Quest Atlantis-Learning in a virtual world

Mission

The Quest Atlantis team is committed to bringing together the power of videogames, academics, and participation in socially-meaningful activities. Participation in this game is designed to enhance the lives of children while helping them grow into knowledgeable, responsible, and empathetic adults. The QA project will foster an awareness of seven critical dimensions in order to actualize them in the lives of children:


Creative Expression – "I Create"

Diversity Affirmation – "Everyone Matters"

Personal Agency – "I Have Voice"

Social Responsibility – "We Can Make a Difference"

Environmental Awareness – "Think Globally, Act Locally"

Healthy Communities – "Live, Love, Grow"

Compassionate Wisdom – "Be Kind"

Online Teacher Professional Development Support Materials
 
Teacher's Professional Development Plan

Cheryl Hill, (Specialist Technology Teacher, Lindfield East Public School, Sydney, Australia) shares her tips from : TOP TIPS for implementing Quest Atlantis.
1. Ensure that QA is working properly and that your class is set up. Technical difficulties turns kids off very quickly.

2. Model to the students how to navigate in the world, reviewing compass directions if necessary.

3. Allow plenty of time to get the class logged on for the first time.

4. If available have a couple of students who are familiar with QA to act as peer tutors - they love this!

5. Assign a couple of easy quests for fast finishers to do while the slower students complete their introductory mission.

6. Try to assign easy and fun quests at the beginning so students can really enjoy the experience of exploring QA.

7. Only after doing all this try to attempt doing a mission or unit as a class.

8. Keep a bank of quest reponses in a separate word document that you can copy and paste while reviewing. This saves writing responses from scratch for every review.

Have fun and learn with your class!

For further support and information go to my Quest Atlantis Livebinder.

Some handy YouTube tips to help you make the most of this wonderful resource.

Image via CrunchBase

• Top Youtube URL tricks that you should know about.

 

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  YouTube Guide: Best YouTube Tips, Hacks and Resources 

  "This article, which is HUGE by the way, aims to be a one-stop destination for all things YouTube. It covers numerous tricks, hacks, tools and apps for YouTube fans."

* Downloading
* Watching( the biggest section with a huge number of tips )
* Sharing
* Uploading
* iPod & Mobile Phones

* Music & Playlists

* Embedding

* Other Interesting YouTube Tools, Features & Tricks

• Fine tune YouTube  based on post below:

Do you ever want to link right to a specific spot in a YouTube video?

Link to Video

To create a link to start at a specific spot in a video, just add #t=0m0s to the end of the regular link url. Then, change the 0’s to the minute and second you want to link to.

• quietube: Video without the distractions

 To watch web videos without the comments and extras, just drag the button below to your browser's bookmarks bar. On any of the supported video pages, click the bookmark button to watch in peace.

You can then make short URLs too, to send the quietube version to your friends. Easy as.

Quietube supports YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Viddler, and Vimeo, with more to come...

•   Embed YouTube Videos in PowerPoint with authorSTREAM Desktop

Insert YouTube videos and images in PowerPoint slides quickly with Authorstream Desktop 

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  Check out: YouTube - PBS's Channel for kids  

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  100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers - Classroom 2.0

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     Vidque.com - Videos Worth Watching

  Vidque is a new service that aims to help users curate their own collections of the best videos available on the Internet. Vidque allows users to grab videos from YouTube, Blip.tv, TED, and Vimeo to put into their own collections that they can share with others. You could also think of it the way TechCrunch did in describing Vidque as video bookmarking.
  
  What makes Vidque unique compared to other video collection services like VodPod is that Vidque uses the videos you grab to help you locate more videos. In other words, Vidque tracks your video preferences to help you find more videos you'll like. Vidque also allows users to follow other users, share videos, and place rankings on videos. Vidque uses that information to locate the best videos to feature in each channel on the homepage.

•   Free Technology for Teachers: Safe Share TV - Safe YouTube Viewing

"SafeShare.tv is a new service that makes it possible to view YouTube videos without displaying the related videos and associated comments. This could be a particularly useful tool for anyone publicly showing a YouTube clip. To use SafeShare.tv simply copy the url of a YouTube video and paste it into SafeShare.tv. SafeShare is very similar to Quietube which I reviewed last winter."

Prezi- Tips and Tricks from Adam Somlai-Fischer

I have introduced you to  Prezis in a few February posts. You can do a quick search  if you would like to find them.

This Prezi is a great help for those of you who are trying to use this wonderful Web2.0 tool. There are tips and tricks to help you become a master at Prezis. 

Enjoy!

Prezi

Prezi Tips and Tricks on Prezi