SLanguages 2010 Programme
15th-16th October, 2010
This year’s SLanguages Conference which acknowledges Gavin Dudeney’s sterling work over the first three years of its existence has been organised by a number of people working in a loose committee structure with Gavin’s support. We hope to build on this effort in future years to continue to bring you similar events of an equal quality.
This conference has a larger number of unique sessions as you can see below and we hope that you enjoy all those you manage to attend. There are also a large number of new presenters this year and some who you will have met before. We will be hoping to record as many of the sessions as possible for you to be able to catch up with anything you miss.
Don’t forget that when you come to the conference keep your prim level as low as possible to reduce lag!
Have a great conference!!
The organising committee.
Friday 15th October 2010
Registration -- 10am PDT (SL Time) / 5pm GMT/ 1am CST (China Standard Time) Sat
Venue EduNation II Welcome Area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/203/142/23
Opening Plenary -- 11am PDT (SL Time) / 6pm GMT/ 2am CST (China Standard Time) Sat
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/15Oct6pmGMT
Panel: Gavin Dudeney [Dudeney Ge], Heike Philp [Gwen Gwasi], Marisa Constantinides [Marisolde Orellana] , Randall Sadler [Randall Renoir]
Moderation: Gary Motteram [Gwared Morgwain]
This plenary will look at where we are now in the use of Multi-User Environments in language education. Each panelist will introduce themselves briefly and then there will be questions from the floor. We are hoping for a lively and thought-provoking debate to get the conference off to a cracking start.
Venue EduNation III Mega Temple
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
Recording
http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/opening-plenary-slanguages
BREAK for 45 mins
Friday, 15 October 2010
1pm PDT (SL Time) / 8pm GMT/ 4am CST (China Standard Time) Sat
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/15Oct8pmGMT
Parallel session 1.1
1.1.1 -- Paul Preibisch [Fire Centaur] Will introduce us to SLOODLE. A way of connecting Moodle to Second Life.
What is Sloodle? What tools does it give you to help manage your Classes in Second Life?
How can SL activities connect to the gradebook, and be used to track your students?
What is the easiest way to set up Sloodle? During Fire's presentation, he will be demonstrating a new beta development called: The Avatar Classroom, an automatic Sloodle Rezzing System which will auto create a Moodle website for you. Come, reach out, and see what Sloodle Can do for you!
Session lasts 60 minutes
VENUE: EduNation II - Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
RECORDING:
http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sloodle-a-way-of-connecting
1.1.2 -- Prof. Dr. Undine Froemming [Augenblick Winkler] and Tobias Becker [Jazmin Orfan] -- Visual Anthropology in Virtual Cultures (30 mins)
How to conduct anthropological research with an Avatar. This session will also include a short film presentation of "Jazmin Orfan" about the Near Eastern conflict in Second Life.
Session lasts 30 minutes
VENUE: EduNation III Mega Temple http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
RECORDING: coming soon
1.1.3 -- Heike Philp [Gwen Gwasi] and German students -- Baal by Bertolt Brecht
VIRTUAL WORLD PREMIERE -- Theatre play by German students. The actors, script writers and stage technicians are German students of the 20s Berlin project.
Baal is a poet who rejects the bourgeois society only to end up drunk, broke, a womanizer and a murderer. In this play you will see his decline and fall from favor of the rich publisher Mäch to the becoming of a murderer of his best friend Ekkart. The first scene is the decadent dinner party and the second and last scene takes place 7 years later, with a horrible surprise at a smoke filled beer café. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_%28play%29
Bertolt Brecht is a German poet, playwright and theatre director who wrote Baal in 1918.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht
Session lasts 60 minutes
Meeting point is the Welcome Area of EduNation II where you will find support and landmarks for the theatre play.
VENUE: Meeting point EduNation II - Welcome Area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/203/142/23
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/baal-by-bertolt-brecht
Friday 15th October 2010
2pm PDT (SL Time) / 9pm GMT/ 5am CST (China Standard Time) Sat
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/15Oct9pmGMT
Parallel session 1.2
1.2.1 -- Shiv Rajendran [Kingsbury Yeats] -- How do virtual worlds engage users?
If “language is learned in the course of using language, and the best predictor of language facility will simply be time-on-task” should language courses and all learning services be designed with engagement at their core? Engagement is the holy grail of education but has long been elusive. Over the past 20 years the online and entertainment industries have become very good at getting users to re-engage with their products and services, yet little or none of this knowledge has been applied to education. This presentation looks at some of the methods of engagement that exist and how they can be implemented in teaching in virtual worlds. Examples will be provided of how entertainment focused virtual worlds engage a broad demographic.
Session lasts 30 minutes
VENUE: EduNation II - Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
RECORDING: (sadly no recording)
1.2.2 -- Luisa Panichi [Jole Zhong] and Hanna Outakoski -- Teaching minority languages in 2nd Life
Hanna Outakoski is a teacher of North Sami and has been doing work with learners in 2nd Life. She has provided a set of slides about her work, but as she can’t be in 2nd Life for the conference Luis Panichi who is familiar with the project will present Hanna’s project.
Session lasts 30 minutes
VENUE: AVALON Learning Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/101/65/36
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/teaching-minority-languages-in
1.2.3 -- Carmela Dell'Aria [Misy Ferraris] -- Italian Renaissance Theatre
An Italian Renaissance theatre piece performed by Italian students on "The Triumph of Bacchus", written by Lorenzo de' Medici, the de-facto ruler of the Florentine Republic between 1469–92 who dedicated his life to art. http://kettydagostino.altervista.org/
This session lasts 60 minutes and takes place on the sim Città Ideale.
Meeting point is the green Welcome Area of EduNation II where you will find support and landmarks for the tours.
VENUE: Meeting point EduNation II - Welcome Area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/203/142/23
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/italian-renaissance-theatre
1.2.4 -- Edith Paillat [Cyber Placebo] -- Virtual Language Resource Centre for French FL
The Virtual Language Resource Centre for French FL seeks to provide language resources for independent learning as well learning with the help of a tutor. With this platform I wish to offer a relaxed meeting point where students can come on their own, as a group to work on resources and/or, more formally with a tutor. The Centre offers French related Landmarks and objects with notecards with links to online resources and suggestions of activities. The scope of this project can be extended to building a broader language Resource Centre for other languages. Language. At a later stage a central reception area with teleporter could then be added for access possibly a holodeck rezzing rooms with specific language and cultural elements. During this showcase I hope to explain how and why I built such centre and, if time allows, engage participants in a discussion about the role of resource centres and independent language learning in a 3D environments.
The session last 60 minutes and takes place at the Virtual Language Resource Centre for French FL.
Meeting point is the green Welcome Area of EduNation II where you will find support and landmarks for the tours.
VENUE: Meeting point EduNation II - Welcome Area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/203/142/23
This session did not take place due to connection difficulties.
Friday 15th October 2010
3pm PDT (SL Time) / 10pm GMT/ Sat 6am CST (China Standard Time) Sat
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/15Oct10pmGMT
Parallel Sessions 1.3
1.3.1 -- Antonella Berriolo [Anna Begonia] and Peta Bowker [Gizmo Latte] -- Learning by machinema: reflection on pros and cons
Second Life is a perfect tool for stimulating learners' oral production: it's social, it's immersive, it uses the 3D environment to its best advantage and the interaction between participants and the environment can really stimulate conversation.
However, are we sure that learning is really happening and that the learner is progressing? And how could we improve this experience?
The creation of a short film in SL (a machinima), where the learners think up the story, the characters and the dialogues, can be a good excuse for getting them to talk for weeks on the same subject and thus reuse over and over the same structures and vocabulary without losing the enthusiasm and the motivation.
