VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

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Building In Second Life: An Introduction to Rokuro

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While many people experience Second Life as a consumer, one of the powers of virtual environments is the ability to learn to build in three dimensions. On Monday, May 21, at 8 PM, the VE PLN will host Norma Underwood who will teach participants how to create sculpted prims, or complex shapes that are difficult to produce with the standard building tools in Second Life. Creating these prims is easier than it might seem, even for beginning builders. Norma will introduce participants to the open source program Rokuro. You can download it here:  https://kanae.net/secondlife/rokuro.html
Don't want to download the software? You can still participate in the making of sculpted prims even if you don't download the program. There will be plenty of pre-made sculpt textures for you to use. If you can create a cube, Norma will help with the rest. Did I mention it is very simple? Oh, and fun!

Second Life is free to access. You need an account and software to access the virtual world.

We recommend setting up an account at the Rockcliffe University Consortium's Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/ Download and install the software. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/61/104/22 and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, "Hey, I'm new!" We will take care of the rest.

The VE PLN shares news, events, and resources at their Google Plus Community. Click here to join.

Revamping the VSTE Awards for 2018

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May is upon us and spring is in the air! The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and the playgrounds are alive with the sound of children’s laughter. In honor of this seasonal revival, the awards committee at VSTE decided to examine some of our annual awards to determine if they, too, couldn’t use a bit of a revival in order to better reflect the vision and mission of effective technology integration.

This reflection has prompted a few changes:

Change #1: The VSTE Teacher & VSTE Leader Awards

These two awards recognize and honor one teacher and one leader who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership in implementing technology to improve education.  Award recipients are selected from a pool of nominations submitted by VSTE members from around Virginia. In order to better capture the intent of these awards, going forward the evaluation of award recipients will be based upon the ISTE Standards for Educators and the ISTE Standards for Administrators, respectively.

Change #2: The Addition of the VSTE Coach Award

We will be adding a new award this year - The VSTE Coach Award. This award will recognize one educational technology coach who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership in implementing technology to improve education. We added this award to provide an additional opportunity to recognize the outstanding work of Virginia’s technology coaches. The evaluation of this awards recipient will be based upon the ISTE Standards for Coaches.

Change #3: Collecting Evidence

While the title for this change sounds ominous, do not be afraid. This simply means that we will be facilitating and encouraging nominees to provide links to documentation (Twitter pages, websites, work samples, etc.) that support their nomination. Unlike previous years, nominees will be notified of their nomination VSTE to make it easier to collect this evidence.

VSTE will also continue to sponsor the Innovative Educator of the Year award.

The awards season will officially open in late May, so be watching for that notice to arrive via VSTE’s weekly emails. The Awards Committee is excited to hear about all the wonderful accomplishments of our Virginia teachers, leaders, and coaches!

 

 

 

Terry Lowry chairs the VSTE Awards Committee. She is the Director of Technology for Wakefield School. 

 

Help Plan Minecraft Survival Summer II: May 7 at 8 PM

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logo for minecraftThe VSTE VE PLN will once again "Survive the Summer" in Minecraft! This year, the organizer, Kim Harrison, is asking for community input when planning this experience. Anyone interested being part of this now-annual event should meet with the team on Monday, May 7, at 8 PM Eastern time, in Minecraft ( IP address 69.175.17.26:25565) and on Discord (https://discord.gg/ZHbjsv) to discuss it.

Participants may be able to earn points from their division with the VSTE certificate of participation. There will be a list of achievements to accomplish within a certain time period. Participants can complete them in a few weeks or take the entire summer. The idea is to have fun while networking with other educators inside Minecraft, learn why our students love this game, and brainstorm ways to use it for instruction.

Won't you come help organize?

In order to participate, you must have a computer Minecraft account from https://minecraft.net/en/ to join. There is a one time fee of $26.95. Download and install the software. Choose multiplayer and add a server: Name VSTE Place IP 69.175.17.26:25565 Our server is protected. If you want to be whitelisted to enter anytime you want to continue building this, or anything else, email Kim Harrison at K4sons@gmail.com or kvharris@vbschools.com from an educational email address with your real name and minecraft name.

The Virtual Environments Professional Learning Network sponsors events in virtual environments including Minecraft and Second Life. The best way to keep up with their work is to join their Google Plus community.

Big Deal Book, May 1, 2018: Venture into the Art World, Apply Mathematical Thinking & More

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Blue rectangle with words Maximizing Technology in the the 21st Century Classroom bright graphic on left side of rectangle displays words Big Deal MediaVSTE partners with Big Deal Media to bring you the "best of the best" of web-based resources, classroom competitions and teacher grant programs. The May 1, 2018, newsletter offers resources that Venture into the Art World, Apply Mathematical Thinking & More.

Here are a few of our favorites...be sure to check out the whole newsletter!

Activities Intersecting Art and Science

Exploring Leonardo focuses on the intersection between art and science, exploring how Leonardo da Vinci applied the scientific method creatively in every aspect of life, including art and music. Students can explore the interactive learning activities on the site to discover more about this fascinating scientist, inventor, and artist.

Issues Viewed Through the Lens of the US Presidency

The Miller Center at University of Virginia offers a free teacher- and student-friendly collection of resources that are about all of the US presidents and key public issues of each period.

Minigames to Increase Environmental Awareness

Fighting climate change becomes interactive with the free Cleanopolis VR app for iOS and Android by Groupe EDF. Students learn about CO2 and battle along with Captain Clean in the fight against climate change.

Big Deal Book, May 1, 2018

Archives

VE PLN Sponsors Literary Studies Group

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VSTE's Virtual Environments Professional Learning Network (VE PLN) is pleased to announce the formation of the Second Life Literary Studies Group. The purpose of the group will be to discuss literary works, usually short stories, and share better ways to teach literature and English, in general. The next meeting will be on Thursday, May 10, 2018, at 8 PM, and the group will be discussing the short story "The Star." This short story is available at:

https://sites.uni.edu/morgans/astro/course/TheStar.pdf

Second Life is free to access. You need an account and software to access the virtual world.

We recommend setting up an account at the Rockcliffe University Consortium's Gateway here: https://urockcliffe.com/reg/second-life/ Download and install the software. While your Second Life viewer (software) is open click this link http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/61/104/22 and voila! Look for an avatar on VSTE Island and say, "Hey, I'm new!" We will take care of the rest.

The VE PLN shares news, events, and resources at their Google Plus Community. Click here to join.