How to put on costumes in Second Life

My students in advanced grammar & conversation are required to give a 3-minute presentation according to the course learning outcomes. This quarter, they have the option to write dialogues that include target grammar from the quarter and making movies in Second Life. Of course, I offer the alternative of a live class performance...But I'm hoping that SecondLife will be an attractive option for the less-extroverted students. Plus, I've got lots of great props, costumes, and locations for filming. Who can resist? Here's a video I made to help them prepare for their presentation next week.

great Web 2.0 resources for language teachers

I found this excellent website with a list of teacher training videos for free, fun Web 2.0 tools for language teachers. Four of them are specific to teaching ESL. There's a wealth of information here about sites that allow students to create cartoon videos and write their own scripts; pronunciation, listening, and reading websites; digital poster creation tools; and a lot more.

An alternative to narrated Powerpoints

I'm trying something new. I've recorded a lecture for my students in SecondLife. Well, first a little context: for the past year, I've been adding some UDL (Universal Design Learning) components to my grammar class to help my students, some of whom need more time to process the lectures and material. I started creating narrated Powerpoint lectures using Elluminate in the fall. Mainly, I chose Elluminate because I don't have an Articulate license. Elluminate is OK but a bit unwieldy...Not a pretty presentation, not full-screen, and many students have trouble opening the files at home because they require Java. That's not a difficult fix, but try explaining to someone with minimal computer experience that they need to download "Java" when they get home. Anyway...I recently had another idea. Check out this video I shot in SecondLife on Evergreen Island. It's actually the second of three: in the first, I give a (yes!) Powerpoint lecture in SecondLife, then move over here to the demonstration area to give some examples, then in the third movie, go over to a screen with an online quiz for practice. So I move through the early steps of presentation: introduce, demonstrate, guided practice.

My reading/writing class is blogging today

I'm really happy because my advanced reading/writing class at Tacoma Community College is in the computer lab right now, blogging! All of the students created blogs and are going to blog about their interests this quarter.

Videos introducing Cypris English Village by Professor Merryman

Professor Merryman of Cypris English VoiceChat Village has made several videos showing the island and how it works:

This one is about a chatbot that he created to help students new to chatting practice typing standard conversation questions & answers quickly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmOLU4fvXS8

Here is how to visit Cypris and join the group:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOmorYp516Y

A tour of Cypris Island and some video of avatars in conversation group activities as well as just hanging out and having fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aONJvlne0wI

rethinking SL in language classes

Lessons learned today:
1) Prepare a traditional activity that students can do independently while you walk around and give feedback. Focus the lesson on this and have everyone do it from the start. Make the SL activity optional at the end of the lesson. If an instructor computer and projector is available or another computer that students can see, log on so that everyone is is able to see what is going on inworld, even if they're not initially interested in joining in.

2) A new way of framing SL for language classes: VoiceChat is the important thing. Build subskills into lessons, get to VoiceChat by mid-quarter, get the students to an English conversation group after that.

a possible sequence for weekly lessons: create an account, teleport, take a snapshot (this one is good for writing assignments), local chat, etiquette for VoiceChat, voice chat, join a group.

Readings and video could be created/assembled for students before each lesson.

3) Colleagues with SL skills help each other in class sessions and make it a success!

This morning, we went to the lab for the last time this quarter. My colleague John and I had, like last week, defined a very specific goal for the lesson: show interested students how to use the Voice Chat in SL. Because it was our last session, I also wanted to get them to Cypris English Voice Chat Island in SL and help them join the conversation group at Cypris Village.

All students were shown folders in our Angel classroom where I had posted links to self-correcting grammar quizzes online, specifically exercises that reviewed topics we have just covered and that will help students prepare for our final exam next week.

Once they had been working for about 20 minutes, we passed out headsets to students who expressed interest and showed them individually how to set up their preferences in SL to use the headsets. Having John there to help was crucial--he tested headsets to make sure they worked, walked around and helped students, and even helped fix a lab scheduling confusion (my bad). He made the lesson a success. We could not have done it without him.

I like letting students choose whether to do the SL activity or not because it wipes out my preconceptions. When you prepare a lesson, of course you think it's valuable. But not everyone might think so. Some students were happy just to work on the grammar exercises, and I walked around and helped them. Others really seemed enthusiastic about heading over to Cypris for the last 20 minutes of class and seemed motivated by the activity. I can't always guess who is going to want to do what, so it's best to have a sure-fire traditional activity prepared and put the emphasis on it, making SL optional at the end of the lesson.

Cypris Island--English Conversation

A few weeks ago, I discovered Cypris Island. It appears to be a utopic English Conversation group--just what we try to achieve in RL but never quite make it because of the constraints of RL...time and space. So far, I've had conversations with people located on four continents. It's amazing. Mystie Slade and Professor Merryman, who co-founded Cypris, have been wonderful hosts, as has Deanna Gears, who volunteers a lot on Cypris. I've been warmly greeted and helped by many other people there as well.

On Cypris, English learners from around the globe join a group and can participate in formal and informal English conversations. In the photo, you can see the schedule for moderated conversations. Note that Cypris does not teach English; it simply provides an inviting and safe place for people to practice it. Cypris emphasizes voice chat, not IM, so a USB multimedia headset is a good idea.