Virtual Worlds & Language Learning
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Description
In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in the use of virtual worlds such as for language learning and teaching. This session will take a broad look at the current situation by looking at organisations and individuals who involved in language education in Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com) and other virtual worlds. Participants are invited to learn more by becoming involved in field trips, talks and discussions. We will also be looking at different educational tools that can be used to help the teacher and learners. You will also be encouraged to try your hand at teaching a language in one of these environments.
Objectives
By the end of this session, you should:
- be able to communicate and navigate in the virtual world of Second Life
- have an initial level of comfort with working in virtual worlds as learning evironments
- have knowledge of a range of tools that can support student language learning and language teaching in Second Life
- be aware of the affordances and the challenges that virtual worlds bring to language learning
- leave wanting to learn more and participate further in virtual worlds as part of your teacher professional development and your students language learning development
Target audience
This session is aimed at you IF you have some experience of ICT and have access to a computer that is capable of running Second Life (you can check here : http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php). No experience of virtual worlds is required or expected.
Interest Sections
EFL IS and CALL IS
Weekly content
Week 1: Introductions
Participants will meet each other and introduce themselves. They will also be encouraged to sign up for accounts for the online tools we will be using in the course. If they have had no experience of Second Life, they should complete the orientation this week and join the course SL group.
Week 2: Exploring Education and Virtual Worlds
In this week, there will be an interactive Second Life practice session and also field trips to different educational spaces. One tour will be conducted by a guest speaker, Dr Angela Thomas, who directed the build of an educational space for English literature students and teachers.
Week 3: Second Life and Languages
Field trips will be organised to 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 are taught. Our guest speaker this week will Daf Gonzalez on teaching Spanish in Second Life.
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. If possible, class observation will be organised. Virtual field trips. Our guest speaker this week will be Gavin Dudeney on language learning tools in Second Life.
Week 5: Teaching Practice
Teaching Practice - participants will be encouraged to put their knowledge into practice and arrange to teach each other in 15 minute slots.
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 group meetings. This final week will be a guest panel of virtual worlds language teachers.
Moderators
Nergiz Kern is a DELTA-qualified English teacher and has taught general, business and technical English in Germany, Brazil and the UK. Now, she lives in Turkey and teaches online and in Second Life. Her key interests include learner motivation, encouraging learner autonomy, ICT and the use of Web 2.0 tools and virtual worlds in teaching and learning languages. At the moment she is enrolled in a one-year postgraduate certificate course ‘Teaching and learning with MUVEs’ (Massively Multi-User Virtual Environments) funded by the EU. Her next goal is an MA in Educational Technology and TESOL. Nergiz blogs about her "Teaching in Second Life" experience here: http://slexperiments.edublogs.org
Dennis Newson stopped teaching full-time in 2000, but that has given him more chance to become enthusiastic about the potential use of TEFL in SL.
If you are seriously interested in my curriculum vitae,, just go to: http://www.dennisnewson.de
Nick Noakes (http://ihome.ust.hk/~ctnick/) works in educational development and his passion is emerging technologies in education. He was an ESL teacher and teacher developer for close to 20 years before moving into teacher development full-time. His current position is Director, Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (http://celt.ust.hk). He began working in text-based virtual worlds (MOOs) in the mid-nineties and has been working in the virtual world of Second Life for over 2 years. He co-ran the biweekly New Media Consortium Teacher Buzz sessions from Jun 2006 to May 2008. His home in Second Life is Boracay and he is currently advising the University of Surrey on their virtual world projects and also works as a volunteer in a number of mentor groups for people new to Second Life.
Graham Stanley (http://www.grahamstanley.info/) is a teacher of English specialising in ICT at the British Council Young Learner Centre in Barcelona, Spain. He is also project manager of the British Council's 'Learn English Second Life for Teens' project and teaches a course on 'Virtual Tourism' (http://www.virtualtourism.info) using Second Life) at the University of Ramon Llull in Barcelona.
Communication tools to be used
http://vwll.pbwiki.com
We will be using this wiki for session/task content delivery
http://evovwll.ning.com/
We will be using this community site for participant discussion and content sharing
http://www.secondlife.com
Second Life will be the principal virtual world used during the session
http://www.twinity.com
Twinity is another virtual world we will be looking at
http://www.there.com/
We will also be looking at the virtual world There
Join this session
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To join this group:
- Go to: http://evovwll.ning.com/
- Click on this button:
 (This is just an image). The real button is on the Ning site on the upper right corner. Registration is free.
- Fill in the form.
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Back to Call for Participation
The Electronic Village Online is a project of TESOL's CALL Interest Section.
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.
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