If the whole class is given usernames that are nothing but a string of letters and numbers, 65427 may feel you can’t really distinguish him from 65327 or 65426. Students work hard when they first start using Quest Atlantis to recognize their friends, build their own identity, and meet new people. They can easily wtake an entire class period to navigate who is who if usernames are not easily recognizable. Imagine how much more time kids will spend connecting with others if they need to clarify the person behind the numbers every time they login. In addition, the lack of accountability can cause a rise in cyberbullying or other inappropriate behaviors. We’ve seen this effect in Quest Atlantis and it has even gone so far as to cause us to deactivate entire classes of these unidentifiable usernames that could not follow the IBURSTrules. This is not confined just to our program though, as psychologists are starting to publish papers on what they call the Online Disinhibition Effect.

The flip side, of course, is that students should not be too personal on the internet either. BrianSmith should not be sharing his first and last name with the entire internet, and almost all interactive applications show the username so he is probably giving away the information to more people than he realizes. How then do we find the perfect balance between creating that online identity and still keeping kids safe? The key is to find usernames that kids can relate to that also do not give away too much. Here are some good examples we’ve seen over the years:

• StevieS -> The first name and last initial allows me to identify with this persona but it would still be hard to find me in the real world
• Stevie46 -> Only my teacher and I know that 46 is the number of my classroom and it would be hard for someone else to figure that out
• Sudokugirl -> This username doesn’t share any personal information about me, but I can still relate to it

One of the great things about Quest Atlantis is that it is a safe space for children online (only the licensed teachers we have trained and their current students have access to the general space), but it is treated as though it were the general internet. Students are taught exactly what they should and shouldn’t be doing before the consequences could become much more severe. And those students who share their last name or phone number will have an email sent to the teachers so they can discuss why certain things should not be given online.

Another thing that students learn is that their password is to remain quiet. An unfortunate lesson that one of our students had to learn was that her login information was her account and everything that happens with it was her responsibility. When she gave away the login information to her brother and he didn’t follow the rules, she was still the one who had to deal with the consequences. In this case the account was put into single-user mode for a few days. Of course, even a quiet password can be discovered if it is too easy. I would never use the password “stevie” for example. This would be especially problematic to give to a whole class of kids as it only takes one to figure out the pattern for all the logins to be compromised. Passwords might be the best place to use the string of random letters and numbers – most internet applications recommend that passwords use a combination of numbers, letters, and cases.

These are just a few ways for kids to start thinking about how to build their safe online identity. However, this is just the beginning and the best way to protect children on the internet is to keep the lines of communication open.

A new unit in Quest Atlantis hopes to provide answers to these questions and create a path towards pre-service teachers’ situated and contextualized learning. The unit consists of four missions that focus on cognitive development, learning theories, motivation, and assessment. The unit is currently offered as one of  IU’s undergraduate pre-service classes and is primarly available to teachers who are ready for their field experience. The key themes of providing agency, offering legitimate roles, and the illustrating opportunities to make a change in the world appear strongly throughout the whole experience, just as they do in our student experiences.

Learners enter the game as consultants in an educational evaluation company. The narrative involves a local school facing several dilemmas related toto ways of dealing with students and enhancing their participation, improving instruction and assessing learning. Eva, the boss at the Consulting Company, describes the situation, and then the consultants embark on a journey where they must interview experts, teachers, and students in the space, participate in online discussions, and play mini games that determine their trajectory. Teachers also develop a perspective which they adopt as they engage several key issues.

Throughout the unit teachers can reflect on the effectiveness of the instruction at the fictional school.  Students at this school appear unmotivated when the teacher assigns homework that is abstract or apart from what they know, and the students cannot get good grades on their tests because the knowledge they come across is de-contextualized. Further, teachers struggle as to which approach to adopt to meet the needs of their students. Such dilemmas create the need for investigation. This is where the consultant’s role becomes powerful. By talking to teachers about their practices and approaches and by talking to the students, they develop a greater insight into the atmosphere at the school. At the end of each mission, consultants are required to provide a report to their boss that includes recommendations to solve the dilemmas they encountered.

The results from these pre-service teacher’s test scores are currently being compared with the scores of those undergraduate students that took the same class last fall through Oncourse, the university’s online platform. There, the class was set up providing short cases that needed resolutions. In other words, the same content was taught in a different context. The score comparisons so far indicate several significant differences between the undergraduate students’ performance. The contextualization of the content in Quest Atlantis seems to be providing a coherent understanding of how theory can be reflected into practice, as well as how instructional decisions can impact learning.

