diverse range of expertise and communication of opinions. To set the wiki up I hosted it on my iBook NB4T which meant the wiki was portable.
Other ways we can use wikis in our teaching?:

1. A list of articles and resources that describe how to use wikis in education
2. A comprehensive list of existing educational wikis that we can learn from

Some other wiki services:
* WetPaint - http://www.wetpaint.com/
* Stikipad - http://stikipad.com/
* OttoWiki - http://www.ottowiki.com/

If you are interested in a first had account from a teacher using a wiki in the classroom you try this podcast from Vicki Davis. “She is known for her award winning class wiki, wiki-centric classroom structure, and use of broad scope of Web 2.0 tools to improve student performance.” The podcast (audio recording) link is add the bottom this page.

Western Australia’s ECAWA 2007 State Conference will be two days of exciting professional learning and professional development opportunities, networking and sharing of information about ICT in education in a relaxed and friendly environment at the Atrium Hotel in Mandurah.

While a significant part of the programme will explore some of the opportunities that Web2+ technologies offer educators and students, there will be plenty more as well.

A strand in the programme will focus on senior secondary computing courses – Applied Information Technology and Computer Science. For Primary and Middle School Teachers, strands within the programme will focus on using Information and Communications Technology in the classroom. A list of the presentations are here.