Globaloria Presentation at CPD Professional Development Showcase

Shannon and I presented two (the same presentation) sessions yesterday at the CPD Professional Development Showcase. We felt the sessions went well considering that the conference center had NO internet access. The second challenge was that we didn't even have a projector for the first half of the first session. But the attendees were great and Shannon did a great job getting us through that initial hurdle.

Our session was designed to introduce potential new schools to the Globaloria program. We presented the vision, the implementation framework, the larger family of social networks, and finally how they (or you) could join. We showed some videos and some screencaps that we had grabbed as backups to actually surfing the wikis, (just in case the internet was down). Here are the slides.

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We also handed out an application to everyone who attended so that, if interested, they could provide us with some information about their school. We had one school return the application at the end of the session and another school schedule a time for us to come and visit with their educators. It was really great. The application is posted here if you are interested.

Toward the end of the presentation we discussed how important it is that we get great educators who are passionate in teaching in new and innovative ways. If you aren't already a Globaloria partner and this sounds perfect for you and your school, fill out the application and maybe you could be the next partner in the Globaloria Community.

Collaboration and Communication on the Rise

It is really great to see the collaboration and communication with the Globaloria program in the rise. More and more we are seeing students express themselves through the wiki, educators using the platform to provide feedback, and we have a group of new technology wizards starting to blog (links very soon).

MCTC has posted some great paper prototype videos. You should really go and check them out.



Snowboarding Game Prototype

Great job everybody!

A Great Podcast about Globaloria

Idit Caperton, Director of the WorldWideWorkshop, participated in this podcast. It is a fairly quick listen around ten minutes long. Check it out.

(WORLD) The MediaSnackers podcast focusses on individuals, organizations or companies who are simply impressing us and which are crying out for more discussion.

Idit Caperton is the founder of MaMaMedia and creator of the Globaloria Program which empowers and connects aspiring young web developers worldwide (amongst other things).

Social Networking and Gaming

Wow, a week got by me and I didn't get a lot posted.

Here is an article about how the popularity of social networks and the popularity of games are starting to combine. It is interesting because many of these games are similar to the ones that our students are creating in Globaloria. There is a large market for friends getting together online through Facebook or MySpace and playing cards or scrabble.

Just imagine Globaloria getting to the place where we are coming together online and playing collaborative games. We really aren't that far away. We have some great games.

Update: Here is another story from the gaming industry. It looks like there is a lot of investment going into these games.

Workshop Follow-up

I wanted to take some time to pull together a post-workshop post for the blog. I think we had a good workshop and I really saw some progress in some of our teachers. It is always exciting to see a group "dig in' and really start to understand the process and the technologies. I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved for making it a great learning experience.

The workshop focused on some key things for the group of existing educators including the Globaloria platform, using the wiki, collaborating virtually within the community, and a lot of time learning Flash.

Each school was able to go into their wiki and make edits and updates, some worked through their semester schedule, while others began to re-organize their wikis to improve the overall platform.

During the second day of the workshop, we had a great discussion about some of the issues that we face in the schools, like Getting Started, Recruiting Students, Grading Student Work, and transferring Globaloria skills and techniques into other curriculum areas or classes. Everyone participated in the discussion and a lot great ideas surfaced.

The final afternoon was one big Flash workshop. The educators produced a complete Flash movie before they left that evening and presented it during dinner. We were really able to see a lot of great ideas emerge and great learning happen.

Go here and check out what they produced. The video above is one that Bill did during the workshop. It isn't the final version, but pretty great anyway.

Live Workshop Post

This is a live post from the workshop. I want everyone to see how easy it is to blog. You should go to the MyGLife site.

In-Progress Workshop Update

We have one day under our belt and we have had some really good discussions and presentations. Denise and Patrick gave provided some great insight by giving us a demonstration of their students games and we watched some video of their classroom.



The evening was also highlighted by a visit by the First Lady Gayle Manchin, who attend the presentation and spoke with us about her support for the program.


While we did have some presentations, there was also some time for hands on. The new educators started to learn Flash and get a feel for how the program can allow you to create games. There will be a lot more of that today. This afternoon we are spending the entire afternoon working in Flash.

If any participants are reading this blog. Leave a comment, tell me your view of the workshop.

Preparing for the Workshop

We are in the Capital City preparing for the Globaloria Educators Workshop that starts this afternoon and runs through tomorrow. We are very excited to get everyone together and have some fun and learn. There are several things scheduled that will make this workshop worth the effort of attending.

1) We are going to give our experienced teachers an opportunity to share their stories.

2) We are going to have a very special guest this afternoon to talk about our program.

3) You are going to have a lot of time to work on your wiki and in Flash.

4) You are going to be able to talk to everyone else about how they are doing things.


This is just the short list, we are all really excited to see you again (or to meet you if you are new). Be safe traveling to Charleston and we will see you this afternoon.