Learners will still feel that they are in charge and free to be creative in this experience, but the facilitator will have more opportunities to offer a correct model of language. In this short presentation we will analyse the idea of the project, the difficulties that we met and how we tried to solve them. We'll look at the reasons for the success of the first project (whose result is the short film "il marito della parrucchiera") and for the failure of the second one, and what we've learnt from all this.
This session will last 45 minutes and take place in the Edunation II - Amphitheatre.
VENUE: EduNation II - Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/learning-by-machinema
1.3.2 -- Scott Grant [Xilin Yifu] -- The role of non-player characters (bots) in task-based language and culture learning (60 mins)
Automated non-player characters (NPCs) are common to many computer / video games and many digital learning environments, performing both a ‘scaffolding’ function and an interactive function. Bots are also common in VWs like Second Life, both of the prim-bot kind and the avatar-bot kind and with varying levels of functionality. Chatbots are likewise common in many 2D and 3D environments, and while providing some degree of interactivity, it is often limited, unfocussed and of a circular nature.
The Chinese Studies Program at Monash University has taken some of these existing concepts and integrated them into task-based language and culture lessons. A system of avatar-bot NPCs with a range of standard SL functions (give, rez objects, move) has been developed in combination with an AIML chatbot database tailored to the needs of the Chinese language and of the pedagogical goals of the lessons. One unique feature of this combination is actions/functions that are activated from within the AIML program itself, allowing for these actions or functions to occur as a natural part of the dialogues between learner and NPC. In addition, the NPCs are also able to interact with a number of other ‘tools’ developed within the Second Life environment especially for our lessons. Finally, a method for logging learner and NPC interaction has been developed for post-lesson review and data gathering.
These NPCs perform a number of key roles in terms of classroom management (especially with large numbers of learners inword at the same time), providing learners with focused ‘naturalistic’ linguistic and cultural interaction, providing them with opportunities for ‘meaningful’ communication, acting as gatekeepers for key stages of a particular task, providing learners with key artefacts required to complete the set task, and providing scaffolding technically and with lesson content.
The above features (technical and pedagogical), as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using such a system, will be discussed in detail during the presentation. Examples from actual lessons will be offered to illustrate how the NPC system is used in practice, with an exemplar machinima of one particular lesson to be shown.
This session will last 60 minutes and take place in the Edunation III Mega Temple.
VENUE: EduNation III Mega Temple http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-role-of-nonplayer
1.3.3 -- Iffaf Khan [Iffaf Ling] -- How do we encourage critical thinking skills in Second Life
In this discussion, the speaker encourages participants to engage in a discussion of their experiences in different sims and, in particular, in sims where their thinking processes were engaged. How did those sims offer prompts? How did we interact with those prompts. The issue of the relevance of critical thinking skills in education is also evaluated.
This session will last 45 minutes and take place in the Sandbox on AVALON Learning.
VENUE: AVALON Learning Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/101/65/36
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-do-we-encourage-critical
BREAK for 1 hour
Saturday 16th October 2010
5pm PDT (SL Time) / 12am GMT (midnight Fr/Sat) / Sat 8am CST (China Standard Time) World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct12amGMT
Unconference
Randall Sadler [Randall Renoir], Dr. Doris Molero [Pionia Destiny], Heike Philp [Gwen Gwasi]
An unconference is a part without set program when conference participants get together, vote for a topic that they wish to discuss with others and then split into discussion groups. At the end of the 30min discussion everyone meets again and a spokesman of each group relates their findings. Conferences which are entirely based on this concept are called barcamps or educamps.
This session will last 60 minutes
VENUE: EduNation III Mega Temple http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
RECORDING:
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Fri 6pm PDT (SL Time) / 1am GMT / 9am CST (China Standard Time)
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct1amGMT
Parallel session 2.1
2.1.1 -- Chris Surridge [Christopher Flow]-- Devil Mystery Island
This presentation gives an overview of Devil Island Mystery, a 10-mission adventure-based learning interaction that places students in the middle of the action. Devil Island Mystery combines the virtual worlds of Second Life and Open Simulator with the Moodle LMS via SLOODLE tools. This presentations will discuss the general architecture of the program, it's goals, it's successes and failures, as well as it's overall results. Finally, this presentation will suggest some future directions for virtual world programs in mainstream education.
This session will last 60 minutes.
VENUE: EduNation II - Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/devil-mystery-island
2.1.2 -- Barbara Sakamoto [Lynn Carlucci] -- Macbeth Tour
Join this tour of Virtual Macbeth to see an example of ways a virtual world can enhance classroom instruction by allowing us to do things we can’t do in real life. Understanding Macbeth’s mind takes on a whole new meaning in Second Life! While designed for literature students studying in their first language, there are possibilities for second language learners as well. We’ll explore the island, look at actual student assignments, and talk about ways to use this environment, and others like it, with language students. Before the tour, please visit the Virtual Macbeth wiki for an overview of the island. [http://virtualmacbeth.wikispaces.com/]
This session lasts for 60 minutes
Meeting point is the green Welcome Area of EduNation II where you will find support and landmarks for the tour.
VENUE: Meeting point EduNation II - Welcome Area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/203/142/23
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/macbeth-tour
2.1.3 -- Dr. Doris Molero [Pionia Destiny] -- Learning a second Language in a medieval world
Are you ready to learn something about Sim role playing culture? Have you ever wondered what language activity in a virtual world could be like? This is your opportunity to experience role playing in a medieval sim. Join us in a tour a wonderful fantasy world: Artstonia and help us explore how to take full advantage of these virtual world environments to give students a motivating and engaging experience in which they can learn a new language.
For the blog on Language Learning in a Medivial world click here. For more information on Arstonia click here.
In this tour you will be asked to join a medieval role playing sim. Check the link for more info http://learningenglishinamedievalworld.blogspot.com/2010/08/lesson-1-greetings-and-introductions_20.html
This session lasts for 60-90 (depends om people’s time) minutes and takes place in Artstonia
Meeting point is the green Welcome Area of EduNation II where you will find support and landmarks for the tour.
VENUE: Meeting point EduNation II - Welcome Area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/203/142/23
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Fri 7pm PDT (SL Time) / 2am GMT / 10am CST (China Standard Time)
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct2amGMT
Parallel session 2.2
2.2.1 -- [Charlie Navarathna] Workshop on how to create machinimas
This session going to cover the basics of Machinima (making movies using SL footage). By the end of this feature you will be able to record, edit and post a short video of your exploits.
We are going to cover instructions, features and some history in this class. Charlie thinks that Machinima will eventually become a popular way to produce visually-based stories in 3D applications.
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place in the Edunation II Amphitheatre.
VENUE: EduNation II - Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/workshop-on-how-to-create
2.2.2 -- Chris Smith [Shamblesguru Voom] - iPad and other iDevices for Teaching and Learning
It is no longer just about 'learning anytime' or 'just-in-time learning' it is now also about 'learning anywhere. This session will be using voice, so please come with your working speakers or headset even if you do not have a microphone. I will also be making use of the 'media on a prim' functionality of Second Life Viewer2 but if you do not have Viewer2 then just have your favourite web browser open. I'll be giving you the necessary urls. In this session I'll be sharing some of my experiences using mobile devices in an education context and especially those involving the iPad. If you already have an iPad then please come along willing to share your experiences. If you don't have one then this session should help you decide if you need to start saving or not. iPad manufacterers are not just limited to Apple anymore. Hopefully in this session we will also have time to consider these.
VENUE: EduNation III Mega Temple http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
2.2.3 -- James T. Abraham [Calisto Encinal] -- Tour of a Mexican village
Join Calisto Encinal for a tour of his immersive, interactive Mexican village. Created for first-year American university students, the space provides a place for role-playing, class meetings and self-correcting activities. Attendees will learn more about this exciting use of virtual worlds for education and explore the potential of a rich environment for creating a truly interactive classroom.
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place on AVALON Learning Sandbox and Calisto will offer a tour to his Mexican village towards the end.
