3d and Virtual Worlds

3d is way beyond my pay grade. It makes me a little nervous, even. Moving around in a virtual world makes me feel clumsy and a little crazy. AND YET. That's me. And yet, even I could imagine that a virtual world could be created that would allow visitors to move freely within it and explore universes that they will never be privileged to see with their own eyes and touch with their own hands. I would love to be able to bring my students to all of the National Parks, not for real but for kind-of-real. Rather than tell them that there is a beautiful river in Zion that they can hike right in (that they have to hike right in) I want to "bring" them there and let them experience it for themselves. Of course it would be better to go in person, but perhaps a virtual trip would be the inspiration for a true life adventure someday. The world is a huge and incredible place, and to be able to visit other countries, to see both the landscape and experience the culture could go a long way towards understanding and respect in this world. The advent of movies like Avatar shows where such technology could be headed. It is all far beyond my skills to invent such worlds, but I know that there are those out there who are hot on the trail.

Teaching Kids About Geography

The concept of the world, spinning around, orbiting the sun, being just one of many planets in the universe is certainly a difficult one for early elementary students to grasp. And yet, they are also clearly fascinated by this place we call Earth. Within this website I have begun a project that I hope will help students along the way towards understanding more about our planet, focusing on just a few geographic concepts. I would love to hear your ideas for opening up this world to young students, and what you have found to be effective in your classrooms.

chapter 1 The Blackhole

Pretty sure I've read the whole chapter, but then I thought I was pretty close last time I sat down at the computer.  12:29 on Sunday afternoon, time to hit the grocery aisles.

Getting Started

Perhaps I should take the time to choose my words carefully since the WHOLE WORLD could find their way to my blog.  But that will have to wait for another day.  Here I am, though, making a start.  As Haiti lies in even greater ruins then I always imagined I am trying to figure out how to make a simple web page (excuse me, frame), figure out just what I'm supposed to do this first week, and still keep working on the Purple Sweater."