Week 6: Feb 15 - 21 - AND TLVW10 SECOND LIFE PARTY .
Overview
This week offers an opportunity for us all to step back and reflect on what you have seen and experienced during the whole EVO session. You can reflect on what you have experienced during the last five weeks and to share your ideas with everyone about good practice. You will also be encouraged to continue learning and sharing through the SLExperiments and other group meetings, which will continue after this EVO session has ended. In this final week, we will also organise some round table discussions about language learning and teaching in virtual worlds, which will be recorded.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this week, you should have done some of the following:
*
have visited another virtual world (optional, because they are not available for all computer platforms). *
have posted your reflections about your visit of these virtual worlds. *
have attended a round table panel discussion. *
have reflected on what you have experienced during the session. *
have shared ideas about good practise with other participants.
Useful SL skills
Click this link to go to the SL skills list and tutorial videos.
Activities
1.
Take a field trip to another virtual world (to be decided). Compare SL with this and post your reflections to the TLVW Ning. 2.
Attend one of the round table panel discussions and be prepared to ask questions. If you are interested in being part of the round table, then please contact one of the moderators. 3.
Post your reflections on your experience during this session in the Ning forum for this week. 4.
Post and discuss with other participants your ideas about good practises in teaching languages in Second Life in the TLVW10 Ning forum.
Optional Readings/Viewings/Activities
* Attend a SLexperiments meeting and chat with some of the members * Articles and links to language education in SL/Virtual World. * Virtual Worlds Facet Study - by Sarah Robbins
Click this link to go to the SL skills list and tutorial videos.
Activities
Join the Ning group for the time slot that suits you best.
Participate in the AVALON project Business English teaching session. (Details of place and time to be posted later in 'Events').
Participate in one of the Spanish lessons by Dafne González in LanguageLab. (Details of place and time will be posted later in 'Events').
Attend a demonstration of Holodecks and how they can be used in language teaching and learning. (Details of place and time will be posted later in 'Events').
Participate in a workshop on how to use the Builder's Buddy, a way of creating holodeck-like scenes for use in teaching
Participate in one of Wlodek's Barbosa's workshops on Phonetically Augmented Virtuality*
Attend Carol Rainbow's workshop on sound. (Times and place to be announced later in 'Events').
Prepare a mini language lesson (max 15 min). Think about what you learned about different methods, places and tools and how they were used by other teachers to help plan your session. Think about the rationale of choosing particular activities, tools, etc. in SL and the pedagogical, language aims of your lesson.
Meet with the participants in your group in-world and teach each other and give each other feedback. You need not necessarily teach EFL. You can teach any foreign language of your choice. For participants that could prove to be a novel experience and something worth reflecting on.
Don't forget to take pictures during these sessions (you will be busy teaching so ask someone else from the group to take pictures of your session and help other's when it is their turn). Upload the pictures to flickr, tag them with "TLVW10" and add them to our group pool
Reflect on your teaching in your personal blog in Ning or elsewhere (provide a link if you write on a different blog and tag it with tlvw10). You can embed pictures of your session in this blog post.
An introduction to different methodologies, tools and places where languages are being taught and learned in Second Life.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this week, you should have done some of the following:
have participated in some of the tours (guided or self-access) of language teaching/learning spaces in Second Life
have taken part in a discussion about teaching and learning languages in Second Life
have reflected on your visits and discussions in a blog post in the TLVW Ning
have a better idea of the range of different possibilities for teaching and learning a language using Second Life
be aware of how some people & organisations use Second Life for language teaching and learning
have attended a presentation/demo of favourite (language) teaching tools of the more experienced members.
have started to understand some of the benefits and challenges of teaching in a virtual world
Useful SL skills
Click this link to go to the SL skills list and tutorial videos.
Activities
Visit Virtlantis, which is an island owned by Kip Yellowjacket (SL), a language teacher, who provides some space and facilities for other language teachers for free. You can also have your own small teaching space (there is a voluntary monthly donation). Try to find and talk to some teachers and students while there and report back in the Ning forum for this week.
Attend a guided tour of AVALON Learning, the home of the AVALON EU project ,a two-year project funded by the European Commission as a part of the Education and Culture DG Lifelong Learning Programme which aims to create and test language learning tasks and activities in Virtual worlds as well as creating and piloting a training course for teachers who would like to extend their e-learning skills to include virtual teaching worlds.
Go on a tour of the EduNation island owned by Gavin Dudeney. Talk to some educators you meet there. How do you like the place? What can educators do there? Report back in the Ning forum.
Participate in one of the discussions about different aspects of learning and teaching languages in Second Life.
