Aggiornamento II

Currambena Primary School

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:32:00 +0000

I first look at the pictures on a school-website. First impression is always dominant in further reasoning. Spinoza considers intuition being the highest order in thinking, above logic. Spinoza's intuition is somewhat different to our present connotation, but still. Currrambena has an appealing philosophy and makes an effort to offer something different in the educational system. What more evidence do you need?

Village School and Fitzroy Community School

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 20:02:00 +0000

They started in 1982, so The Village School is well established in Melbourne, Australia. Between 55 and 80 children attend the school each year, guided by 5 permanent teachers, a part-time language teacher, an equestrian instructor (riding horses!!) and various coaches, mentors and parents sharing their specialist skills with the students. On of their principles is learning by making mistakes. They 'encourage children to take risks in a non-threatening, caring environment in order to develop realistic, problem-solving skills.' and also ' that some common sense rules are necessary to ensure physical and emotional safety.' Read it all in their philosophy - document on line. Must be in the air down under!! In the same city another alternative school, Fitzroy Community School. Some international connections in Asia too.

The Alternative School

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:36:00 +0000

The Alternative School (aka TAS) ' was set up in May 2007 to offer a new and exciting alternative KS4 curriculum (age 14 to 19) for all those young people who are not engaging with main stream education.' It is not clear what status this initiative has or how many young people participate. They all strive to get a Duke of Edingburgh Award, which also gives them discounts on outdoor equipment. They ' strive to engage young people in a wide range of positive activities and to develop them as young adults, at a pace that is suited to that young person and with subjects and experiences that means they are interested and therefore willing to partake.' An interesting and innovative approach. Too early to call it a success, however. They maintain a blog that shows a professional video on the project.

Sudbury Valley School

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:07:00 +0000

The SVS was founded in 1968 and at the moment there are 39 schools or initiatives on 2 continents that are listed as Sudbury - education schools. They must do something right.

Students are fully responsible for their own learning. In practice this means that students initiate all their own activities and create their own environments. The physical plant, the staff, and the equipment are there for the students to use as the need arises. The Netherlands hosts 2 Sudbury Schools and there are a number of initiatives that are very similar in approach and pedagogy, but find it difficult to survive. The existence of an international community around this initiative and the solid mission statement might explain its success. And the use of villa's like the one pictured of course.

Hole in the wall

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:42:00 +0000

Cut a hole in the wall that separates you from the slums around you. Mount an interactive computerscreen, make some adjustments on the other side for a keyboard and make sure its weather resistent. Then WAIT!! It didn't take long before children, that very likely never touched a computer before found out how it worked and started playing with it, teaching each other. Sugata Mitra did and he didn't stop there. You can read all about it from the website they also made. A beautiful initiative, got me by the ankles, anyway.

SFETT

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:31:00 +0000

The San Fernando Education Technology Team, better known as SFETT, is an exceptional team of creative and talented individuals who continuously strive to engage and captivate students while providing them an avenue of expression through the use of digital media. That is what they say themselves, have a look at their productions to decide for yourself if this initiative has got some potential. They also created a blog called Flickschool with ideas that helped them over the years.

NotSchool

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:04:00 +0000

School is out!! Is it really? If we look around we see schools, much alike those I visited. Not bad schools, certainly not, but what if your finished with it and still have to go. To some of these youngsters Notschool is an answer. It provides tuition, in a way that it helps them in their learning path, without the school - agenda. Numbers are small compared to the system, but they proved themselves already. In my country there is a similar project using the same paradigm. NotSchool makes me ask why the educational system itsself does not succeed in serving this type of children.

Wondertree - SelfDesign

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:56:00 +0000

I visited Wondertree in 1995 and met Brent Cameron, the founding father of an initiative that celebrates its 25th year of existence this year. I stayed in an old villa, in the centre of Vancouver, crowded with teenagers, eager to learn, much less eager to go to school. They went out for payed work as entrepreneurs, were asked on conferences to show the latest developments of Adobe apps. A vibrant community guided by 'experts'. Nobody even dared to call them teachers, as these kids 'designed themselves. The image is the non-verbal icon of their learning path. Visit them here.

826 Valencia

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 09:47:00 +0000

Are you an active pirat? If so rush to 826 Valencia to obtain all you need to become the best equiped and best dressed pirat in the 21st Century. Another reason to go might be that you are somebody who needs some professional assistance on your writing. The place is one of the finest under - cover remedial 'teaching units' I have ever heard of. Find more yourself, you rascal, here! No doubt you will be able to find the other, more or less similar shops in the US yourself!

Kaospilots

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:53:00 +0000

Does this look like a school to you? It probably does not. And they do not intend to either! It is Kaospilot, a thrilling and succesful initiative in Aarhus sometime ago already. There is a location in my country too. It is all about learning and new ways to do so. The first core principle is playfulness! Read more about other principles on their pages, but start here. Lots of people talk about 21st century learning. They make serious business of it. I would love to see them start using 3d virtual worlds to work in, as you can imagine.

Robin (very) Good

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:58:00 +0000

Every now and then somebody makes something that really pleases me. I am very fond of using mindmaps, as it helps me to think: it helps me to order my thoughts, to communicate them, to organize my file resources and its a joy to continuously improve them. There is always a way to make 'm better. Almost perfect, this Mindmeister map Robin Good made on online collaborative tools. Its rich, its balanced, it looks strong and its incomplete. But Robin makes an effort to keep ahead of all those new tools that are developed now, at this moment, everywhere.... and the Chinese haven't even started yet. You 'll find it here

Montclair State CHSS 74/180/22

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:46:00 +0000

AJ brooks took us around his university and showed us what his students do in SL. It was grand to see how students made presentations in their rooms on the subjects they studied on and how they use SL as a mean to meet and discuss. Another interesting experience was the way we were toured around. We were tailing AJ as a bundle of young ducks. We never ever were more than a few feet away and followed every one of his movements. Good show, have a glimpse yourself.

