McU media

I would like to nominate Bookends for the Best New Blog in the 2008 Edublog Awards .

Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Rutan have long been stars in the Michigan school media scene. Many of us have been following Bookends since it’s begining early this year. Their tagteam approach to book reviews has both amused and enlightened us. I think the MAME community and school media specialists in general should show our support to this excellent resource in the 2008 Edublog Awards . Long may they rule the book blogosphere!

Raccoon Tune 

Two great learning events are going on in the media center this month. All the lower elementary classes are participating in Michigan Reads! This activity, sponsered by Taget and The State Library of Michigan, asks all kids in Michigan to read the book Racoon Tune by Nancy Shaw, during the month of September. Over 100 McCollough elementary students have participated. Come see our awsome signup poster in the media center.

The second learning event is something I (Mrs. Alvarado) am do9ing for my own learning. I am participating with 1800 other people in an online open course calle Connectivism and Connected Learning. I hope to learn more about new developments in learning theory and how that might affect 21st century learners.

This is a picture of Dearborn Public Schools’ Exhibitors Booth in the Second Life Educator’s Best Practices Conference which took place May 25 in the Second Life Virtual world. Presenter from all over the globe presented at this marathon 24 hour conference. Well known names from the U.S. included Kathy Schrock. (pictured below)

She reminded the audience of over 1000 educators about the importance of evaluating resources and teaching our students how to look for credible sources of information. For video archives of the major conference presentations, see the link below.

http://www.slcn.tv/best-practices-in-education

For live blog of the event including posts by yours truly under my SL name of Cyndi Uriza, See the link below.

http://slic2007.blogspot.com/

Yesterday’s iLearn session participants did a great job of developing new ilearn content to support writing in their classes. I want to highlight one course that is open to all McU students and staff. The Wancha/Wilkie Wanna-walkers is a walking/running club that encourages everyone to get moving and shed some of the extra pounds that some of us tend to put on over the winter. I encourage everyone to join this class and get walking! The enrollment key is “walk”.

I will be giving a professional development section about using iLearn for content writing. The content I am going to use for my example is new media. If you would like a taste of the 3-D virtual world Second Life and how it is being used in K-12 education view the video below. Go to the links and choose CoSN video.

PacRimX student exchange

Feel free to comment here about the video and the topic of new media in education.