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Second Life & Language Learning and Teaching - organising discussions during IATEFL
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Sat, 03/21/2009 - 15:27
Reading the introductions and glancing at the titles and abstracts of those people presenting under the Learning Technologies banner at IATEFL this year, it strikes me that there is a very lively interest in Second Life (SL) and virtual worlds and in using this for teaching and learning languages.
However, I still think that the majority of teachers are either sceptical or unaware of the possible benefits of using SL under certain circumstances for teaching and learning. It strikes me that we have so much experience and talent related to this on this site this year, that it would be the perfect opportunity to create some convincing argments for those people who still have their doubts.
I'd also like to see some events organised by people who are going to be at IATEFL Cardiff and those who can't make it, using Second Life. Perhaps we can have some informal tours of SL spaces and/or discussions?
What do you say? If you are going to be at IATEFL and are actively involved in Second Life, perhaps we can arrange some time slots (breaks? lunchtimes? evenings?) when we can get together for some f2f informal discussion sessions, and also invite those not at the conference to take part.
If you're interested, use this forum space to talk about what you'd like to see / what you can offer, and also post reflections on what it is that makes you pursue this platform for learning and teaching.
And if you're a sceptic, then join in and post your questions and doubts here too!
Looking forward to hearing from you...
Sat, 03/21/2009 - 19:06
#2
Hi Neil,
I don't blame you for being scared - Second Life does look daunting from the outside looking in, and can also be scary right at the beginning. It sounds like you've had a few negative experiences too, which have put you off, which is a shame. Pleased to hear that you're interested in giving it a second chance though - Second Life deserves a second chance!
As we get nearer the IATEFL conference, I'll look into what's on at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices conference, which is the weekend before, and which would probably be a great time to organise something - watch this space!
Sat, 03/21/2009 - 16:37
#3
Hi Graham,
Great Idea.
As you know, we at Langugelab.com have been operating in Second Life since 2005 and have taught students from 50+ countries using this medium. We'll be doing lots of demonstrations and explanations of Second Life on our stall in Cardiff.
If there is demand we can arrange guided tours of our city in Second Life for those that wont be there.
Shiv
Sat, 03/21/2009 - 19:10
#4
Shiv, that sounds excellent - if you could give some times and dates nearer the time, I'm sure we'd get lots of people joining in from outside Cardiff - some guided tours of Language Lab's city would be ideal.
I'll also organise some events on the British Council Isle (the newly opened main grid one) too, and hopefully, we can have a mixture of people who are at Cardiff and those who are not attend those too, which would be great.
Look forward to it.
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 05:05
#5
Shiv,
Last year, I was trained by Languagelab to become a Spanish teacher in Ciudad Bonita, the Spanish Sim. It was an excellent and challenging experience. I learnt a lot. I was actually a newbie, although Graham had introduced SL to me a year ago, but I hadn't been able to access. I had a dinosaur instead of a computer and it always crashed when I tried to run SL. :-( I'd love to see you inworld. My name in SL is Evelyn Michalski.
See you around,
Evelyn
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 14:52
#6
Evelyn, Shiv and Graham.
Graham will remember that, although he wasn't an SL newbie when he came to Languagelab, he got his first experience of micro teaching through Languagelab.
Ah. Those were the days. Look at him now. I feel like a proud mother.
Graham. I'm doing a slide at Pecha Kucha on Thursday evening but I'm planning to demo a class in SL, on the third of April.
For further details, and for opportunities to be a 'student' in that class, teachers may pop along to the Languagelab stand.
Best
Iffaf
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 18:41
#7
How could I forget, Iffaf? Actually, I wrote about the very memorble experience of observing your class at the hotel in the Dogme ELT group yesterday (strangely enough): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dogme/summary.
Look forward to meeting you in person again, Iffaf, and please let us know more about the opportunity to be a student in the class - I'm sure some people who can't attend in person would love to have the opportunity
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 19:05
#8
Hi Evelyn, I'm Shiv Teacher inworld, look foward to seeing you.
Sat, 03/21/2009 - 21:21
#9
Hi Graham. It would be perfect to be able to see how Second Life can be used for teaching. I´ve also had the experience of feeling daunted once inside Second Life. I´m working on intercultural communication so I think it could be a great aid to teach within that framework.
Best
Andrea
Thu, 03/26/2009 - 16:07
#10
Hi there,
and Andrea, my ICRP partner!!!