Augmented Reality 38/84/37

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:55:00 +0000

First sign of Spring in Augmented Reality Island. Augmented Reality is one of the 4 types of virtual worlds, according to Metaverse.org's model. It is an interesting domain with lots of astonishing possibilities. Recently I spotted a video on Youtube in which a SL Avatar appeared in a real-world room. Filled to the roof with ICT - equipment, just to mark the development-status at the moment. With a pair of dedicated glassed on your nose you can expect me to walk in any moment. Or the guys from StarTrek.

Pot au feu

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:45:00 +0000

These guys were having fun when I passed them. Sitting behind their own desk at home or anywhere else with some privacy they enjoyed their smoke. By the sound of their voices it was a European lot that used SL to meet and socialise. Not a bad idea at all, allthough many would not approve this use of a public sandbox.

CNWL 118/182/77

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 12:33:00 +0000

MJB Hax, from College of North West London is working on the development of tools for learning in SL. He constructed a ruler that allows student to read out and report on their progress in measuring correctly. This may seem trivial, but remember that the skill to use a ruler is fundamental to many technical competencies. He has many more ideas on adressing other basic skills in numeracy and literacy in SL. He is btw also the first person I met that had his avatar name on his business - card in RL. Good show all together.

Could not resist it.

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Allthough I recently said that flying a plane, heli, or driving a car or any other vehicle is silly, I could not resist a try of the heli I keep in my inventory. This storage of notecards, landmarks, contacts and innumereous object is a troublesome partner in SL. It is not easy to maintain some form of organisation apart from the one LLab provides. Every now and then I start organising and filling the bin, but overtime I see the need for a rehearsal of that unpleasant work. Still, its almost impossible to throw this beauty away.

Tintable Suspenders!!!

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:50:00 +0000

Wearing suspenders has been my 'trademark' since the early Eighties.There is hardly a day I do not have them clipped to my trousers, be it short, long, jeans or tailormade. All my theatersuits have braces too. So you can imagine that my first transaction in XStreet has been, ..........yes! A pair of braces, and Tintable. L$20,- maybe a bargain or not, I am very pleased them and I hope you like them too. I wonder how much the sixpack will be?

XStreet Exchange/107/85/27

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:57:00 +0000

XStreet is a partner or part of LindenLab. The sitebanner says it is an official part of Second Life. You will find terminals validate your Xstreet account everywhere in-world. The combination enables you to buy stuff when logged in SL as well as on the webbased marketplace. I stayed with a terminal for quite a while and saw many people integrate both accounts. I just bought myself a set of suspenders in XStreet. I can change them in any colour I like. Seems to me that the economies of SL and RL are almost one system. The system is robust and solid. It would be a fine thing if other marketplaces make this merge too.

Skinningrove Jetty Halve Maen /32/48/21

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:43:00 +0000

Steve Thompson, Teeside University in the UK is doing some fine work in SL and RL by showing a replica of the Skinningrove Jetty in-world. He was assisted by a lot of friends in SL to get this done and the result is great. The project was also recorded in a 7 minute animation, taken in-world. On YouTube you will find a preview of the final version, presented in RL next thursday. This article will tell the reasons behind this wonderful project. If you want to know more I suggest you use Google Earth, or Wiki on Skinningrove and Jetty. The in-world jetty can be found here.

BETT2009 Best Practice Seminar

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:49:00 +0000

I can finally present the results of my in-world research to you. All my results are published on Kennisnet, the Dutch national educational portal. In Dutch! You can view and download the pdf you from the url below. It will give you access to my slides and the complementary text of my presentation. I hope you enjoy it and that it meets your expectations. Feel free to contact me if you would like more information or some knowledge on the matter.

http://issuu.com/jpvanschie/docs/bett_2009_for_issuu_1.0

This Second 201/28/22

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:37:00 +0000

One would expect a crowd at noon in the World Bank in SL. I met Joni and that was a nice surprise, au contraire the empty chairs all over the sim. According to the map doing business in 2009 is not all that fun, especially when you go below the equator. Even Russia is not green, allthough I know a few dutch millionaires doing business there. Crisis? Yes, certainly in terms of numbers of interested avatars.

Happy New Year

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:03:00 +0000

I wish you all a very Happy New Year. In good health and happiness, in Real - and Second Life, or in any other world. May 2009 bring you peace, love and maybe some luck in matters that are important to you.

Learning in Second Life

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:18:00 +0000

Leren in Second Life, summarising the results of my research among early adopters in using SL as a tool for learning and teaching. In Dutch, but I will produce an English summary after Xmas. Hopefully you like the pictures if you cannot read dutch. If you have any questions or would like to receive the conclusions from the transcript in english, please send me an email.

Architecture Island 32/97/23

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:05:00 +0000

Amazing island with lots of buildings that express creative thinking and showin g on designing and building modern places to work and live in. Sustainable and some of great interest and beauty. I did not find a modern school building yet, but no doubt, soon to come.

Romeno 8/11/22

joopvanschie@gmail.com (Joop van Schie) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:49:00 +0000

This office shows some understanding on how Avatars would like to design their own office in-world. You might dislike the colours, the absence of abundant decorating or even the structure. But its certainly built to use and has a wonderfull navigation format. Strolling is easy and the structure is transparant. You always know where you are in this building and visible from all sides.