First tentative steps...

Today I was invited by Westley who leads the Australian Skoolaborate Project to join him for my first look at the fantastic work students have done in a virtual world.

I arrived in the obligatory white t-shirt and denim jeans sporting large friendly eyes and an over-tanned body that is common to all new arrivals. Before I had time for a wardrobe change and some plastic surgery Westley appeared and took me to the foyer of an impressive multi-story building. Click on the (slightly skew) panorama below. Apparently this building was created by 16 year old Natalie from the USA.

Panorama: Click and drag mouse left/right to have a look around - mouse scroll to zoom.

Hobart College has joined this project to collaborate on 3D design projects, talk about world issues and have adventures in virtual space with students from New Zealand, Japan and other Australian States. Some students from a couple of local high schools will also be joining us soon. The empty yellow frames are where we can put some student artwork - I'll try to find some tomorrow.

Westley then took me up to the 4th floor and showed me a very large empty room with magnificent ocean views - this he told me is to be a room for the Tasmanian teachers in this project! (Our students will be building their own area later - when they have learned how to build...) I placed two large pink flamingos in the room that I found in my inventory - we can decide on our Tasmanian decor later :-)



This project presents us with so many possibilities... some research indicates that 80% of active internet users will be visiting online virtual worlds by 2011 - now is the time to learn what that might mean - for education and for society.

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Thursday Update
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Here are some pictures and video of the first meeting of the collaborating schools. Some of the Tasmanian teachers met later that evening - and bumped into MLC year 11 student Emily who was busy perfecting her scripting skills.

Extended Learning Across the Planet

This Friday was the first "Extended Line Day" for line 5 classes - we are having one per week starting August 10th. Some classes are taking the opportunity for long trips off campus, others are combining to do some different project work, while others are using the extra time to study topics in more depth. A number of guest speakers and presenters were invited to college and there were many "gourmet" lunches.

The panorama below is from Kay Filgate's mathematics class who spent the afternoon roaming the planet studying Earth Geometry, lattitudes/longitudes and the Seven Wonders of the World using Google Earth.

Click in picture then drag mouse left/right to pan around the room. Use mouse scroll to zoom.