Virtual_Networks


 * // Ekoloko //** [[image:ekoloko web image.jpg width="312" height="90"]]


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Ekoloko is a virtual community for youths who are 7-14 year old youths. They can play as guests but will need to register to enter the advance levels. While exploring the community, children will engage in games and quests that will help them to formulate positive values such as responsibility, friendship, and leadership. They will also gain knowledge and skills that will help them preserve the environment.

Used in an educational setting, this virtual world encourages children to understand the importance of preserving the environment such as the recycling, reusing, reducing, medicinal plants, deforestation, poaching and pollution. By participating as Avatars in the Ekoloko world, they can interact with other players, solve quests, design their moon houses and work on their farms. They can demonstrate how they can make a difference in how they live in their communities and how to help protect the environments where they live.

Ekoloko virtual community is an excellent resource for the school library to use in collaboration with science teachers who are implementing environmental thematic units. The web site can be used to reinforce or supplement the lessons. Students can use the computers in the library to play their games or quests. The library can host an Ekoloko Day in which students from different classes meet to discuss their Avatars and share their knowledge and experiences. The school librarian can create an online bulletin board, in which students can post their accomplishments in their virtual world. In addition, the library can promote this web site throughout the year and especially during Earth Week and Marine Mania Month.

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 * Rosalind Unpingco **

= = = = =Atlantis Remixed & Quest Atlantis= []

The Atlantis Remixed (ARX) Project is a recent addition to the Quest Atlantis research project. It provides children with interesting, relevant, three-dimensional multi-user environments that allow them to use new media technology tools to solve real-world problems. Students experience virtual worlds where they can undertake educational adventures, talk to other users and mentors, build virtual personae, and eventually create their own games. The Atlantis Remixed Project (ARX) has been tested by more than 50,000 children on six continents, many of whom completed the virtual quests and missions in their spare time. It is now in 22 states, 18 countries, over a thousand classrooms, and the number of schools interested continues to grow. In order to get the full experience, one must must apply for a guest account on the main page and download the Quest Atlantis software package.

The ARX project recognizes that today's students (21st century learners) have different needs from that of the previous generation. Among those is the desire to be an active participant in the educational process, rather than a passive recipient. Today's educational environment is setting kids up for failure. It is new media literacy that determines kids' futures, not knowledge of facts. Schools need to aim for what kids are doing outside of schools with the information they are receiving. Textbooks need to be replaced with engaging social networking tools.

Kids long to have agency, roles, and legitimate spaces to demonstrate their learning. The ARX project hopes to provide kids with a different kind of positioning, where they are treated not as ignorant beings who lack knowledge, but as empowered citizens and the hope of the future. The virtual environments with real-world problems require students to set goals, collaborate, solve problems, and identify issues and solutions.

In the library, the Atlantis Remixed Project could be used to create virtual worlds for any number of classroom activities in multiple disciplines. A sample game that incorporates English, Science, Social studies, and Communication skills is available for viewing on the main page. In this game, the student plays the role of an investigative reporter who too is stricken by the bubonic plague. The mission is to find the cure to the plague by interviewing townspeople and gathering facts which are separated into pros and cons. The student must then write a persuasive argument paper explaining the best course of action for dealing with the plague. The game is loosely based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Virtual worlds may be used as after-school tutorials for students requiring extra support. They are also great for family literacy; libraries can invite parents to act as teachers and coaches to their own children while they complete the quests and missions together.

For further information, one may also visit [|www.edutopia.org] to find out what else works in public education.

Rosalyn Ajoste

= = =Pora Ora= []

Pora Ora is a free virtual world that is geared for children. It is filled with games and quests that involve literacy, math, geography and problem solving. Children in elementary to middle-school will enjoy creating their avatars and guiding them through an exciting virtual world. Children get to create their home space and a “Pora Pal” that travels along with their avatar on the quests and challenges. Points and awards are earned when quests are completed. Using their points and rewards children can “buy” items for their home and garden or gifts for their on-line friends. Cyber-safety is also taught as part of quests contained within.