We heard from some members who had recently implemented QA units. Teachers like Karen Mann (Kazzm) working in an Australian High School who, having completed the Plague Unit twice (both old and new) offered praise for the strengthened curriculum outcomes in the new version. We heard from Judy Tyler (judyler), having just completed the Taiga unit working with a Illinois middle school science class,  who shared her excitement about the learning gains made by students and the in-depth teaching and learning surrounding this unit.  Cheryl Hill (libbycat50) reported on how excited her elementary/primary students have been about their new co-questing.  Cheryl’s school in Australia is collaborating with Martha Eaton’s (meaton) whole grade 4 in a school in North Carolina to complete curriculum activities with remote buddies. The students have been emailing, blogging, videoconferencing and talking in preparation and even though the school year ends in a few weeks for the Aussie group, they have requested their teacher support them in further collaborations over the holiday break. We hope to hear from some of these teachers as guest bloggers right here in the very near future. They certainly have stories that you will want to hear.

In light of each of the teacher reports we discussed how integral teaching is to the success of QA and how important quality planning, preparation, scaffolding and feedback are to student engagement and learning gains.  The teachers mentioned here are masters of these skills but we need to know more about the ways teachers enhance the program. That’s why we have 2 research projects happening in the Mesa Verde and Plague units to see in more detail how and in what ways contexts and teaching impact the value of these units.  Special teacher connections will be held in December and January for these global projects so watch out for those announcements.

We also heard back from our new buoys who have been developing local teacher training programs.  Mary-Ellen Davis (soulstar) in Virginia Beach had run her first face-to-face training and a highly praised VSTE conference presentation while Jesus De Leon (MrD) and Janine McGrath (Mcgrath4th) were preparing to start their first blended teacher training program for Seminole County in Florida. This distributed leadership has become vital to QA’s scalability and we are eternally grateful to all our buoys about the globe who voluntarily give their time, expertise and high standards of professionalism to the program.

Some initial discussions also took place in the UK connection and later over twitter to develop strategies to attract more schools in the UK.  We are looking to the local expertise of colleagues Drew Buddie (wellfan) and Dale Jones (djones ) and the MirandaNet educational community to bring leading UK schools and districts into QA.

To know more about these events and the projects that QA teachers are currently engaging in, come join the Quest Atlantis Teaching Wiki where you too can take up a leadership role in our burgeoning community.

We host the Teacher Connections in 3 time zones traveling about the globe in QA’s Teacherville and over Skype.

The next Teacher Connections will happen Thursday January 7th in your timezone!

1. Asia-Pacific Teacher Connection 7.00pm – 8.30 pm Sydney **(09.00 am GMT, 9pm Auckland, 5pm Singapore, 5pm Perth, 5pm Kuala Lumpur, 5pm Beijing, 6pm Tokyo, 2.30pm New Delhi)
2. Europe and Africa Teacher Connection 18.00 GMT (London 8pm, 9pm Johannesburg, 9pm Zagreb, 10pm Ankara, 12pm noon Los Angeles, 3pm NYC, 7am Friday, Sydney)
3. Americas Teacher Connection 5.00 pm PDT/Los Angeles (01.00am GMT, 8pm NYC, 8pm Raleigh, 8pm Santiago, 5pm Vancouver, 12 midday Friday, Sydney)

The theme park in Taiga provides both content and game support to teachers.

Well, now you can!   We’ve recently introduced our PD theme parks, areas in Teacherville to help teachers experience an abridged version of the Unit while learning how to best support their students’ use of the curriculum.  Each theme park will allow teachers to try out a special Mission based on the Unit where they can learn about the narrative, the most consequential student moments, as well as gain insights into how to best support students in their understanding of the material.  Teachers can try the Unit on for size, literally, as they put on a  Native American outfit in Mesa Verde or try on the campaign hat in the statistics Unit.  How fun would it be to join your students in the 3D space wearing a Native American outfit as a teaser?  Seeing your teacher wearing a news reporter hat or a squash blossom necklace might be just the ticket to generating a little more excitement about an upcoming QA Unit.

