Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Second Life: The

next best thing to

being there?

SLENZ project group on SL – meeting 2008

Arch & Design school had an island but barely used

Presented SL to library and ITS management in 2009

Brown bag lunches with guest speakers to librarians

2011 Initiated a project with Library Technology Services

Presented SL to anyone who would listen

Really kicked in at SLanguages 2009

Found a helpful, open and passionate Community of

Practice

Found a home in both Edunation and Arcachon

Taught French, explored sims and read research

literature

PROJECT BACKGROUND

French 2nd year literature course 2011 – trim1 – no show

up

French 2nd year language course 2012

– trim 1 – 3 students Lecturer‟s back up

Optional – voluntary (intrinsic motivation)

Connexion from home

Started in Trim1 over 5 weeks

Twice a week, 2 hours sessions

Oral presentation in front of class 10% final mark

Two reliable French helpers from France,

Explored Paris mainly (as part of the course outline)

No homework just show up

VERY Positive feedback both from students and lecturer

2ND PILOT PROJECT Extended to Spanish level A2 and Italian Level A1

Funding for graphic cards and tutor training

One language tutor for each language, no experience

One month preparation time and equipment

Over 10 weeks, 1h1/2 per session

In the lab but some students connected from home

Early morning

Average time 2 hours prep

Next stage:

With an Experiential approach (Kolb, 1984)

To bridge the gap between the theoretical

learning in the formal instruction of the

classroom and the real-life application of the

knowledge in the work environment

“To provide a social and contextualised

environmentwhere learning is viewed

as a social process whereby knowledge

is co-constructed”.

(Wenger and Lave, 1991) and (Herrington and Oliver,

1995)

1. Learning environments (Herrington and Oliver,

1995)

Provide authentic context

Provide authentic activities

Provide access to expert performances and the modelling

of processes

Provide multiple roles and perspectives

Support collaborative construction of knowledge

Provide coaching and scaffolding at critical times

Promote reflection to enable abstractions to be formed

Speaking the language of instruction

Integrated assessment

Themes:

Cafés and food, show business, philosophy, arts and

fashion

Authentic contextArcachon, Paris, Sims dedicated to arts, and holodeck

Activities and articulationInterviews and discussions with native speakers

Expert performance, modelling, coachingNative speakers, tutor and SL facilitator

Integrated assessment:6minutes per student, oral presentation 20% final mark

Themes:

Shopping for food, clothes, giving opinions, directions

Authentic contextArcachon, Venezia, Napoli, Museum Island, Art Sims

Activities and articulation

Role plays, questions on location interaction with objects

Expert performance, modelling, coachingNative speakers, tutor and SL facilitator

Integrated assessment: none

Course Themes: Business, technology, ideologies, hispanic culture etc..

2 out of 3 students abandoned after the 2nd class

Authentic contextMachu Pichu, Opera Joven, SLVM, Costa Rica, Insituto

Espanol

Activities and articulation

Discussions, questions on location, interaction with

objects

Expert performance, modelling, coachingNative speakers, tutor and SL facilitator

Integrated assessment: none but student might choose to write or report to the

class orally

6 respondents out of 12 to a quick survey for this conference

2 had played video games before (GTA and the Sims)

None practise language online

Getting used to the interface on a scale of 5 (1 = very easy) 1x1, 2x2, 2x3

For most, customising their avatar was difficult (x4)

but 5 enjoyed customising it (identity)

Despite issues with camera controls (3) and that technology was

disruptive (5)

they all felt immersed exploring the environment and listening to people

2 felt too distracted with the environment to focus on language and also 3

expressed the fact that sessions were too early

3 have made friends with people other than their group

All felt it was a positive learning curve, 2 refreshing,

1 useful, 1 scary and 1 boring (multiple select possible)

Really difficult when you are not tech

savy. Sometimes things happened to

environment that you can‟t change

back then you miss the whole

conversation because you try to fix it” -

French B1

This is just a question of taste, but I

dislike the realism of the sims

because the illusion is inevitably

shattered by the unrealistic

behaviour of the environment,

objects,” - French B1 There was a feeling of natural

(even though it‟s vitual!) and

authentic communication (did not

feel forced to participate) –

Spanish B1 I liked having the other native

speakers there, the only thing I

didn't enjoy was having second life

classes on things we hadn't gone

over in class – Italian A1

Together with the quality of selected

guests, the variety of tools at

disposition and the spontaneous

involvement from students, I find the

sessions to have efficiently led the

group to reach the courses goals and

achievements.Students have appropriately

practised their listening skills and

developed adequate strategies of

comprehension (using virtual

contextual elements)

Being a total beginner implied for me to go through a process of initiation, which I must say was “smooth” and intuitive.

Despite a certain “reluctance” inspired by a background of more „classical academic approaches,”.

Recommendations

Off-World

ITS support (firewall ports, hardware and broadband issues)

Department support, VWs take a lot of preparation

Inform and prepare your students well

Inform and prepare your guest speakers well

In-world

Plan at least two training sessions (interface, camera, avatar etc)

Know the environment(s) well to coach them well

Get them to explore with a mission (short instructions)

Get them to interact with people you trust

Don‟t lose contact with them – group management

Multi-task (look and act while delivering and think ahead)

Have a plan B (an exploration often works when thought through)

Touch the rotating box to get

the references

the slides of this session

QUESTIONS?