Parents can monitor their children’s progress and can see what their children are learning in a separate log-in area. They can also add and monitor many children under their account. Progress reports can be sent directly to the parent’s email. These reports give more insight to the child’s strengths and weaknesses in the different games available. Parents also get full control over their child’s security settings.

Teachers can also use Pora Ora by creating a school account. This creates a school mode, which is also free, where only users in the school interact with one another on-line. Teachers just need to follow the “contact us” link to create their school account. Teachers can monitor their students’ progresses in feedback reports.

The school mode would be a great tool to use in the library. School librarians can help their teachers set up accounts for the classes. Perhaps a day can be given in the library to use this virtual world. Librarians can use the feedback reports to find resources in the library to help the children’s weaknesses in any of the subject areas. For example, if a student was having difficulty with the geography quests, the librarian could find geographic resources to enrich or extend the learning in Pora Ora.

Anita Rita Tenorio

=Think U Know Cyber Cafe= http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/cybercafe/Cyber-Cafe-Base/

The Think U Know Cyber Cafe is a virtual environment designed for children ages 8-10 to practice appropriate cyber safety skills. Students use their knowledge to help virtual children make good decisions when chatting, texting or instant messaging, creating online personal spaces, browsing the web, checking email, and participating in online forums. Each "customer" in the cyber cafe represents one of these areas. The site also includes helpful hints and a quiz to test students' knowledge about cyber safety. The Cyber Cafe is part of a larger website, Think U Know (https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/), that also includes games and activities for young children ages 5-7 and those aged 11-16. This larger site also includes teacher information and resources for use with students in the classroom.

The Think U Know Cyber Cafe is a useful resource in the library as well as in the classroom; students can log in during their library time to practice digital safety, or to refresh their knowledge. Older students could use the site to research important points about cyber safety and then present the skills to younger students. Students could practice cyber safety on the site and then complete a quiz for the librarian, which can then be shared with teachers to give them an idea of their students' understanding and use of digital safety skills.

Meggan Havelka

**Google Lit Trips**
[] Now that we've explored implementing Google Earth into a lesson, we can begin to extend our application of the tool to the creation of virtual worlds based on literary works. The creator of Google Lit Trips explains that "the focus is on creating engaging and relevant literary experiences...by placing readers 'inside the story'." These virtual worlds "stimulate higher level thinking skills" rather than merely providing abbreviated surface-level notes. Through generous funding sources, grants, and dedicated collaborators, the service has made a commitment to provide free resources to students, teachers, and librarians. Content is searchable by grade level (K-5, 6-8, 9-12, and Higher Education) and special projects. Recently, the site creators were able to launch a mobile version for iPads and other devices.

When you download a project, you are opening a Google Earth tour that integrates excerpts from the piece of literature with important landmarks, sound recordings, author bio, and much, much more. The result is a dynamic, engaging experience into the heart of the piece. As an instructional resource alone to supplement the study of literature this site is a treasure. Not only does the site contain educator made projects, but it also features student projects. I see this site having the most potential as a tool for students to generate authentic responses to literature they read and love. The creation of a project takes focused and detailed research, synthesis, analysis, and creativity--skills we are dedicated to instilling in our students. Many fans and followers have posted Google Lit Trip tutorials on YouTube, allow they are not officially authorized by the creator.

A librarian has the ability to use his or her role to support the use of this tool in classrooms either through direct instruction with students or by supporting teachers as they integrate Google Lit Trips into their curriculum. Although the site is designed for literature study, its purpose and design could reach across content areas, especially into social studies with the integration of primary source documents. Knowing that there are certain titles that each grade level teaches in my high school, I plan to create at least one Google Lit Trip per grade level as a model and resource for teachers and students. The library can also advocate using a virtual world, like Google Lit Trips as an alternative to the traditional research report.

Audrey Wilson-Youngblood

Second Life Virtual World
Second Life ([|http://www.secondlife.com]) is a free, online virtual world where users can meet people, socialize and create their own worlds. There are already many universities including Harvard Law School, Case Western Reserve, and Ohio University that have virtual campuses in Second Life. Virtual classrooms have been created to give students more of a “real-world” experience even if it is virtual. For instance, a psychiatry professor from the University of California Davis created a room where his students could see what a schizophrenic patient sees in his hallucinations which will help the students in their treatment of these kinds of patients.