Teachers can submit exemplary Quests to share with others

More importantly, teachers get a full understanding of the Unit in a VERY short time!   These new PD missions take only 20-30 minutes to experience, but are chock full of teacher tidbits, videos and content.  In the theme park itself, we’ve even added additional supports, such as teacher forums where teachers can share insights from their use of the curriculum, examples of exemplary Quests and other background materials to fully prepare you for teaching the Unit.  We encourage teachers to post on the forums or submit these example Quests — either Quests that were wonderful from the start, or Quests that became wonderful after feedback.  This is one way teachers can share their successes with others in the QA community, as well as develop an idea of what kind of work can result from these Units.

A short immersive experience…additional resources…community support…the price of this ticket could be extravagant, but you’ll be admitted for free upon entering Teacherville!  These theme parks are always open, and after jumping a board to take the ride, teachers may find themselves better prepared to support their students in their exploration of the curriculum. 

Cotton candy is optional.

I became suspicious as the excuses grew more far fetched and looked up the family name on our QA database to discover there was as student with the same family name in one of last year’s retired classes. I asked the caller if this was him and he finally had to confess “oh pshhhhhh” yes it was him. The upshot was that he had changed schools, in fact states and his new school had not heard of Quest Atlantis.  He totally loves QA declaring “Sorry i’m really sorry. its just i’m really interested in QA! im like crazy for it and i really wana learn more about it“.  It seems my young Quester friend thought that if he were to do the teacher training he could bring QA to his new school. Well my heart rose from a my  adult annoyance at his presumption and cheekiness to being so totally chuffed that our program actually means that much to the learners who inhabit it.

And I know you are wondering what happened to our young QA advocate. I decided to sponsor him in QA myself and to give him a special role in the community, not quite as a teacher, but commensurate with the initiative he had shown. He certainly seems worth keeping around even if only for the warmth of this one day’s events

Let’s take a quick look at the possibilities afforded by one QA Unit—our newest release, Virtual Mesa Verde (VMV).

A review of the Unit Guide shows standards alignments for the main subject area covered in the Unit—social studies— addressing geography and world history concepts like the balance of resources with human needs and the characteristics of civilization.

But there is a lot more content that can be mined for standards correlations in many other subject areas. Although you won’t find these standards listed in our Unit Guide (we can’t show correlations based on what a teacher MIGHT do with the content), additional standards addressed in these Units is limited only by the teacher’s imagination and need.

For example, every QA Unit is narrative-based, and the storylines and characters are designed as interactive novels in which Questers become active characters in the story. Think of the language arts content standards that you can cover by examining the characters (motivations, personalities); plot (conflict and resolution, climax and anticlimax); author’s purpose, tone, and craft; and the characteristics of fiction, science fiction, and fantasy! And that’s not all—each Unit also has unique “mini-lessons” that can enhance instruction in many other disciplines. VMV affords possibilities in:

• Science: The VMV Unit is filled with possibilities for science exploration, from agricultural science (the three-sisters gardening process favored by many native cultures and dryland irrigation techniques) to the study of the effects of wildfires on ecosystems and wildfire recovery science, and even more possibilities too numerous to outline here.
• Language Arts: The Unit’s main character, Lorisa, tells Questers a simplified version of the Hopi creation story. Why not compare that story with creation stories from indigenous people in your area or from cultures you’re studying in social studies classes, aligning instruction to comparative literature and mythology standards?
• Math: A technician from CyArk (http://archive.cyark.org/) demonstrates the use of laser technology to create accurate three-dimensional digital measurements (using bearing, inclination, and distance). Students can explore 3D measurements and scale by creating models of cliff dwellings and kivas.
• Social Studies: In addition to the main SS content specified in the VMV Unit Guide, the time travel features of the Unit also lend themselves well to activities in time, continuity, and change. Or expand the storyline with an in-depth study of the importance of primary source materials like artifacts in historical research.
• Art: Ancestral Puebloan (sometimes called Anasazi) pottery is distinctive for its black-and-white geometric designs. Have students create their own pottery and design new variations of this technique. Or plan a lesson on Ancestral Puebloan glyphs and decorations, exploring not only the art but the meaning behind the symbols.

• Health: Lorisa is struggling with peer pressure that is affecting her behavior and her health. Use her problems as a springboard for discussions on the influences of personal beliefs, culture, mass media, and other factors on health and self image as well as ways to communicate care, consideration, and respect for self, parents and family, and the diversity of others.
• Careers: Explore the career possibilities in national parks services, including park rangers, archaeologists, and anthropologists.