Nice to read you are in SL. I've been in SL for 4 months and I have participated in two "courses". It's been a great experienced and I've enjoyed it a lot _I even taught a class :/. There's so much to learn and see. We may meet inworld and I can offer some, some help :D
xoxoxo
Fri, 03/27/2009 - 03:58
#11
Hi there,
I've just finished the EVO 2009 VWLL Session. It was a great opportunity to get used to SL and to see the educational value it has for language learning. I'm not an expert, but if help is necessary, I'll be there.
Cheers,
Sat, 03/21/2009 - 23:29
#12
OK...Im in the scardycat category with mcneilmahon but if there is some kind of SL tour for newbies I can try. Ive made an avatar but cant get anywhere in SL.
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 04:47
#13
Hi Graham!
Great idea! I volunteer to help in a tour. It will be great to show our colleagues how SL and virtual worlds in general can be used as teaching and learning resources. I would be happy to train some SL first-timers if needed. I am in Caracas (GMT -4:30), if there is someone from this side of the planet who wants to learn about SL, we might fix a meeting. Graham, feel free to contact me if you need any help.
Warm regards,
Evelyn Izquierdo (aka Evelyn Michalski in SL)
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 18:55
#14
That's excellent news, Evelyn perhaps we can use this to help organise a pre-conference meet-up for people to whet their appetite before the actual IATEFL conference: http://www.doodle.com/r2nppub9gzuqzmr2
Everybody, if you're interested, select the days and times you can make it and we'll take it from there.
Looking forward to it!
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 05:56
#15
Ready Graham! I added myself to the Doodle schedule. I won't be able to attend the conference in Cardiff, but I am proud to have our representatives there: Dafne, Rubena and Teadira, :-))
See you all inworld,
Evelyn
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 11:34
#16
Errr ... Are these times SL, GMT, CET ...? I'm guessing GMT.
Pete
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 04:56
#17
Graham:
It would be useful to mention the technical and system requirements to access and run SL. Those interested in joining us, please read this information in SL Website: http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php
Regards,
Evelyn
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 10:07
#18
Hi,
I too think it'd be a great idea to plan some sessions where we can get together during the conference. I'll be with a borrowed laptop so I don't know if I'll have the where withall to join in but hope to find a way!
Cheers,
Ann
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 12:08
#19
Hi Graham and all,
I would love to participate in the SL activities in IATEFL. I will be presenting f2f on the issues of training teachers in SL. I also volunteer to give a tour of Ciudad Bonita, the mediterranean city mentioned by Evelyn which was especially built to teach Spanish in SL by Languagelife (another project of Languagelab.com).
Here´s a link to a photoalbum with pictures and comments on one of our classes
Nice being here :-)
Daf
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 15:04
#20
Hi Graham,
Sounds like a great idea to me; it would be really good to be able to use SL to help people who are unable to attend Cardiff get more involved. I'm sure it ought to be possible to schedule some meet ups. It would be nice if there were some opportunities for discussion as well as tours.
I am happy to help out with some SL orientation if needed - european time zones.
SL: Pete McConachie / Ruddell Weatherwax
Sun, 03/22/2009 - 17:20
#21
Hi all and Graham
I can't be in Cardiff but I'll gladly help with SL tours and any other in-world events that you would like to see. Also, don't forget the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference next weekend. This is going to be a busy weekend :-)
If you are interested in meeting with Second Life language teachers even after IATEFL, you are welcome to join the SLExperiments group. We meet in SL every Friday. Graham, Dennis Newson, Nick Noakes and I have moderated an introductory SL session for language teachers. The course material still exists and more importantly, the participants are still active and meet regularly in-world to continue learning. If you want to join, you can do so on the Ning.
@Neil, exploring SL alone is really not much fun. Join other educators and learn together!
SL: Daffodil Fargis
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 19:11
#22
Hi Graham and Everyone else,
Looking forward to taking you around English City and introducing you to some of our 'English City People' and students and getting you all to participate (don't worry newbies we are very good at helping first timers) I think that being daunted by new things everyone will agree is natural, but also helps us to understand how students feel when they are learning English. If anyone needs any tips or a hand setting up their machine, getting their voice ready or navigating Second Life in general come and visit us at the Languagelab stand, we are happy to get you started.
Jessica
SL: Jessie Teacher
Tue, 03/24/2009 - 16:26
#23
Ill try very hard to make it about 9am Mexico City time on Sat. Ill be the one stuck in the welcome room! ja ja ja
SL crashes my ancient laptop too but the Internet cafe near me can handle it.
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 14:52
#24
Just read about 3d technologies coming through browsers - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7963302.stm
I remember Gavin Dudeney saying at a conference in Milan a year ago that although Second Life may not be the platform that it happens in, the web will be 3D. We seem to be near that stage now.
