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You may have heard your students talking about questing or getting their epic mounts or selling bars of gold on the auction house. If you have, you’re probably dealing with a World of Warcraft player.

As a long-standing gamer and a doctoral student interested in virtual worlds and games and their potential use for teaching, I was thrilled to learn that a recent issue of Science magazine called for participation in a unique conference – one that would take place within the massively multiplayer online game, World of Warcraft (WoW). For three days in May, participants in the Convergence of the Real and the Virtual conference created characters and joined players from around the world to participate in scholarly discussions about the game while hanging out in a virtual world.

The conference was comprised of three sessions: one about the possibilities for research within the game, one about the relationship between the game and the “real world,” and one about the future of such virtual worlds.

I was particularly drawn to the second session because it featured both Constance Steinkuehler who researches the potential for learning and literacy in games, and Julian Dibbell, who researches cultural and sociological aspects of games. These scholars are two of my most favorite within this community. This particular session shed some light on the learning potential in games.

Steinkuehler believes there’s serious learning and knowledge creation that occurs as a result of playing WoW. For instance one conference participant related a story about how his son wanted to find a specific pet within the game (yes, players can have virtual pets in the game) and spent several hours researching how to find and obtain such a pet. This example uniquely illustrates the development of critical thinking, research skills, and strategic planning - indispensable skills in high school, college and beyond. Other threads of discussion in this session included the notions of:

1. How real is a friend in WoW?
2. Are the relationships that are formed in-game meaningful?
3. Is the social space of the game completely different from real life, or does it simply mimic real life?
4. Can leadership be learned in WoW?
5. Can skills developed within the game world transfer to the real world?

If you are interested in learning more about the potential for learning in games, I recommend you start with Steinkuehler’s work. After all, 10 million people play WoW; and some of them might be your students! -LAURA CHRISTOPHERSON

You’re probably all well aware of the threat posed to mankind by artificially intelligent machines, everyone’s seen The Terminator movies at least once or twice. So when I heard about the so-called “living content” available through Sprout Builder, I immediately thought the worst.

As it turns out, however, adding living content to your website or class blog is a pretty cool feature. Click, drag and drop just about any rich media (video, audio, images, interactive services) into the Sprout Builder to create your content, then you’re given a Flash file to embed onto whatever website you please. Now you have a mini-site full of flashy content contained all on one page. A site within a site—the site’s the thing!

WARNING: Persons denying the existence of living machines may be robots themselves. -NICK YINGLING

Sprout

Johnny Lee, a YouTube personality and “human-computer interaction researcher” is changing the way we use existing technology through simple modifications, and he’s sharing it with everyone. This amazing demo proves that using something as inexpensive and highly obtainable as the Wii Remote, he can create an interactive whiteboard. Lee explains that while the whiteboard isn’t exactly the quality of it’s $3000 likeness, you’ll still get “80% there for about 1% of the cost.” He notes that teachers are able to access this technology for use in their classrooms, and many already are.

Lee makes no qualms about making this sort of technology available for anyone who wants it. He’s put the software on his website, and at the time of this demo, it had been downloaded half a million times. View the demo for the full extent of what other uses Lee is finding for the technology, and visit his website if you want to learn more. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Johnny Lee’s $40 Interactive Whiteboard

Johnny Lee Computer-Human Interaction Researcher

Tired of kids doing the same games from your list of activities? Would you like to add the element of random chance into your curriculum, but still have solid academic (yet fun) online activities for kids to do? Let Computer Lab Favorites at Scholastic.com change up your mix. This site generates new content and activities suitable for independent work at the lab.

The activities are presented on a wheel, which features four color-coded subjects (English, Math, Social Studies, and Spanish). It comes in two levels K-2 and 3-5, and a “spin it” button to let you do a random selection, adding the element of chance to your session. Activities include phonemic awareness and reading games from Clifford, science from Magic School Bus, writing activities from “Dog’s Life” and other “Flashlight Readers, and the poetry machine.

This is a great resource for high interest, easy-to-use independent activities on your classroom computers, and a rendezvous with Madame La Chance. -ALICE MERCER

Computer Lab Favorites at Scholastic.com

Welcome to the Carnival of Education Career Fair! We’ve retracted the bleachers and set up the booths on the gymnasium floor so these brave teachers can see what they might be doing if they weren’t teaching (perish the thought).

Motivational Speaker
Mr. D at I Want to Teach Forever agreed to sport a freaking mohawk as long as his students worked hard, which was about three weeks. Sadly, his motivational experiment has concluded. Long live the mohawk.