Attend one of the scheduled (language) teaching tool demo/presentation sessions. If you are an experienced SL user, select three of your most favourite (language) teaching tools, set them up in the sandbox and, if possible, demonstrate how they work and how you (would) use them in your lessons.
If possible, attend the talk & tour at Monash University by Xilin Yifu, lecturer in Mandarin Chinese about teaching Chinese to students in Second Life.
This week will be spent visiting areas in SL where different languages are spoken. This will include Real Life places that are represented in SL as well as places where languages can be learned. The overall aim is for everyone to have an initial idea of how SL can be used / is being used for language learning, (teaching) and practice both informally and formally.
There will be guided tours of some RL places in SL where we will try some language activities. Then, you will be given a list of LMs (landmarks) to more such places, which you can explore in your own time. There will also be a tour of an interactive Mexican town, which is a nice example of how learners can interact with scripted objects in SL.
All of these places can be used in a synchronous formal session with a teacher but also informally by students, who can practise their language skills and learn vocabulary on their own.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this week, you should:
have reflected on your visits in a blog post in the TLinVW Ning.
be aware of how Second Life can be used by language learners for language practice
have started to become comfortable with the Second Life interface and with its communication tools.
Useful SL skills
Click this link to go to the SL skills list and tutorial videos.
Activities
Select some of the Real Life places in SL from the map or list below (or get a notecard with landmarks by clicking the poster for this week in the Webheads HQ in Second Life) and visit them. If possible, do this in pairs or form small groups. There will also be some organized tours during the week (check out the events for this week). Take snapshots and post them to our Ning (you can do that from your page on Ning or from the front page by clicking on "add photo" or Flickr group. Write your reflections in a blog post or in the week three forum.
Attend one of the scheduled guided tours to places where languages are taught. As a preparation, you can watch some of the videos in the "Optional Reading/Viewing" section below.
Post your reflections to your blog on the TLinVW10 Ning.
Resources
This is a map with a (complete) overview of real life places in Second Life. Click on the image to go to the original website. There, you can click the pins to get to the SLURL page and teleport.
Here are some suggestions:
How it works: Click the link. A new browser will open with the Slurl. Click teleport.
Coordinator: Włodzimierz Sobkowiak (Wlodek Barbosa in SL)
In this week there will be field trips to different educational spaces in Second Life and discussions. The choice of these spaces will be guided by the overall character of this course, as well as participants needs. As the core theme here is teaching languages, we will visit arts & humanities oriented places in Second Life, rather than those relating to sciences. In each case there will be ample time for discussion and feedback, as well as participants' own reflections on the places visited. Participants will be encouraged to visit some places individually, and then provide feedback to the group by blogging about their experiences on the TLVW10 Ning.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this week, you should:
know your colleagues on the TLVW10 even better
have increased your skill and comfort level with the main tools for interaction and communication, both in SL and on Ning
have learned how to use some of the more advanced functionalities of the SL user interface
have been on a guided tour of an innovative and creative educational space in Second Life, as a result of which you should...
have been inspired to think outside the box about using virtual worlds for language learning
have collaboratively explored and evaluated at least one general educational space in Second Life (not the guided field trip above); see below
Useful SL skills
Click this link to go to the SL skills list and tutorial videos.
Activities
Attend a synchronous 1-hour session and work in a group to practice communication, navigation, movement, profile completion and taking snapshots inworld
Post your reflections on the activity as a blog post in the TLVW10 Ning
Attend one of the scheduled guided tours of an educational sim, take photos while there and post these and your reflections to the TLVW10 Ning and/or Flickr (tag your snapshots with tlvw10)
Explore and evaluate at least one general educational space in Second Life (not the guided field trip above) and post these and your reflections to the TLVW10 Ning and/or Flickr (tag your snapshots with tlvw10)
This week, we will be meeting each other and introducing ourselves at our Ning community site, http://tlinvw.ning.com/. You are also encouraged to sign up for an account in Second Life if you haven't already done so. If you have had no experience of Second Life, you should complete the orientation this week. If you have provided us with your Second Life name when signing up for Ning, one of the moderators will send you an invitation to our Second Life group (the group name is 'TLVW10') .
Learning outcomes
By the end of this week, you should:
have started to get to know your colleagues on the TLVW session
be familiar and have a basic comfort level with the main tools for interaction and communication through
reading the course information here on the session outline pages and sent by email.
reading your colleagues welcome messages and posting your welcome message to the TLVW Ning.
moving, communicating and navigating in Second Life at a basic level, as a result of completing a self-paced orientation and attending a synchronous meeting
know what the expectations are for the 6 weeks of the TLVW10 EVO in terms of what you should leave with and the commitment it is likely to involve
Useful SL skills
Click this link to go to the SL skills list and tutorial videos.