NASA also has a presence providing students with an opportunity to explore the surface of the moon and see a model of the surface of Mars that was created using actual data from NASA. There is also an ability to see live space shuttle launches bring together classrooms across the country. I think a great use of Second Life’s technology would be to create a simulation of the library that is an exact replica and use it to give users a “tour” of the library. Any training of how to use the library could be incorporated. Then, after the tour, students and teachers have access to the materials and could access them from home. It would be like being in the library while in your pajamas.

Some schools have “sister” schools from other countries with whom they correspond and interact. After setting up a cooperative project, the library could host a video conference allowing students collaborating on the same project to work together in the same “room.”

An exciting application I would like to implement is for African American History month. Teachers could assign important events in Black history to different groups and have the students research the event and then “act out” their roles in the event. The students would be responsible for selecting their event with the approval of the teacher and librarian, creating their avatars, assigning roles to the group members and demonstrating knowledge of the event. Students not involved in that particular event would view and be given a rubric to rate their peers.

There are a wide variety of uses of Second Life in education and libraries and the technology is continuing to grow.

Sources:

García-Murillo, M. and MacInnes, I. (n.d.) //An Exploration of the Use of Games in Virtual Worlds for Online Education.// Retrieved from http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/

Smith, H. R., (n.d.) //Virtual Education.// Retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/

** SmallWorlds **
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Small World is a virtual world in which a person can create an avatar and live a totally different life in cyberspace. “ SmallWorlds is a new generation of virtual ** world ** that runs inside your web browser; combining media, web content, and casual games into a highly accessible” format.

In the library, SmallWorlds can be used in various ways. First, a virtual library could be created that serves the community. In addition, users can create learning communities to grow professionally. A virtual classroom can also be created to teach topics such as book care, how the library works, conduct research, and book talks. Also, we can offer virtual tours of the library. It would provide an experience of the library for patrons that have physical limitations. This virtual library can also be used for orientation purposes.

Lilia Gonzalez-Barrera

**Whyville**
The virtual world of Whyville ([|www.whyville.net/]) is a free educational community designed to meet the unique educational needs of pre-teens. Its mission is to encourage their interest in math and science, particularly for girls who tend to lose their confidence in these academic areas during their middle school years. The engaging activities are intended to steer young adolescents toward studies and careers in more scientific and mathematical fields.

Created in 1999, Whyville is supported by an impressive array of sponsors including NASA, the Getty museums, and various universities and institutions. The targeted subject areas range from geometry to physics. Whyville citizens (composed of registered students from around the world) navigate realistic situations and work together to solve real-life problems. They may be involved in analyzing the pattern of an illness according to CDC data or determining which of Newton’s laws to apply when designing a rocket, among other things.

A unique use of this virtual world in the library setting would involve the media specialist partnering with a math or science teacher to coincide with a particular unit of study or to generate interest in an upcoming science fair. Students could be tasked with calculating the momentum of a Whyville athlete (perhaps a skater or a runner) and then apply those formulaic perimeters to an athlete in their own school population. Students may be surprised to learn that their media center specialist can help them with more than just choosing books; the librarian can also integrate the skills of reading with virtual adventures in order to strengthen their math and science skills.

Karen Rippel

=Fakebook=

“Fakebook”, offered through Classtools.net and found at [], is an educational tool that is used to create imaginary Facebook-like pages that are not actually interactive with other pages. The webpage gives some suggestions such as using profiles to show character development or debates between people.

As a 6th grade Language Arts teacher, I used it for a biographical research project. My students loved posting the biographical information, deciding who their subject might be “friends” with, and developing conversations they might have.

To incorporate this technology in a school library setting, students or book club participants can create Fakebook profiles for books or even favorite characters in the books. These profile pages can be linked from the library website as advertisements, especially during events such as book fairs. Here is an example page that I easily created in five minutes: []. Another way to use Fakebook in a library setting is by collaborating with teachers of any subject for projects such as creating pages about historical figures or even landmarks for History class.

Julianne Bamford