K-8 Virtual Worlds

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Comment by Sabine Reljic / Willow Shenlin on March 12, 2009 at 11:49am

Next question: Any virtual worlds promoting global citizenship and foreign languages for our little people (K-8)?

Comment by Sabine Reljic / Willow Shenlin on March 12, 2009 at 10:54am

Have there been any questions in K-12 education, SL, PTA and fundraising? My son's class is organizing a Easter basket for auctioning and the topic is 'Webkidz."
Here is my latest resource finding (http://www.allaboardtoys.com/webkinz-clearance/). However, the parents and I do not want to limit the basket to the brand 'webkidz'. The idea behind the basket is primarily to have web-based resources for EDUCATIONAL purposes. The plush animals are cute but we can't have just fuzzy stuff in that basket. Are any of you aware of or know of web-based companies that have an educational goal and whose audience is 1st graders (not exclusively)?

Comment by Sally Schmidt on January 15, 2009 at 9:23am

Sabine, On KidsCom.com kids play educational games to earn Virtual Points they can use the take care of a virtual pet or buy stuff for their house, character, etc. in our virtual world. Many of the games would be appropriate for 1st graders--we have a math game called Math Monster Crunch, Tangrams game, Maze game, Appetite Attack nutrition game (although it is probably a little advanced for 1st graders). You can find these games easily by going to KidsCom.com and clicking on the Games tab in the top nav.

Comment by Sabine Reljic / Willow Shenlin on January 14, 2009 at 3:02pm

I have been a parent-volunteer at my son's elementary school for 2 years now. Lately, I have introduced the 1st graders to the Blast Off Game (www.mypyramid.gov) as an activity to reinforce what they have been learning in class about food groups (and incidentally, reading, spelling and tech fluency). Since then, the teacher has been asking for more. I am now catching up on everybody's comments and postings here to find, try and propose new game or platforms for those 1st graders. My academic training in higher ed, so this is all new to me. I am really excited to find this group here.

Comment by Sally Schmidt on January 9, 2009 at 5:54pm

Hi, I am the Executive Producer on KidsCom.com. In our virtual world we are teaching kids about global climate change and things they can do to make a difference. We also offer cool opportunities for kids to have experiences in the real world where they can meet experts and then report back to all the rest of the kids on our site. One example is right now where we have some kids who got to go to CES to see what kinds of "green" devices companies are making. (see http://www.kidscom.com/media for more info).

I am wondering how we can find out what topics teachers are covering with 3rd-7th graders on climate change so that we can have maximum benefit by reinforcing what the kids are learning at school.

Comment by Jerome Cygan on January 9, 2009 at 3:31pm

Hi, I am new to this concept of using virtual worlds in the learning process at school. No one I know is using this in my school district. How does one begin? Also, we have many filters at the district and the county level which block these virtual world sites. How has your district addressed this issue? I am the tech person at my school so I would be responsible for supporting the teachers in using virtual worlds in their lessons. What kinds of challenges would I be looking at in implementing this kind of program? Thank you for any information you can give me.

Comment by Caroline Cerveny on October 1, 2008 at 3:19pm

Hi all! I've heard about Virtual Worlds! That's the extent of my experience! I want to learn what I can!

Comment by Rich White on August 12, 2008 at 2:01pm

New dedicated Opensim machine is running - multi-processor quad-core ... currently building a web front end in PHP for registration - tracking quest/project points -- then to build in-world teacher resources for assigning points/tracking users etc. --- interested collaborating in the GreenbushGrid project get more info here - http://grid.greenbush.us

Comment by Kirsten Bollen on July 28, 2008 at 1:26am

At Dizzywood, we've just started a pilot with the YMCA, which is using the site's virtual environment to reinforce its program emphasis on activities that promote values such as caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.

The YMCA program is similar to the elementary school program that Dizzywood recently completed with the Reed Union School District (Marin County, CA). The difference being that the school used different virtual activities to reinforce its own set of character pillars, which include caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness, among other core values.

These pilots underscore that virtual worlds provide educators with tremendous flexibility to have value in both in-school and after-school programs. I'll continue to share as we learn more ourselves...

Comment by Liam ODonnell on July 20, 2008 at 12:20pm

Scientr.org looks amazing Margaret. Would love to hear more about your experiences with it. Please feel free to start a discussion here if there's anything you'd like to share with us.

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