VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

VE PLN

VE PLN: Introduction to Twine, October 10, 2016

Introduction to Twine
Sponsored by the Virtual Environments PLN (VE PLN)
Monday, October 10, 2016, 8 PM EST
VSTE Island in Second Life

Learn more about the work of our VE PLN

 

Join us October 10, at 8 EST, on VSTE Island in Second Life*, as VSTE Vice-Chair/Facilitator Bluebarker Lowtide presents his summer long exploration and usage of Interactive Fiction (IF) with easy-to-use "soft-coding" programs: Twine, SugarCube, and free publishing through philome.la.

We will be taking a quick look at the most current research and stats of this nation's K-12 report regarding reading and writing.  Then, we'll move to technology tools that can support the research findings.

Tools like Twine can help teachers offer grade level customization, reading level differentiation, and unique critical thinking challenges to engage students' creatively with hopes of improving retention and increasing an individual's skill of reading and reading comprehension. Twine uses an easy set of coding commands to create a working IF (also known as choose-your-own-adventure stories) that open paths based upon the decisions of the reader and several useful text tools such as a help box or hover box to aid readers who are struggling or learning new vocabulary. It can be as indepth as you make it.

SugarCube is a export module that allows customization of the interface with the addition of picture files, expressive google fonts, page layouts and border options.

The website http://www.philome.la/ is free-to-use to upload and host your IF creations in a public space. These can be accessed anywhere from the internet so no additional programs or plugins will be necessary allowing it to be completely done within the browser. At the end, members will be exposed to the first prototype of a "Harry-Potter"-esque IF that will be featured at the Virginia Children's Book Festival the following weekend. Enjoy the IF and provide comments or critiques to help improve the final version

*Need help getting started in Second Life? Contact the team through the Google Plus Community to get support. We LOVE newbies!

VEPLN Surprise Unveiled Monday, October 3, 2016, at 8 PM

HUGE SURPRISE Coming Monday, October 3, 8 PM Eastern time in Minecraft! You are going to want to come see this! We can start out at VSTE Place, but we will take a field trip to a temporary world we have for VSTE miners for next weekend's http://vachildrensbookfestival.com/

Do NOT miss this!

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 69.175.17.26:25565We will open it up for this event. If you want to be whitelisted to enter anytime you want to continue building this, or anything else, email Kim Harrison at [email protected] from an educational email address with your real name and minecraft name.

VE PLN: Upcoming Events

The VSTE Virtual Environments PLN continues its tradition of Monday night professional development with two upcoming events:

VSTE Game Night
Monday, September 26, 2016, 8 PM

Join the VSTE Virtual Environments Professional Learning Network at 8 PM Eastern time on VSTE Island in Second Life for an hour of games and fun. There are games scattered all over VSTE Island, such as Greedy (think Farkle on Facebook), Scrabble, Pentadee (think Kismet), SLmopolis (think Monopoly), Galaxy War (a 3D strategy game), En Garde (Fencing), and Parcheesi. We will teach you how to play and you will meet some fun educators.

If you don't have a Second Life account get one, it's free, at http://secondlife.com/. 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.

Minecraft Monday
Monday, October 3, 2016, 8 PM

Calling all Minecraft builders, we need your help! Join the VSTE Virtual Environments Professional Learning Network at 8 PM Eastern time in VSTE Place, VSTE's Minecraft server. We will be working together to create a Hogwarts type of castle for the Virginia Children's Book Festival. On October 15 some of us will be traveling to Longwood to attend this festival and share Minecraft with the children and their parents. Young attendees will be able to add to our Hogwarts build while they visit our booth. Won't you help us help the kids?
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 We will open it up for this event. If you want to be whitelisted to enter anytime you want to continue building this, or anything else, email Kim Harrison at [email protected] from an educational email address with your real name and minecraft name.

VE PLN Summer Book Club Begins July 11, 2016

- VSTE VE PLN -
Summer Book Club 2016
Starts Monday, July 11, 2016 

This year's book selection is Ready Player One, Ernest Cline's homage to 80s culture and video games.

The group will meet on three Mondays at 8 PM: July 11, July 25, and August 8, 2016.

Meetings will be held on VSTE Island in Second Life:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE%20Island/62/104/22

Participants should  complete the readings before the meeting and AVOID reading ahead.

Meeting 1: Read from Start to the End of Section 0013
Meeting 2: Read from Section 0014 to the End of 0027
Meeting 3: Read from Level Three/0028 to End.

In order to fully participate in a major discussion wuestion for Meeting 1, participants should make a working list of all the 80s references that appear in the pages we are reading.

Suggested supplementary activities include:

VE PLN, Monday, October 5, 2015, 8 PM

October 5 at 8 PM EDT VSTE VE PLN will visit VIBE, Virtual Islands for Better Education, to see an archaeology simulation built by Nova Saunders. Nova would love to have teachers bring students to her sim. Come and see if this content is something you can use instructionally! VIBE is an Open Sim, not connected to Second Life.
To reach Nova's sim in VIBE, follow these directions:

Complete directions are here https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bxo7jBzK1BkwYUtfRl9iQS1HSDA/edit
Stephen Gasior wrote these for a Virtual Pioneers tour a while back.

Basically, you download a viewer that can access Open Sims. Firestorm has one.  Singularity is also a possiblity.
http://www.firestormviewer.org/downloads/
http://www.singularityviewer.org/

Install and launch the viewer.
Next you click Grid Manager at the bottom of the viewer window.
Type http://nova.bio-se.info:9000 into the Login URL
Click Apply and OK.

You will be directed to a place to register for an account.
Create an account.
Once you get the notice that it is set up, fill in the login name and password at the bottom of the viewer and login.

You will rez, or spawn, in Nova's sim. You may appear to be a cloud, but we can help you get an avatar body once you are there.

Start early! This process may take a few minutes.