VENUE: AVALON Learning Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/101/65/36
2.2.4 -- Nahir Aparicio [Nahiram Vaniva] Tour to real life cities in SL
Some Real Life cities have been replicated in Second Life. This tour will focus in visiting some of these virtual replicas in Second Life. They can be used for language learning practise and activities which we can explore during our visit to each city. We may find native speakers of the language, but it depends of the time zone they are in.
Meeting point is the green Welcome Area of EduNation II where you will find support and landmarks for the tours.
VENUE: Meeting point EduNation II - Welcome Area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/203/142/23
BREAK for 3 hours
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Fri 11pm PDT (SL Time) / 6am GMT / 2pm CST (China Standard Time)
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct6amGMT
Parallel session 3.1
3.1.1 -- Carol Rainbow [Carolrb Roux] -- Sound Workshop – Theme Transport
This workshop will enable delegates to create 3D resources that language learners can interact with to hear vocabulary items. Aimed at beginners, all resources needed, as well as extras for further development, will be provided in the session.
During the session participants will learn how to add a script and sound file to a 3D model so that the model says what it is when touched or stepped on by an avatar. For people who want to try adding text to the script they will also be able to add a line of text so that as a touched 3D car actually says the word “Car,” a line of text can be chatted saying “This is a car.”, thus giving learners an opportunity to see the item, hear how the word sounds in English and read what it is in English.
Provided during the session
- Sample English sound files for items of transport
- Models corresponding to the sound files
- The script for interaction
- A notecard giving suitable lines of text that may be pasted into the script e.g.
- This is a car.
- A car drives along a road.
- A notecard explaining where to download Audacity and how to use it to create appropriate sound files for SL
- Posters explaining the process as used in the workshop area
- A set of 3D animals and sounds available for use in the same way
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place in the Edunation II Sandbox.
VENUE: EduNation II Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/159/144/22
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sound-workshop-theme
3.1.2 Heike Philp [Gwen Gwasi] -- Ich bin ein Berliner (45 mins)
The 1920s Berlin sim is a wonderful reproduction of Berlin in the 20s simulating this area of Charleston and the depression, of beggars in the streets, tiny apartments, a theatre that has seen better days, a dance hall in a damp basesment and lukewarm beer in dirty glasses.
Residents are asked to wear clothes of the 20s and a free set of clothes is being provided. There is an active role-playing community with great characters like Jo Yardley, a war widow, Petrus, the barman and the Keller, who might give you a glas of Absinth, when the police are not watching, during happy hour time at 2am SL time (10pm UK time). http://www.1920sberlin.com/
To stage a German course in this culturally and historically rich town was a natural choice.
This course has now been running for more than two months and Heike Philp explains and details this interesting teaching experience.
This session lasts for 45 minutes and takes place in the Edunation II Amphitheatre.
VENUE: EduNation II - Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
RECORIDNG: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/ich-bin-ein-berliner-1
3.1.3 Klaus Hammermüller [Claudio Whalen] -- Holodecks and Beyond: Reuse and Management of Learning Content
One important aspect, if 3D environments can be successfully used in education is the usability in respect of reuse and management of learning content. State of the art are "holodecks", spaces which produces pre-defined scenarios. Beyond the issue of "in world" management of content there are three other related topics to be discussed: The integration of 2D content, which usually comes from an learning management system; the import and export from content into the 3D environment, if created outside; and the transfer from content created for one 3D platform to be reused in another.
In this talk and workshop we will discuss these issues in respect of usability and applicability of existing solutions today. We will look for examples, resources and best practices to preserve the value of created content. We also want to focus on the topic of content sharing to reduce the cost of content creation for individual educators.
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place in the AVALON Learning Sandbox.
VENUE: AVALON Learning Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/101/65/36
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/holodecks-and-beyond-reuse-and
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Fri/Sat 12am PDT (SL Time) midnight / 7am GMT / 3pm CST (China Standard Time)
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct7amGMT
Parallel session 3.2
3.2.1 -- Sedat Akayoglu [Sedat Usher] -- The functions of negotiation of meaning in a course carried out in Second Life
Since its creation by Linden Lab in 2003, Second Life has been searched and several educators have created virtual classrooms in this environment. However, the number of the studies examining the patterns of this environment in terms of linguistics characteristics is very limited. This study aimed at determining the discourse pattern of SL in terms of the functions of negotiation of meaning. In the first part of this presentation, the use of SL in language classes and the pros and cons of this environment will be presented. In the second part, how writing tasks carried out in SL in an undergraduate course, Advanced Reading and Writing, offered at Middle East Technical University and how the data was collected will be presented. The participants of the study were all freshman students and pre-service teachers of English. In the next part of the presentation, the findings of the study will be presented with statistical data; and at the end of the presentation, the use of SL for the other skills, reading, speaking and listening, will also be mentioned for further studies. This study might help educators, researchers and teachers to better understand the environment in terms of the aforementioned functions.
This session lasts for 30 minutes and takes place in the Edunation II Amphitheatre
VENUE: EduNation II - Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-functions-of-negotiation
3.2.2 -- Paula Ferreira da Silva and Santiago Domínguez Noriega [Morgaine Mayo]
Educational experiences in language learning and pedagogical tools testing in Second Life
We will describe our language learning educational experience in Second Life, from oral conversation assignments with Tourism college students, to the research and application of different pedagogical tools and their testing in Second Life virtual environment.
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place in the AVALON Learning Sandbox.
VENUE: AVALON Learning Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/101/65/36
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/educational-experiences-in
3.2.3 -- Hajnalka Beck [Dorka Nemeth] German / English Review of foreign language education methods in Second Life?
The virtual world of Second Life offers several possibilities for the live-online foreign language training, which are not available for the teacher during a traditional class or in a virtual classroom. For instance the world of Second Life can be changed freely, you can create a vicinity that matches the discussed situation. This helps to get the actual theme easier and deeper and enables to master the language successfully. In such miniature worlds you can play anybody’s part and get a complete vocabulary and grammar practice. The practice-oriented Workshop shows some of these possibilities and methods. Due to this it also enables a place to exchange opinions and experience about this theme.
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place in the EduNation II - Mega Temple
VENUE: EduNation III Mega Temple http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
Sadly no recording
Saturday, 16 October 2010
1am PDT (SL Time) / 8am GMT / 4pm CST (China Standard Time)
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct8amGMT
Parallel session 3.3
3.3.1 -- Kalyan Chattopadhyay (Kalyan Horatio) -- What's different about teaching in Second Life?
Is teaching in Second Life quite different from teaching in other virtual learning environments? This presentation aims to answer this question by taking the participants through some of the challenges faced and strategies adopted while teaching in Second Life.
This session lasts for 45 minutes and takes place in the Edunation III MegaTemple.
VENUE: EduNation III Mega Temple http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/whats-different-about-teaching
3.3.2 -- Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart [Yvonne Handrick] about NEXT-TELL; Maja Pivec [Maja Yazimoto] about AVATAR; Beata Hola [Beata Ruben] about Talk-with-me -- Other European education projects involving 3D environments
The AVALON-project is only one of several EU co-financed projects that are dealing with the applicability of 3D environments for educational purposes. In this talk we want to briefly introduce 3 other highly interesting projects that also received a grant from the European
Commission, namely:
- Talkwith-me, dealing with teaching Eastern European languages (already
in its final phase).
- Avatar, about using 3D environments in schools (running for another year).
- NEXT-TELL, mainly addressing methodological and computational support to
make real-time feedback about student's learning available for schools
teachers (running within the 7th Framework program, just started this
September)
This session lasts for 40 minutes and takes place in AVALON Learning
VENUE: AVALON Learning Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/101/65/36
BREAK for 1 hour
Saturday, 16 October 2010
3am PDT (SL Time) / 10am GMT / 6pm CST (China Standard Time)
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16October10amGMT
Plenary Graham Stanley [Baldric Commons]
Second Chance for Second Life Language Education?
