Assessment to me is a feedback for both teacher and students. I always use various assessment methods in my traditional class or my virtual class.

I don't know what else to write here. I think the machinima shows everything I have in my mind about assessment and what I have done so far in terms of assessing my students in virtual world.


 
 
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I assigned my students to write a science fiction picture storybook during summer break. I wanted to challange my students to put their knowledge in Science into a storybook and introduce them to international trade and economy through virtual world. (Yes, I am a bit of out of the box science teacher ^^) I like to use a multidisciplinary approach in teaching science. Although science is just science for some people, for me science is art, language, math, economics, technology, you name it!

My students asked, "where will we sell our books?" It was a brilliant question as I had not thought about it. Some kids proposed to make their own bookshops. I knew that making a bookshop was a hard job but I couldn't turn them down. Honestly, I imagined that my students would make small and simple bookshops with minimal effort. It turned out that they made GRAND bookshops with rooftop cafe, stairs to the second floor, fountain, sliding glass windows, sofas, flat screen TV, etc. They put everything that they thought was important and intereting in their creation. The next step for them is designing a marketing program (Geez....am I really a science teacher?)

The books they wrote are virtual but real people from all over the physical world will read them. The bookshops they built are virtual but they will get real income from them. It is amazing how virtual world helps me enrich and broaden my teaching and provides opportunities that are immposible to do in physical setting. I can't wait so see the bookshops textured and the books displayed for SALE.

Questions worth asking: Can you imagine to have freedom to create and be creative? Do you know how it feels when your thoughts and ideas count and can be executed? Wouldn't it be fun to learn not because of the scores but because of what you can do to life and in life?





 
After I presented about virtual world for learning and teaching with Mark Sivy or Aedann Slade from North Carolina University in Indonesian Ministry of Education headquarter in front of more than 200 teachers, some teachers who attended the workshop managed to make an account in Second Life the very next day.

I still remember my own experience being a newbie. It wasn't always easy. Other educators' help was like a life saving raft. So I decided to help these newbie teachers by conducting a class to teach them how to use a presentation board I got from International School Island in Second Life. 

Having a well adjusted students all the time, I must admit that it was hard for me to deal with adult newbies. I need to adopt new strategies in sharig my knowledge and skill to them because some teachers still could not use the


 

That afternoon, I was thrilled to get an offline IM from Rurik Bellinghausen or Rurik Nackerud, an educator from United States. He invited me to share my virtual world teaching experince in the first Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education - Teen Fair (VWBPE-Teen Fair).

VWBPE conference is a community-based conference that provides opportunities for all participants in virtual worlds to share current teaching, learning, and research practices in 3D virtual environments. http://www.vwbpe.org  VWBPE Teen Fair is a part of VWBPE annual conference which focuses on teen use of virtual worlds. http://www.vwbpe.org/blog/teen-fair  It was an honor to be able to contribute in this first Teen Fair in VWBPE conference this year.

My students displayed 4 of their works there (Mars Rover, Flip Comic Book, 3D Water Cycle Model, and Free Creations) and I presented my ecperience teaching them in virtual world. I thank Rurik and Kae for giving me a chance to participate in this grand project. http://rurik.nackerud.net/2011/03/teen-fair-at-vwbpe/ See you all in next year VWBPE Teen Fair.


(Pstt...2 of my machinimas won the 2nd and 3rd places in VWBPE machinima competition uder People's Choice category. http://www.vwbpe.org/awards

 

 
Thank you Aedann Slade for sharing your knowledge and spirt to all of us. We were all encouraged to collaborate, thanks to your workshops.


 
I think educators survive in Second Life because of the help of other educators. I remember during my first week of existance in SL, when I didn't know how lo took at my own face, when I was proud wearing DEMO hair *with the shop logo floating on top of my head*,  and when I didn't know how to get away from rats which were chasing me in International School Island, an educator helped me all the way through.

I cannot count how many educators from every corner of the world who have helped me selflessly. "We help each other here," they said. Now that there is a wave of Indonesian educators coming into SL as newbies, I really want to do what other educators did to help me.  I believe that any help no matter how small it is makes a difference.

***I was in borobudur sim with 3 educators from Indonesia. All I did to help were just to show them how to use camera control, to set the environment and to get business outfit to cover one avatar's belly button. It was really nothing compared to how much help I have recieved in SL but I am sure every skill that we pass forward to other educators will make them better adjusted to this technology.


"We help each other here." I love that.
 

 
 
All of my students in Grade 4 have witnessed the massive tsunami in Japan recently. They were all terrified watching the footage. We have passed the earth unit at school but that day I used my teaching time to discuss about the tsunami. I brought my students to a tsunami simulation built by NOAA. The tsunami simulation started with an earthquake under the sea, shaking the earth plates. It was then followed by the rapid depression of the sea level. Out of sudden, a huge wave, a tsunami, rushed to the beach, destroying everything on its path.

My students ran away as the tsunami approaching but none of them could escape the wave. They saw how the beach house was leveled by the tsunami. I am glad I could teach my students to be aware of what is going on around them or around the world and be able to understand it.