Camp Counselor
As a kid, my wife got to go to Space Camp and Marine Science Camp. Had Tisha Kulak and American Consumer News been around back then to point out how to save money on tuition to summer research camps, I might’ve been able to go, too.

Productivity Consultant
Instructify-favorite studenthacks.org has some great tips for students who want to learn how to write a research paper.

Pro Athletes
The Jose Vilson uses Derek Jeter as an example of how nurturing students’ talent and leadership ability early on can reap great results.

And over at Jay P. Greene’s Blog, the author talks about the importance of identifying students’ talents, whether they’re a left tackle or potential honor student.

Economist
ESL teacher Larry Ferlazzo knows that money is the international language.

Translator
Melissa B. at The Scholastic Scribe provides a handy-dandy English-to-Eduspeak dictionary.

Director
Mathew Needleman at Creating Lifelong Learners takes a proactive approach to managing disruptive students during a class movie project.

Advice Columnist
Let’s Play Math! has some advice on teaching math to a struggling student.

Detective
OverwhelmedMom gets to the bottom of problems that gifted students face.

Investigative Reporters
The proprietor of a voice from the middle knows the means to discovery is asking the right questions.

In addition, eduwonkette responds to a Wall Street Journal article about the criteria used to evaluate teachers.

Game Developer
Alvaro at SharpBrains shares a few games to stimulate your temporal lobe.

Diplomat
Coach Brown tries to reach an understanding with hostile parents.

Nutritionists
At Homework. Dinner. Life. Angela points out that good nutrition habits ought to be maintained year-round, not just a few days before the test.

Meanwhile, Chanman at Buckhorn Road says all that caffeine students drink can’t be good for them.

Cartographer
Dan Callahan, a.k.a. geek.teacher, harnesses Google Maps for a lesson in community mapping.

Librarian
@EDU takes the work out of student research by pointing them toward Google Alerts.

Politician
Jane Artabasy at Golden Apple Teaching Excellence Network unloads the loaded word of the day, “elitism,” showing it’s nothing to be frightened of - especially in schools.

The folks at Golden Apple also mull over the differences in races and learning styles.

Astronaut
HowDoWhy asks, what is a solar system, anyway? Furthermore, just how big is ours?

Human Resources Specialist
Over at Right on the Left Coast, Darren discusses the sticky situation of a teacher dating an 18-year-old student at a different school.

Mentors
Allison Jones at Entry Level Living wants to revamp the way young people think about leadership.

The folks at the Efficient Leadership Files have some ideas on that as well.

Statistician
Lead from the Start crunches the numbers about the disconnect between teachers and EdSector.

Strategist
Seth Pearce at NYC Students Blog has an intriguing idea on how to overcome schools’ non-stop test preparation.

Lobbyist
PZ Meyers at Pharyngula has some news about a disturbing bill in the Oklahoma legislature regarding religion in schools.

Road Grader
As the great homework debate rages on, Shabam School makes a good case for grading homework.

Kindergarten Teacher (sorry, I couldn’t come up with anything else)
Kiri at Elbows, Knees, Dreams shares her thoughts (and asks for others’ opinions) about early entrance to Kindergarten.

Photo credit: ou_ags on flickr

Back in February, Jeremy blogged about Doodle 4 Google, a contest where students redesigned the Google logo based around the question, “What if…?”. The entries are in, and you can now vote for your favorites. The winning drawing will replace the usual Google logo on May 22.

If you missed the contest deadline, you can still take advantage of the lesson plans Google has made available for the project. The contest’s central question, “What if…?” can be a springboard for lots of creative ideas beyond just the Google logo. For example, I think the Instructify banner at the top of this page would be a great choice. -BILL FERRIS

Doodle 4 Google - Vote

Related Stuff:
Get Your Schoodle to Doodle for Google

Ever have that student that just can’t seem to get a concept (especially in mathematics) without concrete examples? How about the ones that do better when they make something, rather than taking notes and doing calculations? That probably describes 50-85% of some classrooms. Well dear readers, we have some tools for you.

Are you teaching about symmetry and reflections? Kaleidoscopes are a great way to teach students about these concepts. Myoats is a great online tool for this. It lets users create kaleidoscopic images with 1 to 16 lines of symmetry. You can even save your creations as an image file. There is also a library of images created by others that you can use as examples.

Tessellations are great for visually showing patterns, and Math Cats’ Tessellation Town! is easy enough for primary kids to start building. It gives you a choice of different tiles to work, and you can start clicking away.