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 15:37
#25
Interesting article. Read a similar article about another company that seems to have overcome the data compression problem http://venturebeat.com/2009/03/23/steve-perlmans-onlive-could-turn-the-v...
I do disagree with one thing in neilb's article. While 3D tries to recreate a "natural interaction" through visual cues (setting, body language etc), there is nothing natural about controlling a virtual puppet of yourself through a keyboard. For some of us, writing on a forum or chat or other text-based interactions is as natural as writing a letter (not that people really do that anymore!) Lastly, some people (ahem me) like the lack of visual ... and getting judged based on ideas rather than really lousy social skills! ha ha ha
Yes I know that none of those objections will stop 3D web. Someday, Ill just have to hire someone to work my "puppet" with better social grace than I.
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 19:18
#26
Hi Leigh,
Good to see you've given SL a try.
If it's an immersive experience you don't feel like it's a puppet, you feel like its yourself. All the same emotions come through. Even people who are totally inexperienced reach level pretty quickly.
All tools seem unnatural when you first use them, think about the first time you drove a car, pretty soon they become second nature.
You should come on one of the tours, I'm sure it will be a much more immersive experience with a guide.
Shiv
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 19:18
#27
Leigh,
Like many other things, 'controlling a virtual puppet of yourself through a keyboard' becomes more and more naturla the more you do it. I find with most technologies it takes a little 'bedding in', and am constantly amazed at how natural things do become after a while.
Twitter's a good example for me - I found it cumbersome to begin with, kept forgetting about it, didn't know what to say. But now I have a large social network on Twitter, get most of my tech support, good new websites and reference articles from contacts on there, it's a natural thing for me to do each day and I tend to go there first thing in the morning and keep it open all day (using TweetDeck).
I've found interactions in SL to be far more 'human' than any I've ever had on a forum and am just going in-world now for a 90-minute teacher training with people I have only known for the past 10 days, but who I feel are now part of my social circle. I also know far more about them and their teaching and learning than anyone I've met fresh in the forums in here in a similar amount of time. It's simply more immediate, once you get over the 'walking into walls and wearing a box of shopping on your arm' phase.
Gavin
Fri, 03/27/2009 - 06:18
#28
I totally agree, Gavin. Wise words!
Evelyn
Tue, 03/31/2009 - 22:01
#29
I had an informative walk (and teleport) round SL today, courtesy Nergiz (Daffodil) and Barbara (Lynne? Lisa?) and was able to experience some of the language affordance environments, using (for the first time) real speech, as opposed to simply keying in text.
On the positive side, the speech function really does allow a fairly natural flow of conversation, at least in a small group (we were five). It was fun to hang out, move around - albeit awkwardly at times - and interact. Also, contrary to my expectations - we weren't immediately ushered into a classroom. In fact, as our guides pointed out, a classroom environment (with desk chairs and black/whiteboard) rather defeats the functionality of SL, when you can go just about anywhere, and then interact according to the particular environment you are in - a really exploitable feature that provides both context-sensitivity and variety. Also on the plus side I liked the fact that you could keep a written record of conversations (at least of the keyed in ones) which would be useful for language study purposes. I would like to try something like Community Language Learning in SL, because both the small group dynamic, and the capacity to keep a written record, seem particularly adaptable to the CLL model.
More problematic (from a teacher's pont of view) was the so easily distracting nature of everything. It was very difficult to maintain undivided attention with anyone, and it was impossible to know whether your interlocutor was really listening to you, and not simply adjusting their appearance, or checking their email. Not helped by the occasional unexplained arrivals and departures of anonymous others, or the seeimngly uncontrollable gestures of your interlocutors at times (what does all that arm waving mean!?). And were were only 5. As a teacher I would find this a challenge, and as a student too, although perhaps less so.
But the worst is the avatar. Why?? Why the theatre? I hated being me dressed up in this ridiculous outfit with this improbable name. The situation was so 'real', so interactive, and so charged with langauge use potential, why play games? I accept that simulations and role plays are a great way to practise language - but not on a permanent basis. A permanent simulation is a contradiction in terms. At some point I want to return to earth and just be me.
OK, the SL-ers will say, change your avatar, make it more like you. But it will still be an avatar, and it will be judged as being, not me, but my idealised self-realisation of myself. However you attempt to present yourself, in the end there seems no escape from the "let's pretend" element, which, at worse, had just a hint of sleeze (wherefore the rippling biceps, the unnatural tan, the hint of silicon?) And it's not just one's own projection of self, it's how you deal with others. I wanted to know the REAL names of the people I was interacting with, and, once I knew them, address them as such. But there seems to be no agreed protocol here. As a language learner I would find this fluid, somewhat surreal concept of identity intolerable. And, as a teacher, bewildering, even threatening.
