We joined SIGIVC this year at ISTE 2010 for a little Mystery Pirate fun at the playground. For those of you who dialed into us, you got a great chance to see those swarmy Sled Dogs and that scary Musher Pirate, Rich.

 There were two wonderful articles posted in Edutopia's email newsletter. The first was about gaming in education, it's role and possibilities. I really enjoyed, however, the concept of using gaming in a simulation setting. Every good teacher knows that we learn by doing. Sometimes we cannot provide enough real life experiences in our classroom, and bringing in simulations can be a great way to reach the state of high order of learning. 

I think this video has summed up the research related to the technology use and the importance of high order learning such as simulations and real world applications: 

Now keeping this in mind in terms of online simulations and gaming, we can take teaching to a new level that will not only motivate our learners but engage them.  We can provide them more opportunities to participate in simulations that are more consistent with real life experiences and applying their learning for the purpose of engaging, communicating and creating. 

One step further, we can examine a second article form Eudtopia about Social Media and education specifically Facebook. Brian Kievit provides amazing examples and modeling of how to use social media at it's best. Yes, there are admittedly many poor examples and frightening examples of the use of Facebook in education (like with anything) but it is truly the job of educators to be models for the use of technology. This means that avoiding technology in the classroom for fear of the dangers will not teach our youth how best to use the technology. Besides, they are already using it, why not provide a positive modeling for it. 

I love to take a few moments everyday and peruse through new sites. Today I could not help but see the numerous new sites that are focusing on online learning and education. One in particular that caught my eye was Hoot.

And  I thought to myself, what a cool idea for Videoconferencing. I am always looking and thinking about new ways to increase the interactivity of videoconferencing with students. Even though we try to create content that allows students to move, talk,discuss and participate, I always wonder about the very shy students or the ones that do not get called on by their teachers. 

This is where Hoot comes in. If students and/or teachers could have access the web, all they need to do is login to the site with their Twitter name or Facebook name and they can immediately begin posting comments, questions that come right to the presenter. 

Very simple and easy design. Check it out and let us know what you think. Worth trying out?