The fourth SLanguages conference is being held in the midst of a sea change in virtual world education. Although Second Life was not the first virtual world to be used for education, it was the first to become a focus of popular culture, and it has continued to be the main focus of educators interested in using virtual worlds since that time in 2006 when it was catapulted to people's attention as a possible 3D alternative to the flat web. Although the mainstream attention has largely deserted to Facebook and Twitter, educational attention in Second Life has continued to increase steadily as more is learned about the value it and other virtual worlds can bring to distance learning in particular. Recently, however, changes such as the impending closure of the Teen Grid and the announced abolition of the island discount for educators have seen many become doubtful of their existing and future in-world projects. The Second Life Educators (SLED) list is currently dominated by talk of an exodus to open source virtual worlds such as Open Sim. What is interesting, however, is that these educators are not looking for an an alternative to a virtual world, simply an alternative virtual world. And they want it to be as close as possible to Second Life. In this talk, I plan to take stock of what I have learned about language learning and teaching in virtual worlds, looking at some examples of what could be considered to be 'viable language learning' in-world, and to ask whether Second Life should be given a second chance by anyone now considering packing their virtual bags.
This session will last 45 minutes and take place in Edunation III Mega Temple.
VENUE: EduNation III Mega Temple http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/plenary-second-chance-for
Saturday, 16 October 2010
4am PDT (SL Time) / 11am GMT / 7pm CST (China Standard Time)
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct11amGMT
Parallel session 4.1
4.1.1 -- Manuel Vuelta [Profesor Korobase], Virtual Response System
The objective is to motivate teachers to use New Technologies in their RL’s classrooms. So I show how to use different tools like Interactive Boards, Portable Interactive Boards, Response Systems, Nfirew Classroom Audio solutions and new trends in education like Augmented Reality and Virtual Worlds. Second Life is an excellent environment to maintain meetings and I explain in my presentations how students can show their works in SL using Frames, Interactive Frames, Portable Projectors, Interactive Boards, Books, etc., how to use Virtual Response Systems and how teachers can teach at distance from any place in classroom using IR voice system with NXT technology instead of cone speakers. Due the lag problem in SL when there are many attendees together there is the possibility to follow presentations through Livestream TV pushing this link: http://www.livestream.com/interwrite during the presentation.
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place in the Edunation II Amphitheatre
VENUE: EduNation II - Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/virtual-response-system
4.1.2 -- Graham Stanley [Baldric Commons] Virtual World Classroom Management (60 mins)
When your lessons may take place on a tropical beach, in the middle of a busy city, or on a mysterious planet in outer space, how can a teacher best manage the 'classroom' space in a virtual world? How is it different from/similar to teaching face-to-face in a real world classroom?
In this talk/tour, I'll be drawing upon my experience teaching for the European Union funded AVALON project (http://avalon-project.ning.com) and showing you a number of different ways of organising a 'classroom' space for language learners in Second Life. The talk/tour will be followed by a discussion where participants will be encouraged to share their experience.
This session lasts for 90 minutes (45 minute tour and 45 minutes of discussion) and starts at the AVALON Learning landing area.
VENUE: AVALON Learning Landing Area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/25/181/57
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/virtual-world-classroom
Saturday 16 October 2010
5am PDT (SL Time) / 12pm GMT / 8pm CST (China Standard Time)
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct12pmGMT
Parallel session 4.2
4.2.1 -- David Richardson [Davric Rinkitink] -- Throwing them in at the deep end - preparing students to work in Second Life on a course in spoken business English
The Business Talking course at Linnaeus University is a 3 EC course in spoken business English which has been running each term since Spring 2008. It is a “place of study” course, which means that students are using Second Life as the location of their study, rather than using any specific feature of a Second Life environment. The course involves training in and the assessment of making shorter and longer presentations and taking part in negotiations.
Since the entire course takes place in Second Life (on Kamimo Island), from registration to examination, and since the students are largely using their own internet connections and home computer equipment, the course requirement on them to use audio rather than text chat to communicate could potentially cause some problems. The decision facing the course designer, David Richardson, was whether to set aside time to train the students in the use of Second Life, or to just expect that they would be capable of using the program on their own equipment when the course begins. The latter course of action was decided upon from the start and has generally proved to be successful over the years.
This presentation relates the various ways in which students are prepared for the Course Launch and the first live Course Meeting on a course in spoken English in Second Life, and the reactions of students to this experience. These ways include Screenflow films, instructions on web pages and hands-on help from students in the United States.
This session lasts for 45 minutes and takes place in the Edunation II Amphitheatre.
VENUE: EduNation II - Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/throwing-them-in-at-the-deep
4.2.2 -- Ton Koenraad [Koen Antonioni] -- Second Life & OpenSim as Learning Environments
The EU project ‘Networked Interaction in Foreign Language Acquisition and Research’ (NIFLAR, 2009-2010) aims to enrich and innovate foreign language teaching and learning processes by researching design principles for intercultural communicative tasks in video-web communication and 3D virtual worlds. For the latter, with a view to sustainability and scalability and to provide a safe environment for secondary school pupils that is also accessible by adult educational professionals (teachers, teacher educators and student teachers), the project has opted to also use the Open Simulator platform, an open source version of Second Life.
One of the design criteria for the NIFLAR 3D virtual learning environment (VLE) is to support teaching and learning targeted specifically at the development of intercultural communicative competences (ICC) of language learners and to serve as a practice space for student language teachers to train ICC-related teaching skills in 3D environments relevant for secondary level target groups.
We report on the definition and realization of the specifications for this NIFLAR 3D VLE combining principles (Byram, 1997) and methodological guidelines (Lázár et al., 2007) for ICC development with views on the (language) learning potential of 3D worlds (Warburton, 2009; Molka-Danielsen & Deutchmann, 2009), practical experiences in 3D language teaching (Sweeney, 2009) and the observations made by the student participants of the NIFLAR Second Life-pilots conducted in the course of the project (Jauregi et al., 2009; 2010)
This session lasts for 45minutes and takes place in the Edunation III Mega Temple.
VENUE: EduNation III Mega Temple http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/second-life-amp-opensim-as
4.2.3 -- Joe Pereira [Creed Juran] and Zeynep Onat-Stelma [Zeynep Panther] -- Teacher training in 2nd Life: issues and outcomes
This session provides an overview of the Language Teacher Training Course that took place in February-March 2009 as part of the AVALON project. In this session we will focus both on the practical and theoretical aspects of the Teacher Training Course. We will present activities from the course and we will show links between these activities and theory of learning and teaching languages in Second Life. We will also include examples of the lesson plans and activities presented by the teacher trainees on the course. Finally we will present some feedback from the teacher trainees about the course.
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place in the AVALON Sandbox
VENUE: AVALON Learning Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/101/65/36
4.2.4 -- Carmela Dell'Aria [Misy Ferraris] -- Demonstration of teaching tools
Demonstration of teaching tools.