Do you have tappers and drummers in your class? Spring is their season, so let them go to Phil Tulga’s Playing Fraction Pies to get all those phat beats out of their system, AND learn about fractions.

So give the right side of your kids’ brains a workout during math with these fun and easy-to-use sites. -ALICE MERCER

Myoats
Math Cats’ Tessellation Town!
Phil Tulga’s Playing Fraction Pies

Related Stuff:
Dodecahedron? Dodeca-heck-yeah! Build Geometric Wonders with Paper Models of Polyhedra
Start Folding with Origami Now!

Instructify will host the 171st edition of Carnival of Education on Wednesday, May 14. The Carnival will feature a cavalcade of articles from edubloggers chronicling what’s going on in the classroom, the ballpark, and even outer space.

This ride is almost full, but we might be able to sneak in a good post or two before 4 PM. You can submit articles here. We’ll see you tomorrow on the midway! -BILL FERRIS

Carnival of Education

Related Stuff:
Carnival of Education #158
Step Right Up: Carnival of Education

20 World Geography Facts That Might Surprise You - If the world were flat, we would all be spinning out of control right now, because 90% of the world’s population lives in the northern hemisphere. See, there are facts like that about our world’s geography that you did not know, but you soon will thanks to Boots-n-All. Also, did you know that France is about 30% larger than the state of California? No, you did not.

43 Amazing Resources for Writers - I know, I know, I write about writing a lot, but I think it is important. Also, as it turns out, there are a lot of resources out there for writers. In fact, here are 43 of them from Cath Lawson and they are all very amazing.

100 Free Podcasts from the Best Colleges in the World - Stanford, MIT, Berkley, and other colleges are embracing the wonders of podcasting and making them available to you. Who needs to break the bank on expensive tuition when you can just plug in your eardoos and listen your way to knowing Engineering Ethics. Cultivate Greatness has compiled this list that has some great colleges to choose podcasts from… even (shudder) Duke.

The Top 101 Websites for Teachers - Thank me later– or now, if you want– for these 101 websites just for you. This blog is not terribly unlike our own, but you know, not as snarky. Presented by AssortedStuff.com, a site that is just as valuable as this list, but not quite as compartmentalized. There are some great resources here, but if you really want the tools and sites that will help you teach at your best, there is only one source you need. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

So let’s be honest, most of us can’t afford fancy digital video cameras, and if even we could, we wouldn’t carry them around all the time. That’s why whenever something exciting happens, everyone whips out their trusty cell phone cameras in order to document it. The problem, however, is that they are phones first, and video cameras second (or third, or fourth), so the quality is generally lacking, especially in the resolution department.

Fix My Movie is a free video enhancement site that makes videos from your cell phone, digital camera, or Webcam look great by increasing resolution by up to 4 times, automatically brightening, and getting rid of any excess noise or side effects of compression. And you don’t have to do anything but upload it! The Web site says it can take anywhere from 2 to 30 minutes for the whole process to be completed (something to note, though: The audio in my video got a little wonky in the fixed version). And the file size limit is pretty big: maximum resolution of 352×388 and 15 MB total size.

With FixMyMovie, your shiny new flick is also shareable: You can embed it on your blog or Web site, send the link directly to your friends or students, or click the YouTube, Blogger or Myspace buttons to send your video over to one of those sites. You can also grab still images from your made-over movie, which is pretty cool if you took a video but really need some quality images, too.

And if you’re curious about how it all works, here’s nice little explanation on their blog about how they do what they do. — LAUREN FROHNE

Fix My Movie

Related Stuff:
Film School on the Cheap: BBC’s Me and My Movie Shows Kids How to Make Movies
Get Ready For Your Closeup: Kids’ Vid
Grab Online Video With MyMovo

In a May 4 article titled “I Know What You Did Last Math Class,” the New York Times explores one unfortunate side effect of technology in schools. The article examines how parents are taking advantage of services that connect them with student progress reports, including attendance and grading information. And though no one can deny that better-informed parents can be tremendous allies for teachers, the Times notes that parents who take this information to extremes can end up causing significant stress in their children’s lives:

Denise Pope, a Stanford lecturer who consults with secondary schools, worries that these programs can aggravate student anxiety. “When the focus is on the grade so much, you’re saying to kids, ‘It’s more important to get the grade, by hook or by crook, than learn the material,’” she said. “And that leads to the rise in rampant cheating.”