It would seem to be such a simple step, technically speaking, to create simulations of oneself that simply map your own photo on to a 3-D face, and where you can use your own name. Why hasn't someone done it? Until they do, I will be having second thoughts about re-joining second life!
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 00:00
#30
Hi Scott,
Sounds like you had an interesting time on your tour of Second Life. Seeing the potential of using different situations and tools apart from a whiteboard and traditional classroom scenario to teach languages is a great way to start your experience in Second Life.
I find your comments about the 'let's pretend' aspect of using Second Life interesting. We have students from over 50 countries, and colleagues from all over the world, and although some of them may choose to represent themselves differently, after spending time with them, their personalities and many details of their ' real lives' become apparent. I think this is a mirror for real-life interactions, as although you may meet people face-to-face, what do you consider to be their 'real' identity? How much do they tell you about their life or who they really are?
From my time spent in-world with students and teachers, the fact that they can change their physcial appearence is not a negative thing, but actually gives them added freedom and control in their learning environment. The idea of fluid identity is something that many of our students enjoy about using Second Life, they feel comfortable about being able to reveal however much or little information they wish to their teachers or peers. As for the 3-D mapping of your own photograph onto your avatar, a company called Cyber Extruder is doing this at Avatar Island and you can also create your own name for an additional cost in Second Life.
In response to having the undivided attention of the students, using a virtual world like Second Life allows for many more types of interaction than teacher-led instruction - but it does require multi-tasking skills and attentional deployment of the environment. Also how can you ensure that people are giving you their undivided attention in a physical classroom? Prensky asserts that in many cases they are not!
So hopefully if you come back into Second Life you will be able to be more 'yourself'. and if you spend a little more time there you can experience a more seamless transition from real life and using the virtual world as a tool for teaching.
Jessica
Thu, 03/26/2009 - 08:12
#31
Hi Leigh, Gavin and all,
Reading Gavin's post made me want to add my opinion. I completey agree with what he said and, unlike him, I am new to Second Life, which tells me that it is not time and hard work only that help people feel comfortable in SL.
I've been learning about teaching and learning in SL since January and I have never felt bored or thought about my avatar as a puppet. What helped me start right was, I think, that I started by joining a group of teachers ( EVO VWLL and SLExperiments later). That way I got the opportunity to explore the parts of SL relevant for teaching and be able to ask for help. All the mentors were more than helpful and Gavin is right that you learn a lot about people in short periods of time and even if they are avatars, they become your friends or colleagues.
What I have also learned is that emotions are real in that virtual world, even what you feel when you end up in an unfamiliar place, which still happens to me a lot, but doesn't influence my positive opinion about SL.
Thu, 03/26/2009 - 13:51
#32
As another "newbie" to SL I'll second what Sanja and Gavin said 100% ++
Fri, 03/27/2009 - 13:00
#33
Greetings to all friends here. Count me in for any visits to SL. I am an enthusiast. I love it.
Fri, 03/27/2009 - 18:04
#34
The SLExperiments language teacher group is meeting today, Friday, at 6pm GMT. More information is on our wiki
http://slexperiments.pbwiki.com/Weekly-Meetings
You are all welcome to join us.
Nergiz Kern (SL: Daffodil Fargis).
Mon, 03/30/2009 - 13:41
#35
Sorry I couldn't follow up on meeting last weekend
However, tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday 31st), we have the IATEFL Learning Technologies PCE day and have planned to take participants into Second Life sometime between 3-5pm.
How about we try to arrange a mass meeting of people in Cardiff (there should be 28 of us if all goes well) and those not able to come to Cardiff? I'll post exact times later, but suggest we all meet at the British Council Isle (you can find it through the SL search)
Hope to see some of you there!
Graham
If you get lost, contact me in SL (Baldric Commons) and I'll teleport you to where we are.
Mon, 03/30/2009 - 16:13
#36
Hi Graham,
I'll try and be around ... assuming I get the day and time correct ...
Pete
Tue, 03/31/2009 - 08:54
#37
OK, it's confirmed that we'll be in Second Life at 14.30 GMT (15.30 UK time) - it should be fun. What we do depends a lot on the experience of the teachers - see you then!
Tue, 03/31/2009 - 12:37
#38
Just spotted this - can I jump on board? See you in 3 hours, then!