The suggestions above are just a small sampling of the standards correlations possible through a theme-based implementation of VMV. An exploration of your own content standards will spark ideas unique to your curriculum. As you can see, rather than a drain on your valuable instructional time, the QA Units can help you cover MORE content standards while engaging your students in transformational learning activities that build skills they can use for a lifetime.

Next time you’re browsing through the Quest Atlantis curriculum, check out the possibilities!

Recently I was leaving Indiana after a very fruitful time working in the Quest Atlantis team and I spied this t-shirt at the airport and just could not resist.

Tshirt bought at Indianapolis Airport

Those teachers who have trained online with me as will surely raise a giggle because some of our most fun professional development classes explore building in the 3D world where we partake of the joys of inworld cow tipping.

Part of what excites teachers, as they begin to learn all the facets of QA, is the opportunity they and their students have to construct, collaborate and develop.  While our cow tipping session is a bit of playful craziness it is emblematic of what QA offers and in more than just building in the virtual world. Teachers like their students are taking ownership and constructing more than simple 3D homes. Teacher teams have been forming to build in Free4All and this is proving to be a new and integral part of our teacher community development.

We also currently have teacher groups  working around the world on a Google Site for  Quest Writing to develop new quests to add to the worlds of QA. Quest are already being written in topics such as the social commitments, robotics, indigenous heritage and Modern languages – French and hopefully Spanish.

We are about to put together a proposal with a  small group of teachers to take  a disused world and re-purpose it as a student congress with several dedicated areas for such as Quester presentations, inworld machinima development, and Quester showcases.

Our successful monthly Teacher Connection meetings will restart on the first Thursday of each month and that makes September 3^rd our very next meeting. More notice of meeting times in your timezones will be coming to QA teachers through our email listserv, tweets and Quest Atlantis Teachers Facebook Group.

We have started building a wiki for teachers to develop a to map quests and missions to local outcomes and standards and to share out ideas for implementation.

If you are already a QA teacher, or keen to come join us soon in one of our online or face-to-face training programs, you are invited to join any and all of our teacher community activities and events. Many of these activities are just getting of the ground and they will become valuable and successful resources with the support of a critical mass of professionals like you!

~ Bron Stuckey

PS no cows were harmed in the training of Quest Atlantis teachers .

Dr. Melissa Gresalfi and I were brainstorming earlier this week about some new professional development Missions we’re creating aimed at helping teachers get a handle on some of our most popular curricular units.  As we were discussing ways to draw teachers into the Missions, Melissa recalled a favorite scene in a favorite movie…Mary Poppins.  The scene is where Mary Poppins takes the Banks children to meet Bert, who is drawing a beautiful chalk scene on the sidewalk.  Suddenly, with a knowing grin and a wink, the adults take the children by the hand, and all together, they jump into the drawing, totally immersing themselves, just for a while, in a colorful, whimsical experience.

The image has stuck and has me thinking about how teachers can really transform the learning experience.  Much like Mary Poppins, part of our role is to embrace that play experience. A new article recently published in Educational Leadership entitled Why Educators Should Care About Video Games talks about some ways this can be done when leveraging the use of video games in the classroom, but one of the most important seems to be that leap into the game.  When teachers take on the role of a game character when reviewing Quests or when they support not only the big ideas and concepts, but also, bring the narrative into their classroom, they become important characters in the game.  Magically, that sense of play really does seem to color the learning experience and truly transforms both motivation and outcomes for our students.

So, next time you are wondering how to motivate your students, look for a way to bring some magic and an element of fun into your classroom, take your students by the hand and jump! When you and your students are having fun together, the job of teaching and learning seems to feel more like a game indeed!

QA teachers from out of the audience

On the Tuesday, July 7th I was invited to be the ISTE guest speaker in Second Life to talk about Quest Atlantis.

The presentation came to life when 8 QA teachers in the audience came up to join me on stage and to describe their experience with QA and field questions about educational practices and learning for young students in our virtual world. More and more I bump into fantastic QA teachers who are sharing their experiences and drawing colleagues in to join us.

If you want to take a look at what teachers have to say about and how they are implementing Quest Atlantis take a look at our Visions of Quest Atlantis site. There you can see links to teacher blogs, slideshare presentations, youtube videos, wikis, flickr pics and tweets in a dynamic and ever growing collection.

~ Bron Stuckey