The article raises interesting questions about the ethical use of tools that allow parents more access to the classroom, but may provide less context than an actual visit or conversation. According to the article, ” Many districts do not educate parents about how to use the programs in a measured, judicious fashion with their children.”

Is your school or school system using a service like Edline, ParentConnect, or PowerSchool to connect parents to classrooms? If so, drop us a note in the comments section and let us know how it’s working. –ROSS WHITE

I Know What You Did Last Math Class via The New York Times

Viral Vinnie Really Has Guts: Game Combines Learning, Indigestion
Who can resist a quiz game with digestive sound effects? I know I (and millions of others) can’t. If this sounds like something you, or perhaps a select number of your students would enjoy, check out Viral Vinnie’s Gut Instinct from the BBC.

Open Education - Open Source Teaching Information
Open Education, a blog from the folks at GoCollege.com, has some great content to share with educators like yourself. The work is licensed under Creative Commons, so the information you find is meant to be shared further. The entry topics range from advances in education to interviews with notable educators and innovators.

Get Linkin’ with Britannica WebShare
Britannica has launched Britannica WebShare: a new program in which you, a professional or amateur Web publisher or blogger, can register your site with the encyclopedia and gain complimentary access to relevant articles in Britannica Online for you and your readers. It’s a reliable way to provide accurate background on the topics you’re writing about - no subscription necessary!

Tell Your Story with VoiceThread
VoiceThread has an intuitive interface to upload, or link to images, and simple-to-use commands to add voice narration (you can do it by telephone if you don’t have a mic), and even upload video and sound files. If that’s not enough, you can add typed text, and doodle.

Hunkin’s Experiments - Cool Cartoon Experiments for Your Classroom
Hunkin’s Experiments are a collection of simple cartoons that explain how to do simple experiments. Their drawings are rudimentary and playful, but luckily, so are the experiments themselves.

Do you like water? I know I do! I’m hooked on the stuff, in fact. Unfortunately, a lot of people die each year due to a lack of clean drinking water. That’s why the Quill and Scroll Society is teaming up with ITT Corporation to sponsor the ITT Award for Excellence in Student Water Journalism. The winner gets a $1000 scholarship, plus an expense-paid trip to World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.

Interested students should submit an article addressing a water-related, environmental issue by May 28 (see the award page for complete entry guidelines). If you have any student journalists in your school with a soft spot for the environment, this is right up their alley.

This award is a good way to introduce a discussion on conserving natural resources (in another, more practical way, the $1000 scholarship is also a good way to introduce a discussion on how to pay for a college education). Fortunately, water is a topic everybody can relate to, so your students shouldn’t have too much trouble coming up with an article. -BILL FERRIS

ITT Award for Excellence in Student Water Journalism

Tangentially Related Stuff:
The C. Montgomery Burns Award For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence

Photo credit: cobalt123 on flickr

I always thought that college was the time for experimentation, but as it turns out, there’s a lot of experimenting you can do in elementary school, too. Hunkin’s Experiments are a collection of simple cartoons that explain how to do simple experiments. Their drawings are rudimentary and playful, but luckily, so are the experiments themselves.

Hunkin has divided them into several categories like Food Experiments, Math, Sound, and even Clothes. Here’s an example from the “Food Experiments” category:

How To Write Your Name on an Apple - Cut the shapes of the letters out of strips of plastic insulating tape. Stick these on a growing apple and wait a week. Areas of the apple covered by the tape will have become bleached and the name will be clearly visible when you remove the tape.

None of the experiments get much more difficult than that, and the science behind each is never really explained. If you just want some easy and fun experiments and tricks to have fun in the classroom, then Hunkin has something for you. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Hunkin’s Experiments

Related Stuff:
Extract DNA from Bananas

Who can resist a quiz game with digestive sound effects? I know I (and millions of others) can’t. If this sounds like something you, or perhaps a select number of your students would enjoy, check out Viral Vinnie’s Gut Instinct from the BBC.

Fear not, there’s more than great animation and gross sounds in this baby. The quiz subjects available are English (Language Arts), Maths (Math in the U.S.), and Science. The subject matter is at the upper elementary level. You can also set up league play, with up to 30 other players - have everyone simply select the same subject, choose “play people I know,” and type in the same League Name, and you’ll all be in the guts of it together. Your avatar is a stomach bug, and when you lose you get a shower in prophylactic yogurt, or stomach acid.

Imagine the fun in your computer lab! LEAGUES with gut noises, it’s like bowling after the chili cookoff/beerfest. -ALICE MERCER

Viral Vinnie’s Gut Instinct