Michael
SL: Misha Writer
Tue, 03/31/2009 - 13:44
#39
Please do! See you later Misha
Tue, 03/31/2009 - 22:16
#40
Greetings and best wishes to all,
feel like a stranger as have not heard about SL before .Hope i will explore every link you all have mentioned :-)
Wed, 04/01/2009 - 05:45
#41
Greetings from the Pacific NW USA. I found this site by following a Tweet and was interested to read the comments about being nervous or scared about trying Second Life and I feel compelled to comment. I hope you will forgive me for "butting in" (especially Mr. Stanley).
As a background, I am a Resident of SL since Dec 2006. It has become my primary hobby and entertainment and I have spent many thousands of hours in-world. At one time I was an official SL Mentor and spent much time on the (then) Orientation and Help Islands. I have travelled thousands of kilometers around SL and met many folks, good and bad. So, in short, I know that of which I speak.
Primarily Second Life is filled with friendly and sociable people (or at worst, indifferent). Very very few fall into the "griefer" category, although they get all the attention. In all the hours I have been in-world I have only been griefed (harassed) four times and they were not the least bit frightening (just annoying).
If you have a private area (affiliated with the business or educational institution you belong to) you have the good fortune to "rez" (appear) in a protected peaceful area. However, if you enter SL on your own and follow the chain of events you will eventually wind up in what is called a Resident Welcome Area (such as Ahern, or Miramare). I always smirk at the misnomer "Welcome Area" because welcoming is one thing such places are NOT.
Where newbies appear also congregate some of the least desireable of the SL crowd. They hang about waiting for likely victims to verbally abuse (mostly) or even try to extort money from, push, etc. Basically you are dumped in the worst back-alley scenario. It's no wonder many many people log onto Second Life, look around, and leave immediately and report to all that SL is full of nasty vulgar adolescents. Not true! Once you get away from such places there are thousands of beautiful and interesting areas to explore and things to do.
You can get a small taste from my pictures on Flickr if you are so inclined: http://www.flickr.com/photos/caliburnsusanto/sets/
Anyway, my point is, fear not! Second Life can be much fun and very interesting. Feel free to IM me in-world and introduce yourself if you have questions, or you can follow me on Twitter (which is, after all, how I got here in the first place). :-)
Cheers!
Wed, 04/01/2009 - 15:26
#42
Hi all. I will try to be there. It sounds scary. There is a very interesting discussion next door at the EAP forum about Critical thinking, which has taken us into intercultural issues, technological literacy and whether it is possible to read reality in the same way after seeing the world in 3D (which I think will happen to me with SL). Can you join us? We need your opinions.
best
Andrea
Tue, 04/07/2009 - 16:34
#43
Dear all,
I'm new to SL, I have never used it but what I heard about the possibility of teaching/learning made me curious. So today I created my avatar on SL. Unfortunatly I couldn't join your SL tours last week but I'd love to visit the places involved in language teaching/learning. As a "newbie" I couldn't find them myself...could anyone tell me what my next step should be?
Thanks so much!!
Silvia
(Moderator of Testing, Evaluation and Assessment)
Tue, 04/07/2009 - 18:22
#44
Hi Silvia,
I am impressed that you are really going into SL. Perhaps I should take the plunge, too? But honestly I'm a bit scared...
I hope in spite of having a Second Life you will have time to jot down some impressions on the Post-cardiff Blues thread in the Mod. forum. I think you are one of the most active moderators, so you should have lots to say!
Diana
Tue, 04/07/2009 - 19:15
#45
Hello Silvia
I'm not the expert here and I'm butting in - but I don't think Graham, Dennis, Nergiz or Nick will contradict me ,if I suggest you join the virtual worlds and language learning group. Even though the session is over, there are regular meetings going on and you'll find a friendly bunch of avatars to help you out ! You have to join the ning and then find the "Osna group" in the "groups" lists. This great group certainly helped me take my first steps in SL !
See you there soon !
Helen
aka juniper
Tue, 04/07/2009 - 19:53
#46
Hi Helen,
thanks for your suggestion! I've just applied for Virtual Worlds and Language Learning and I'm waiting for Membership Approval!
Will let you know how the next steps go!
Thanks again!!
Silvia
Hi Graham,
I wouldn't call myself a sceptic, but more of a scaredycat, when it comes to SL. I've been in a few times and either - ended up stuck at the bottom of the ocean, got bored in my loneliness with noone to interact with or come across a group of party fiends making lewd suggestions.
So I'd love some kind of guided tour, intro to educational opportunities available. Look forward to more info in the lead up to the conference.