New Joint Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group for Teachers of Foreign Languages

New Joint Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group for Teachers of Foreign Languages

Following discussions between Graham Davies (EUROCALL), Thom Thibeault (CALICO) and Randall Sadler (CALICO) it has been decided to create a joint CALICO/EUROCALL Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group for teachers of modern foreign languages and English as a foreign language.

CALICO has already set up a Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group (VW SIG):

http://colanmc.siu.edu/virtualworlds/

EUROCALL already has a headquarters building in Second Life, on the EduNation III island at:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/9/29/22/

If you have not visited the EUROCALL HQ recently, drop in sometime. I have made several improvements, including a more efficient video projection screen, and I have begun installing teleporters to enable easier movement around the site. There is also a holodeck on the roof. What's a holodeck? The term derives from Star Trek. Think of it as virtual reality within a virtual world. A holodeck offers exciting possibilities of calling up a range of instantly available simulations that can be used for entertainment, presentations, conferencing and, of course, teaching and learning.

CALICO has now acquired the land immediately next door to the EUROCALL HQ and will shortly be building its headquarters there. This the two HQs will form a a significant joint environment in Second Life for teachers and learners of foreign languages, where meetings and classes can take place and where resources can be distributed.

We welcome suggestions about what people think would be useful to have at the site. We plan to hold our first joint SIG meeting at the EUROCALL 2009 conference in Spain in September – details to be announced at the EUROCALL website:

http://www.eurocall-languages.org

The contact persons for the joint VW SIG are:

Graham Davies (EUROCALL): graham@camsoft.force9.co.uk
Thom Thibeault (CALICO): ttbo@siu.edu
Randall Sadler (CALICO): rsadler@uiuc.edu

If you are new to Second Life there is a wealth of information in the rapidly expanding Section 14.2.1 of Module 1.5 at the ICT4LT site (which I edit):

http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm#secondlife

A pre-conference workshop for newcomers to Second Life will take place at EUROCALL 2009:

http://eurocall.webs.upv.es/eurocall2009/acwork.php

Graham Davies