VENUE: EduNation II Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/159/144/22
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/demonstration-of-teaching
BREAK for 1 hour
Saturday 16 October 2010
7am PDT (SL Time) / 2pm GMT / 10pm CST (China Standard Time) World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct2pmGMT
Parallel session 5.1
5.1.1 -- Gloria Gomez-Diago [gloriagdiagoGalicia] and Akemi Mochizuki [Draceina Pinion ]-- Improving three elements involved in the learning process of a language by using tools designed for Second Life. Grammar, Vocabulary and Use in context: Word Puzzle Ball, Dracy Crossword (type 5 and Making Panel) and Brainflowing
Second Life is an adequate environment for learning languages not just because allows to join individuals from several places, facilitating the exchange of ideas between them but also because of the immersive character of this virtual environment, which permits people to share a common space where they can interact with ease and where they feel comfortable. Even without the need of using tools, Second Life, understood as an space is a very adequate place for practicing languages but it is mainstream taking advantage of the easiness that we experiment in this Virtual World for designing and creating intelligent tools oriented to achieve specific objectives involved in the process of learning a language. Therefore, in this demonstration, we will introduce tools focused on practicing three main issues that take part in the learning process of a language: Word Puzzle Balls and Dracy Crossword (type 5 and Making Panel) are created by Draceina Pinion and aim to help people to improve grammar and vocabulary in many languages. Thus, Word Puzzle Balls can be used for learning and teaching the grammar of all the languages which can be used in Second Life and Dracy Crossword can be applied for learning and teaching vocabulary of English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Hirigana, the first of all the writing systems taught to Japanese children. Brainflowing, created by gloriagdiagoGalicia and Draceina Pinion is a tool intended on facilitating the brainstorming activity in Second Life. It permits to brainstorm, by using several languages, being very adequate for practicing a language in context. Furthermore, because permits people to brainstorm by anonymity, the learners, will be not afraid of committing mistakes when writing and the teacher could correct them without referring to the persons who have done.
This session lasts for 120 minutes and takes place in AVALON Learning Sandbox
VENUE: AVALON Learning Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/101/65/36
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/improving-three-elements
5.1.2 -- Dennis Newson [Osnacantab Nesterov] and Scott Thornbury [Olivetti Oh] -- DOGME and Second Life
The entry in Wikipedia reads: “Dogme language teaching is considered to be both a methodology and a movement.[1] Dogme is a communicative approach to language teaching and encourages teaching without published textbooks and instead focuses on conversational communication among the learners and the teacher. It has its roots in an article by the language education author, Scott Thornbury.[2]”
The Dogme Yahoogroups statement reads “We are looking for ways of exploiting the learning opportunities offered by the raw material of the classroom, that is the language that emerges from the needs, interests, concerns and desires of the people in the room.”
Many people assume that because of this stance it is likely that true dogmeists, by definition, are likely to be pretty suspicious about technology. So can you really learn and scaffold and facilitate language learning a la Dogme in the advanced technology of Second Life, or isn’t there an implied contradiction there?
As a firm believer in the potential of Second Life for learners with reliable access I’m convinced there isn’t , that Dogme and SL can go well together and even that it particularly suitable for a Dogme approach. In my session I shall try to muster and illustrate my arguments.
Scott Thornbury, embodied in his avatar, will be present for the discussion.
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place in the EduNation Sandbox.
VENUE: EduNation II Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/159/144/22
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/dogme-in-second-life
5.1.3 -- Mats Deutschman [Mats Teichmann] and Luisa Panichi [Jole Zhong] - Teacher talk in Second Life
In this study, we compare the first and the last sessions from an online oral proficiency course aimed at doctoral students conducted in the virtual world Second Life. The study attempts to identify how supportive moves made by the teacher encourage learners to engage with language, and what type of linguistic behaviour in the learners leads to engagement in others. We compare overall differences in terms of floor space and turn-taking patterns, and also conduct a more in-depth discourse analysis of parts of the sessions focusing on supportive moves such as back-channelling and elicitors. There are indications that the supportive linguistic behaviour of teachers is important in increasing learner engagement. In our study we are also able to observe a change in student linguistic behaviour between the first and the last sessions with students becoming more active in signalling involvement as the course progresses. Finally, by illustrating some of the language awareness issues that arise in online environments, we hope to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of online communication.
This session lasts for 45 minutes and takes place in the AVALON Learning round table area.
VENUE: AVALON Learning Round Table
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/78/224/41
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/teacher-talk-in-second-life
Saturday, 16 October 2010
8am PDT (SL Time) / 3pm GMT / 11pm CST (China Standard Time)
World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct3pmGMT
Parallel session 5.2
5.2.1 -- Nergiz Kern [Daffodil Fargis] Kitchen fire session/ demo lesson
In this session Nergiz will demonstrate how a kitchen fire simulation in Second Life can be used in a language lesson. Participants will take on the role of students in this demo lesson. At the end of the "lesson", Nergiz will invite the participants to reflect on their experience during the simulation and on the potential of such simulations for language teaching and learning.
This session lasts for 60 minutes and starts in the EduNation II Sandbox and will then teleport to another location.
VENUE: EduNation II Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/159/144/22
5.2.2 -- Marisa Constantinides [Marisolde Orellana] Beginners Greek Lesson
Imagine learning Greek in Greece surrounded by sunshine, market places, Metaxa and the slight breeze from the sea tossing white foam. What a wonderful way to imprint this language into ones mind with heartwarming memories. In this workshop you will enjoy some beginner Greek lessons which start of at EduNation III in the Greek MegaTemple and with the first Greek vocabulary in a virtual back pack you then tour to Santorini so as to expierience the heat of the sun on top of the hill overlooking a small fishing village, dancing Sirtaki and enjoying some virtual glass of Rezina. Will this virtual lesson imprint itself also on the virtual mind? Only time will tell. Are you willing to give it a try? Then join me for a fascinating new way of learning a language.
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place in the Edunation III Mega Temple
with a tour to Santorini.
VENUE: EduNation III Mega Temple http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/demonstration-of-teaching
5.2.3 -- Kip Boahn [Kip Yellowjacket] VIRTLANTIS & Language Learning in Virtual Worlds
This presentation/discussion will aim to provide an overview of VIRTLANTIS and respond to any questions related to virtual world language learning. Although listed as a 1hr event, additional time will gladly be added to respond to questions, demo/explain tools, etc.
VIRTLANTIS is a free resource and open community of practice for language learners and teachers in the virtual worlds of Second Life® and OpenSim ==> www.virtlantis.com. In addition to the above-mentioned, this event will aim to explain the various sorts of support and opportunities for collaboration on offer at VIRTLANTIS. All are welcome to attend - whether on time or late. IM Kip Yellowjacket if you have any difficulty or need to be teleported. *The last part of the event will be held at UWA VIRTLANTIS.
VENUE: EduNation II Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place in the
VENUE: EduNation II Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
RECORDING:
5.2.4 -- Carmela Dell'Aria [Misy Ferraris] -- TOUR of Città Ideale
Città Ideale
This session lasts for 60 minutes and takes place on Citta Ideale.
Meeting point is the green Welcome Area of EduNation II where you will find support and landmarks for the tours.
VENUE: Meeting point EduNation II - Welcome Area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/203/142/23
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/citta-ideale-tour
Saturday, 16 October 2010
9am PDT (SL Time) / 4pm GMT / 12am CST (China Standard Time) Sat/Sun midnight, World Time: http://tinyurl.com/16Oct4pmGMT
Closing Plenary
This final plenary will reflect on what we have learned during the conference and look forward to the future. Please come along to share what you have learned and to discuss where we go from here.
Graham Davies [Groovy Winkler] will offer his initial thoughts about the conference and then Gary Motteram will lead a discussion from the floor. Come ready to talk about what you have experienced, what has excited you and what you think the future holds.
This session will last 45 minutes and take place in Edunation III Mega Temple.
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/closing-panel
Party 10am PDT/ 5pm UTC/ 1pm CST
VENUE: AVALON Learning Concert Area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/47/69/50
RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/closing-party
Real Life Bios
Akemi Mochizuki [Draceina Pinion] is an experienced user of Second Life, a professional scripter who works for many educators and institutions. She has a shop, called Dracy´s Virtual Shop, specialized in educational tools in Second Life. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Zerelia/240/105/74 and also mantains the blog “How to use educational tools” http://dracy-drawing-tool.blogspot.com/
Antonella Berriolo [Anna Begonia] is an Italian language teacher at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya and the the Istituto Italiano, active in SL since 2007.