→ You will have a much better first experience in SL if you watch some of the basic skills video tutorials and test whether voice is working before our first meeting in SL (You can test whether your voice is working by going to Voice Echo Canyon). Should you have problems ask your questions in the forum, leave a comment on one of the moderators' profile pages on Ning or send us a message. You can also attend one of the SL audio troubleshooting events.
read the course outline and the activities for each week and plan your schedule accordingly for what you are able to commit to
Join Second Life, download and install the software, complete an orientation and attend a synchronous meeting;
Join Second Life (if you are asked to select a "Gateway" during sign-up, select "Virtual Ability", download and install the software, log in and complete the orientation at Virtual Ability (You can skip this stage if you are not new to Second Life).
During the first week, you will receive an invitation to join the TLVW group in Second Life. This will appear as a blue drop down menu in the top right corner when you login at some point. Please click the Join button when this happens. Please note the TLVW moderators' avatar names: Graham Stanley = Baldric Commons, Nergiz Kern = Daffodil Fargis, Dennis Newson = Osnacantab Nesterov, Maria Pinto = Mary Roussel, Nahir Aparicio = Nahiram Vaniva, Włodzimierz Sobkowiak = Wlodek Barbosa
Go to the useful SL skills page and watch the basic SL skills tutorials suggested for week 1.
Attend one of the 1-hour, synchronous Introductions meeting sessions at the TLVW headquarters (also called "Webheads HQ) in Second Life during this week. You only need to attend one but there will be 2-3 repeated sessions at different times to accommodate the global span of participants' time zones. Check the Events page on the TLVW Ning to find out when they are scheduled.
A hands-on collaborative teacher development workshop to explore the relationship between virtual worlds and language learning.
When is the workshop?
Jan 11 - Feb 21, 2010
FLICKR GROUP . Here you can see photos from the event .
Week 1 - Introductions
This week, we will be meeting each other and introducing ourselves. You are also encouraged to sign up for the accounts for the online tools we will be using in the course: our community site (http://tlvw.ning.com) and Second Life. If you have had no experience of Second Life, you should complete the orientation this week. Once you have provided us with your Second Life name when signing up for Ning, one of the moderators will send you an invitation to our Second Life group (the group name is 'TLVW10') .
Week 2 - Exploring Education and Virtual Worlds
This week there will be field trips to different educational spaces in Second Life and discussions. The choice of these spaces will be guided by the overall character of this course, as well as participants needs. As the core theme here is teaching languages, we will visit arts & humanities oriented places in Second Life, rather than those relating to sciences. In each case there will be ample time for discussion and feedback, as well as participants' own reflections on the places visited. Participants will be encouraged to visit some places individually, and then provide feedback to the group by blogging about their experiences on the tlvw10 community portal on Ning.
Week 3 - Second Life and Languages
This week will be spent visiting areas in Second Life where different languages are spoken. This will include Real Life places that are represented in Second Life as well as places where languages are taught. The overall aim is for everyone to have an initial idea of how Second Life can be used / is being used for language learning, teaching and practice both informally and formally.
There will be guided tours of some Real Life places in Second Life where we will try some language activities. Then, you will be given a list of landmarks to more such places, which you can explore in your own time. We will visit the British Council Isle and find out about their work in Second Life. There will also be a tour of an interactive Mexican town, which is a nice example of how learners can interact with scripted objects.All of these places can be used in a synchronous formal session with a teacher but also informally by students, who can practise their language skills and learn vocabulary on their own.
Week 4 - Teaching a language in Second Life
An introduction to different methodology, tools and places where languages can be taught and learned in Second Life.This week the specific focus will be on organisations and individuals who are teaching languages in Second Life. There will be opportunities to observe some language classes and discover the challenges involved in teaching in a virtual world . Among other places, there will be an arranged tour of Ciudad Bonita, a Spanish town run by Language Lab, one of the companies most active in Second Life language teaching. There will also be an opportunity to find out more about the work of AVALON, a European Union funded project examining best practice for language teaching and learning in virtual worlds.
Week 5 - Do It Yourself! Workshops
Teaching Participation/Practice - participants will be encouraged to put their knowledge into practice and arrange to teach each other in 15 minute slots. Guest speaker. Participants will also have taken part in a synchronous meeting, participated in a Business English lesson in AVALON and another in the Spanish village in LanguageLab, have posted snapshots of their particpation on flickr, have written a blog entry and participated in two discussions on virtual worlds, other methods of E-learning and Real Life v. Second Life language learning and teaching.
Week 6 - Evaluation & wrap-up
Participants will be asked to reflect on what they have experienced during the course and to share their ideas with everyone about good practice. People will also be encouraged to continue learning and sharing through the SLExperiments, Osnagroup and other group meetings.