Philosophy Course Blog Meanderings

Recently while attending the AACE E-Learn 2007 Conference in Quebec, Canada I came across an interesting presentation from a fellow from the UK and the University of Gloucestershire who presented “A Year in the Blogosphere.”

“A Year in the Blogosphere” all started at last year’s AACE 2006 Conference when Dr David Webster attended and learned about blogging. Being a Philosophy professor Dr Webster was looking for ways to use new technologies in his classes. And hence founded his Religion, Philosophy & Ethics Course Blog.

His presentation "A Year in the Blogosphere" at this year’s E-Learn 2007 relayed stories of his trials and tribulations with blogging in academia, with his students, and gave a snapshot of where his blog is now one year later. But he still is wondering where it will go, but that is a blogger’s dilemma I suppose.

His students seem to like the blog to be able to discuss topics started in class. I have been told that with philosophers, philosophy discussion can go on forever, so this blog is a great place for his students to discuss a topic as long as they want, even long after they have left Dr Webster’s Philosophy class. Isn’t that a great way to extend learning?

Keep following Religion, Philosophy & Ethics so we see where Dr Webster takes his students next with blogging & technology.

Video Games- Teaching Social Issues

I stumbled upon a brochure today for the RePlay Positive Video Game. Perfect timing, because we are on the topic of using video games for learning in my Online ED Tech class.

The RePlay Video Game promotes healthy relationships, treating others with respect, and how to prevent violence. This type of non-entertainment game promotes social change is designed to get students to critically think about the world they live in. RePlay is designed for students-ages 8-14.

"Video Games are popular and they can help youth think about things in new ways"

The RePlay Video Game uses a simulated environment to immerse students in active participation while learning ways to better communicate through difficult conflicts that come up as they play.

As students play they learn how to view a world with healthy, equal, and respectful relationships among themselves, with their family members, and their peers, and learn new ways to deal with conflicts and relationships in their own lives.

Also, as students play they learn about community resources that are available to them. This video game is was developed in Canada, so some of the resources are Canadian, but the game can be useful for students everywhere.

Video games are now recognized as a powerful tool in teaching; since students love to play them these games offer an opportunity to catch students' interest and impact lives.

The Replay Video Game can also be integrated into your Social Studies, Math, and Language Arts curriculum.

Here are some ideas for curriculum use:

• Have students create role play scenarios in Language Arts, act them out, and video the role plays for future use.
• Have students write stories in Language Arts and record them using podcasting technology, allowing the stories to be heard by many others.
• Have students review local statistics relating to domestic violence and then chart the data they have collected.
  

There are many more ways to integrate this game in your classroom and at the same time provide students an opportunity to improve their own life and the lives of others they will interact with today, and in the future.

• Related Site:
• Games for Change

K12 Online Conference Credit

Just a quick reminder that the K12 Online Conference starts tomorrow! Join educators from around the world and explore all the ways social media can be used in the classroom. This is a great way to either dip your toes in the education 2.0 water or build on your existing technology skills.

You can also be able to earn either professional development and graduate credit for your participation in most of the K12 Conference sessions. You can learn more and get the required forms over on the K12 Online Conference wiki.

Additional Resources

• K12 Online 2007
• K12 Online > PD & Graduate Credit
• K12 Online 2007 > Rubric

Tapping the Tools of Teen Culture

In reading "Tapping the Tools of Teen Culture" from the Digital Divide Network I was reminded of teen culture.

As adults, we use new technologies for various reasons, in our personal lives and for our job, but these are hardly ever for the same reasons or ways in which teens use them.

In this article, Aaron Schmidt, talks about new technologies such as blogs, wikis, IM and provides some very good ideas to use the Web2.0 as a participatory tool from the teens' perspective.

It's a good read.....

Yahoo! For Teachers + Twitter

It appears that Earl, the Yahoo! For Teachers spokesowl, has discovered the joys of Twitter. And even though he would much rather "hoo" than "tweet"-- he still thinks Twitter is pretty slick.

He's agreed use Twitter as a way to keep everyone up-to-date with breaking community news, links to useful resources along a few random bits of information.

You can follow Earl by clicking here:

http://twitter.com/yahooteachers

Related Resources

• Twitter
• A Guide to Twitter in the Library
• Yahoo! For Teachers + Flickr