Babara Hoskins Sakamoto [Lynn Carlucci] Before Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto began teaching English as a foreign language, she taught literature and writing to secondary and university students whose first language was English. She wishes Second Life had been an option in those days! She currently teaches English in Japan, and in Second Life. You can read about her experiences learning to teach in Second Life in this series of posts on her blog. [http://www.teachingvillage.org/second-life/] Barbara is Lynn Carlucci in Second Life.
Beata Hola Beáta Holá has studied psychology at the University and has specialised in the design of learning environments for socially disadvantaged people, especially for empowering them to re-enter into the life-long learning process. She has been active in the GRUNDTVIG projects “Love Language!” and “European Generation Link” (2006) and in the the LEONARDO
DA VINCI projects “Visible” and “Rear Window” (2006).
Carmela Dell'Aria has been teaching Italian as a Foreign and Second language since 1999 in RL and in VWs, where (in Second Life) since 2007 she has been carrying out Café Italia, a pilot project about teaching and learning Italian in SL. For this experiment she designed courses as part of the main project, around small groups of foreign students from Duke University (Durham, NC) and Dublin Technology Institute (Ireland). She has been involved in many projects in SL such as teacher training at LanguageLab, BABEL Project (by Paulo Casaca and Ana Alves), ANITEL, WiAOC 2009 (Webheads in Action Online unConvergence), Tesol’s Electronic Village online (EVO 2009 and 2010), Second Life English Community.
Carol Rainbow [Carolrb Roux] is an Educational ITC Consultant working in Oxfordshire in the UK with a special interest in teaching in Second Life!
Charlie Navarathna [Charlie Navarathna] is a Professor at Oxbridge University and a Caledon Library lion. He is on the staff of the Strand magazine as a reporter and writer. Charlie is a Book Publisher with about a dozen books now available in Second Life and an assistant Librarian at NASA CoLab Library in SL. He is a member of the Machinima group and has created many SL videos, from a Virtually Speaking meeting to Fashion shows and even an SL wedding also look forward to an upcoming video for NASA's Apollo 40th celebration. He is a builder and scripter who created a new design for an audio i-Pod that you can wear to hear podcasts for the Nature group in SL. His interest in Second Life began with a "search for intelligent life" through Universities, Colleges and libraries finding and collecting SL books and meeting people and making a collection of all types of information.
Chris Smith [Shamblesguru Voom], digital nomad evangelist, has been working mainly with International School teachers in S.E. Asia for more than 25 years. He was previously the ICT Advisor for the English School Foundation (ESF) in HK where he was the Head of their teacher Professional Development Centre and then responsible for writing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating the Foundations overall ICT Development Plan. In 2002 he established a consultancy “The Education Project Asia” to extend these support opportunities to other International Schools across 17 countries in S.E. Asia focused on the “Integration of ICT in Teaching and Learning”. He is based in Thailand, and all over the internet. Other work has included being the evaluator of a UNESCO project (SchoolNet) which involved schools from eight ASIAN countries and numerous workshops and conferences across the region. In February 2010 he was a speaker at a TEDx Conference held in Bangkok http://TEDxBKK.com He's well known by many teachers worldwide for the "Shambles" website, http://www.shambles.net, which he founded in 2002 and manages. In 2007 he established International Schools Island in Second Life (3D online virtual world) where his avatar is "Shamblesguru Voom", if you search for 'Shamblesguru' on Google then you'll find many more entries than by searching for "Chris Smith". For more information about his online presence and his activities in the Web 2.0 world see his Personal Learning Network at www.shambles.net/csmith/pln Follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/shamblesguru
Chris Surridge [Christopher Flow] is an English language educator who has lived and worked abroad for over a decade in Japan, the Czech Republic and Korea. He is an enthusiastic supporter of technology in education. Chris Surridge is also the creator of Devil Island Mystery.
David Richardson [Davidric Rinkitink] teaches English at a small university in southern Sweden. He has been running the Business Talking (3 European Credits) course on Kamimo Island since spring 2008. When he's not teaching in world, he runs a number of other courses on-line using a variety of technologies, including Moodle and Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro.
Dennis Newson [Osnacantab Nesterov] began teaching EFL in 1961 in Ghana (West Africa). He subsequently taught in schools, a teaching training college, a technical university and an ordinary university in Sierre Leone (West Africa), Qatar (Arabian Gulf), Trondheim (Norway) and Osnabrueck (Germany). After alleged retirement in 2000 he twice worked for periods of 6-weeks for the British Council/Ministry of Defence as an an embarrassingly-named "expert" in Prishtina (Kosovo) and Sarajevo (Bosnia). Conferences have taken him back to England and forward to Russia, Turkey (twice), Hungary, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Prague, Romania and Berlin. He is a self-confessed listaholic as member and/or founder/owner of over 100 of them and for the last three to four years has spent much of his time in Second Life, about which he gave an online tutorial for the learningwithcomputers list. He is a webhead and has assisted with a couple of EVO workshops and is part of group that has made an offer for another in 2011. He is creator of the IATEFL YLTSIG Ning, and Committee member and Manager Discussions of IATEFL's Young lLarners and Teenager (YLT ) special interest group (SIG). He was part of an ELTON award-winning team in 2005.
Dr. Doris Molero [Pionia Destiny]
Dr. Doris Molero, aka Pionia Destiny is an EFL Professor from Rafael Belloso Chacin University (URBE) in Maracaibo, Venezuela. She is a doctor on Sciences of Education specializing in curriculum and instruction. Her doctoral research was based on the use of Web 2.0 tools as multiliterate agents in the EFL Class at university level. She holds a master degree on Educational Informatics (2002) and graduated from Modern Language School at Universidad del Zulia (1991). She has taught English as a foreign language to high school and adult learners for 21 years. She has also role played in medieval sims since 2008. Right now, she's conducting an ethnographic study on Role play in medieval sims and how they can be used in the learning of a new a new language. Proud Webhead since 2002. On jul 2010, Participated in an bilingual project with Professor Amy Fullerton a.k.a Katarina Camino and her students from USF called URBE-USF Intercambios. For the blog click here. http://www.pioniadestiny.blogspot.com
http://doris3meflcenter.blogspot.com/
Edith Paillat [Cyber Placebo] is a Language Technology Specialist at Victoria University of Wellington. She is responsible for the maintenance of three computer language labs in our language learning centre and support the teaching and learning of 12 languages, including maori, samoan and NZ sign language. She provides CALL solutions and computer training sessions for in-service language lecturers and teaches a short introductory CALL course to pre-service teachers at secondary level. Before that she taught French FL for over 10 years in several countries, her last position being to lead and train a team of French FL teachers in a private institute in Japan.
Gary Motteram [Gwared Morgwain] works at the University of Manchester in the UK where he trains language and other teachers mostly on Masters degrees. He set up and still runs an MA in Educational Technology and TESOL. He is also involved in materials design and development and research. His most recent project is the European Commission funded AVALON project.
Gavin Dudeney [Dudeney Ge] is a teacher trainer, materials developer and writer, and
currently Director of Technology for The Consultants-E, an online training and development consultancy. He is author of The Internet & The Language Classroom, and co-author (with N. Hockly) of How to Teach English with Technology.
Graham Davies [Groovy Winkler] began his career as a teacher of German and French in secondary education in the 1960s. He moved into higher education in 1972 and taught German at Ealing College (which later became part of Thames Valley University) until 1990, when he became Director of the Language Centre. Graham has lectured and run ICT training courses for language teachers in 22 different countries and has sat on numerous national and international advisory boards. In 1982 he wrote one of the first introductory books on computers in language learning and has continued publishing on this topic ever since. He was the founder president of EUROCALL from 1993-2000, and is still a member of the EUROCALL Executive Committee. He keeps himself busy by editing the ICT for Language Teachers Website (ICT4LT) and managing the EUROCALL HQ in Second Life.
DI Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart [Yvonne Handrick] is a free-lancer in the field of educational technology and co-founder of http://talkademy.org, which is a not-for-profit organisation, that engages in exploring the potentials of virtual worlds for learning purposes. talkademy.org services universities, companies and individuals with learning events using Second Life and is a frequent partner in European projects (including the AVALON-project) in that field of research.
Gloria Gomez-Diago [gloriagdiago Galicia] is a PhD candidate in Communication at Rey Juan Carlos University. She maintains the blog fromcommunication http://fromcommunication.blogspot.com/
Graham Stanley [Baldric Commons] spends half of his working life as a teacher of English at the British Council Young Learner Centre in Barcelona, Spain and the other half working on British Council projects such as 'Learn English Second Life'. This has involved managing a 3D self-access centre for 13-17 year-olds in Teen Second Life, full of language learning quests, and working with the other partners of the AVALON project (http://avalon-project.ning.com), piloting language courses for adults and helping with teacher development in Second Life.
Hanna Outakoski is a teacher at Umeå university Department of language studies. She teaches a national minority and heritage language, North Sami. Her research interests lie on North Sami grammar and syntax, as well as on the possibilities and potential of using virtual worlds and virtual classrooms for language revitalization.
Hajnalka Beck [Dorka Nemeth] is a degree-holder teacher of German as a foreign language and a certified live-online trainer. She works in the field of internet-based foreign language teaching online (asynchron) and live-online (synchron) since 2005, and since 2007 she teaches in Second
Life. Nowadays she works and researches in the Georg-August University in Gottingen, in the Foreign Languages Department and in the International Germanistics Department. She offers 2 official, university language courses in Second Life.
Heike Philp [Gwen Gwasi] is Managing Director of LANCELOT School GmbH, an accredited teacher training center for language teaching in real-time via the internet by means of virtual classroom technology and virtual worlds. With over 20 years in education and with Germany’s first live online language school, Philp co-initiated two European funded projects and worked with 35 European partners including 17 universities to develop accredited and certified teacher training courses. These EU Projects are LANCELOT (LANguage learning with CErtified Live Online Teachers, www.lancelot.at) and AVALON (Access to Virtual and Action Learning live Online, www.avalonlearning.eu). She runs her own online conference, the Virtual Round Table conference. http://virtual-round-table.ning.com and is soon-to-be co-owner of EduNation I together with Paul East of the Pyramid Group.
Iffaf Khan [Iffaf Ling] is the virtual and e-learning coordinator for her department in the University of Essex. She also teaches and is a consultant for Languagelab, which was the first properly EFL and ESOL school in Second Life. She has been teaching for 24 years. In Second Life, at the moment, her favourite sim is the BBC network film sim because of the high quality of video and audio.
James T. Abraham [Calisto Encinal] teaches Spanish at Glendale Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. He has been working in Second Life for four years. His project, Mi casa es su casa, won the SLPro Content Creators challenge last spring. The project includes a house, school, bakery, hotel, pharmacy, cathedral among its locations.
Joe Pereira [Creed Juran] is an English teacher and the ICT Co-ordinator at the British Council in Porto, Portugal. He is also a project officer for the British Council's Second Life project. The focus of his dissertation for the MA in Educational Technology & TESOL was on blending digital game-based learning and Second Life, specifically looking at the Language Learning Quests found on the British Council Isles (the dissertation can be downloaded from http://www.theswanstation.com). He has since been involved in the development and teaching of the business English and teacher-trainer courses in SL for the AVALON project. His main areas of study are virtual worlds and video games in education.
Kalyan Chattopadhyay [Kalyan Horatio] works as Assistant Professor in English in Bankim Sardar College, University of Calcutta. He is the Vice-President of IndiaCALL, an IATEFL associate and EC Member, AsiaCALL, and an officer of the Education UK island owned by the University of Leeds.
Kip Boahn [Kip Yellowjacket] has been actively creating free, open and informal language learning experiences in the virtual world of Second Life since first joining in 2006. VIRTLANTIS represents a merging of the various experiments and projects which Yellowjacket has helped to initiate. Kip Boahn is also the co-owner of the Oxford School for English, a language school located in Göppingen, Germany ==> www.oxfordschool.de.
DI Klaus Hammermüller [Claudio Whalen] MEcon was the initiator of the TALKADEMY project in 2005. Before he worked for IBM for 7 years as a Digital Media and Metaverse Architect, mainly involved in new media projects, including Web, Streaming Media and 3D world technologies. He has an additional 10 years of working experience as a University lecturer, IT Instructor and coach. He holds a degree in computer science from the Technical University of Vienna and a Master of Economics from the Hong Kong University.His former career as competitive athlete (Austrian champion in rowing) has a strong impact on his attitudes on personal and professional life.
Luisa Panichi [Jole Zhong] Luisa Panichi is Lettore di Lingua Inglese at the Language Centre of the University of Pisa, Italy, and has been teaching foreign languages at tertiary level for 20 years. Her professional areas of interest include Language Awareness, Learner counselling and advising, Tandem language learning, materials development and the use of multimedia technology in foreign language education. She is co-ordinator of Work Package 2 of the EU multilateral project AVALON (Access to Virtual and Action Learning live ONline) funded under the EACEA Life Long Learning Programme for the development of language learning scenarios in the virtual world of Second Life®. Her most recent publications and published research address issues related to the teaching and learning of foreign languages in virtual worlds. She has recently undertaken a PhD in the Department of Modern Languages of the University of Hull, UK, where she plans to explore the dynamics and pragmatics of learner participation in language education.
Maja Pivec [Maja Yazimoto] Ph.D, is professor of Game Based Learning and Learning with Multimedia at the University of Applied Sciences FH JOANNEUM in Graz, Austria. For her research achievements Maja Pivec received in the year 2001 Herta Firnberg Award (Austria) in the field of computer science. In the 2003 she was awarded by European Science Foundation in form of a grant for an interdisciplinary workshop organisation in the field of affective and emotional aspects of human-computer interaction, with emphasis on game-based learning and innovative learning approaches. She is co-ordinator, scientific leader or partner in several EU or national founded projects. She is editor and co-editor of three book publications in the area of innovative learning approaches. She is guest editor of British Journal of Educational Technology, Special issue on learning from games, May 2007. She was hosting European Conference on Game-Based Learning in 2009. Her research work is published and presented at more than 90 international conferences and publications. She is international advisory board member of MJET – Malaysian Journal of Educational Technology. She is Program Committee member of GAMEON conferences and F.R.O.G. conference. She is reviewer for European Science Foundation and for British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET). Maja is currently the co-ordinator of the Engage Learning EC funded Project for the dissemination of GBL resources and project outputs (www.engagelearning.eu). She is also a project partner of the Imagine Project (www.imaginegames.eu), a project aimed at influencing policy makers’ perceptions and actions to support a marked increase in piloting and mainstreaming of GBL.
Manuel Vuelta [Profesor Korobase] Profesor Korobase is an engineer in RL with more than 20 years of experience managing companies. During last 13 years has been focused in motivating teachers to use New Tecnologies in their classrooms. He trained many teachers from Primary schools to Universities all around Spain. Close to 90% of his trainings are done through Internet in RL using Web Conferencing or streaming TV. He is always open to explain teachers how to use Interactive Boards, Response Systems and Sound Systems in real time to which is interested in this knowledge.
Marisa Constanides [Marisolde Orellana] Marisa Constantinides is the director of studies and tutor on all courses at CELT Athens , a Teacher Development centre in Athens, Greece. Marisa has been running the centre since 1993 offering a variety of courses, including the Cambridge CELTA and DELTA and is a technology enthusiast who became introduced to Second Life during the previous 2009 Slanguages Conference. She has written materials for young learners, for the use of literature with advanced classes, and numerous articles on methodology and using technology many of which can be accessed through her blog TEFL Matters.
Mats Deutschmann [Mats Teichmann] PhD is Associate Professor in Language Didactics at the Department of Language Studies, Umeå University, Sweden. He has over ten years' experience in the field of online language learning and over the past five years he has worked extensively in virtual worlds. His research includes didactic design for collaborative language learning in online contexts, the language pragmatics of online education and the use of innovative technology for raising engagement and active participation. He is currently involved in a number of international telecollaborative projects, some of which involve the use of virtual worlds in language learning, for example “Access to Virtual and Action Learning live Online” (AVALON), an EU-funded project with the aim of developing new methods for language learning in virtual worlds. He has published extensively in the field and is co-editor of the book "Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life", (2009) eds. Molka-Danielsen, J. & Deutschmann, M.,Tapir Academic Press, Trondheim.
Nahir Aparicio [Nahiram Vaniva] Nahir Aparicio M. holds a Bachelor degree in Education with a Major in teaching English as a foreign language. She is a professor at http://www.upel.edu.ve/ where she belongs to the Chair of Linguistics, teaching Applied Linguistics related courses. Her main interests are interculturality and ICT use in language teaching.
Nergiz Kern [Daffodil Fargis] is a DELTA-qualified English teacher who has taught in various contexts in different countries. Now, she teaches face-to-face and online in Second Life. She also provides teacher training sessions on web 2.0 tools and virtual worlds in language teaching. She is currently enrolled in the MA in Educational Technology and TESOL at the University of Manchester.
Paul Preibisch [Fire Centaur] Fire Centaurs Bio
From virtual scoreboards, to animated game show buzzers, exploding 3D cauldrons, quiz zombies, avatar classrooms, and flying speaking pods, Paul single-handedly creates unique educational innovations for Virtual World Educators around the globe, and has been doing so for the past five years. Paul holds a bachelors of Computer Science from Simon Fraser University, and operates a 3d Virtual Educational consulting company out of his Vancouver office. Paul contributed recently to Chris Surridges Devil Island Mystery, Bryan Carter’s Virtual Harlem Project, Skoolaborate in the Teen Grid, Lingualand, and various other educatiors.
Paula Ferreira da Silva [Morgaine Mayo] is an Associate Teacher of English for Specific Purposes and PhD candidate at the University of Extremadura, Spain. She works with educational ICT applications for language learning, virtual worlds and e-learning. She is a member of the GexCALL group (http://gexcall.unex.es)
Peta Bowker [Gizmo Latte] is Spanish foreign language tutor for Dorset Adult Education, England and a learner of Italian with Antonella Berriolo in Second Life.
Randall Sadler [Randall Renoir] is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Illinois. His research areas include CMC and language teaching, particularly focusing on the role of Virtual Worlds like Second Life™ and how they can play a role in the language learning and teaching process. He is the owner of EduNation III, a sim devoted to language learning and Virtual Worlds. He is the co-author of A Student's Guide to First-Year Composition and will have a book published in December of 2010 by Peter Lang titled Virtual Worlds and Language Learning: From Theory to Practice.
Santiago Domínguez Noriega is Master Degree in Computer Science and Phd student at the University of Extremadura, Spain. He is working in educational ICTs applications for language learning, virtual worlds, e-learning and mobile learning. He is a member of the GexCALL group (http://gexcall.unex.es)
Scott Grant [Xilin Yifu] is a graduate of Monash University with Bachelor of Economics and a Master of Translation Studies degrees. He is currently working on his PhD thesis on teaching language and culture in virtual worlds. The working title is “Getting Immersed in Chinese”.
Prior to commencing his teaching and academic career at Monash University, Scott spent 7 years living, studying and working in China.
Scott has taught Chinese language and culture at tertiary level for more than ten years. He also taught translation (Chinese<>English) for a number of years at post-graduate level and is a professionally qualified translator. He has been developing and implement language and culture lessons and a Chinese-themed learning environment in Second Life for the last two and a half years.
Scott has developed a Chinese-themed virtual leaning environment in Second Life on Chinese Island at Monash University 2. In line with constructivist / social-constructivist education principles, this environment has been purpose designed for the learning of Chinese language and culture both synchronously and asynchronously. In language acquisition terms, the environment constitutes a 'rich mediated interactive environment' that together with the purpose-designed lessons, lesson content and pedagogy are integrated into the existing formal undergraduate curriculum. The virtual environment & associated lessons are also closely integrated with Moodle, both directly via Sloodle and in parallel. The 'environment' also includes a sophisticated non-player character system that has been purpose-designed and developed and used in a range of lessons to date. Both the general environment and the NPC system are under ongoing development and collaboration and suggestions warmly welcomed.
Scott Thornbury [Olivetti Oh] teaches on an MA TESOL program for the New School, New York, and lives in Spain. He is the author of a number of books on language and methodology, including How to Teach Grammar, How to Teach Vocabulary and How To Teach Speaking (Pearson), and Uncovering Grammar, Beyond the Sentence and An A-Z of ELT (all published by Macmillan). His latest book, Teaching Unplugged (Delta Publishing, co-written with Luke Meddings) won a British Council Innovations award in 2010. He is currently the series editor for the Cambridge Handbooks for Teachers.
Sedat Akayoglu [Sedat Usher] graduated from Department of English Language and Literature Hacettepe University in 2002 and worked as an English teacher for two years. Then he started working as a research assistant at the Department of English Language Teaching Abant Izzet Baysal University in 2004. He got his MA degree in 2006 writing his thesis on Computer Assisted Language Learning. At present he is a research assistant and a PhD candidate at the Department of English Language Teaching Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. His main interest topics are Computer Assisted Language Learning, Computer Mediated Communication, Discourse Analysis and Ethnography of Communication.
Shiv Rajendran [Kingsbury Yeats] is a co-founder of Languagelab.com, his experience with virtual world education dates back to 2005. Having started his career with a degree in Computer Science and a Masters degree in Digital Culture & Technology, Shiv gained a wealth of experience in the computer industry applying technology to a range of different purposes before Languagelab. Since its foundation Languagelab has taught English to students from 70 different countries, employs teachers on every continent and developed several different methodologies for teaching in virtual worlds.
Tobias Becker M.A. [Jazmin Orfan] is the coordinator of the Master Program in Visual and Media Anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He conducted visual anthropological research in some muslim communities in Second life with his Avatar Jazmin Orfan. contact: tobecker[at]zedat.fu-berlin.de Homepage M.A. Program : http://www.master.fu-berlin.de/visual-anthropology/
Ton Koenraad [Koen Antonioni] works as applied linguist and senior ICT-E consultant at Hogeschool Utrecht University of Applied Sciences and for TELLConsult. His current research interests are in CALL-related task design, e-tools for CLIL, Interactive Whiteboard methodologies, mobile applications and 3D MUVEs for language learning. He initiated, coordinated and evaluated various (inter)national and EU projects in the fields of modern languages, teacher education and e-learning. His publications and conference contributions are available from his personal pages at: http://www.koenraad.info.
Undine Froemming [Augenblick Winkler] is Junior Professor at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. She is the head of the Master Program in Visual and Media Anthropology. contact: fromming[at]zedat.fu-berlin.de
Homepage M.A. Program : http://www.master.fu-berlin.de/visual-anthropology/
Zeynep Onat-Stelma [Zeon Panthar] is currently working on the AVALON project at the University of Manchester, and is teaching on various courses within the School of Education. Her areas of interest are language teacher development and researching teachers’ practices, decision making processes, attitudes and beliefs.
VENUES
EduNation III Mega Temple
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28
EduNation II Amphitheatre
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/51/36/29
EduNation II Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20II/159/144/22
AVALON Learning Welcome area
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/25/181/57
AVALON Learning Sandbox
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/101/65/36
AVALON Learning Music stand
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/40/76/50