Teaching and learning languages in virtual worlds

A new group has been set up by two leading language teachers’ associations, EUROCALL (Europe) and (CALICO (USA), to promote teaching and learning foreign languages (including English as a foreign language) in virtual worlds: the EUROCALL/CALICO Joint Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group (VW SIG).

It is clear that there is a growing interest in virtual worlds. There have been several presentations on virtual worlds in recent EUROCALL and CALICO conferences. Introductory workshops for newcomers to Second Life have also taken place at the annual conferences of both associations. In November 2007 EUROCALL began setting up a headquarters building on EduNation III Island, and in early 2009 CALICO established a presence on the land immediately next door. The two locations now form a significant joint environment linked by a teleport system. The joint Welcome pavilion is located at:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/31/35/22

The SIG has also set up a ning, where its members and other interested parties can communicate, exchange information, announce events and initiate discussions:

http://virtualworldssig.ning.com

Further information is available at the EUROCALL website:

http://www.eurocall-languages.org/sigs/vwsig.html

Anyone may join the ning, but to take part in future events (e.g. workshops, seminars) organised by the SIG you need to be a member of EUROCALL or CALICO.

Graham Davies

EUROCALL 2009 - after the conference

EUROCALL 2009 in Spain was fantastic: perfect location, great food, super social events and excellent presentations. I ran a workshop on Second Life for newbies, assisted by my wife Sally, who acted as a fashion consultant to the ladies. We had 14 people in a state-of-the art lab equipped with computers with excellent graphics cards and big high-resolution display screens. The workshop ran without a hitch for three hours and then I gave a plenary presentation on a big screen to 50 local teachers, with a contribution from Randall Sadler speaking to us from the USA.

Randall Sadler (representing CALICO) and I (representing EUROCALL) have set up a joint Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group (VW SIG) for CALICO and EUROCALL members. 20 people were present at the launch meeting at EUROCALL 2009. I presented the EUROCALL HQ to the meeting and Randall was there "virtually" to give us a tour of the CALICO facilities next door, including his fabulous new castle holodeck. Further information on the new SIG will be announced at the EUROCALL website:

http://www.eurocall-languages.org/sigs/index.html

I also played a role running the Virtual Strand. We set up a blog (using Blogger) with embedded CoveritLive events managed by Penny Coutas. Penny was able to feed Twitter tweets and PowerPoint slides into CoveritLive, as well as typing a running commentary on selected presentations. You can replay the CoveritLive events via the blog at:
http://virtualeurocall09.blogspot.com
and our Twitter feeds are still live at @EuroCALLVirtual:
http://twitter.com

The plenaries were videorecorded and will be made available via a Web page (to be announced later). I particularly enjoyed the presentations by Steven Thorne and Gavin Dudeney, both of which focused on using games in language learning and teaching.

CoveritLive is really handy. We will certainly consider using it again for future conferences: http://www.coveritlive.com

Graham Davies

EUROCALL 2009 Virtual Strand

Just a reminder that you can join the EUROCALL 2009 Virtual Strand online if you are unable to attend the conference in Spain. We have set up a Twitter account, and we will also be using CoveritLive alongside this blog:

http://twitter.com/EuroCALLVirtual

You need to have your personal Twitter account and then contact @EuroCALLVirtual via Twitter in order to seek permission to view our updates. Your Twitter feeds will also be viewable in a window in the blog (see above).

CoveritLive is new for us. It's a live blogging facility, so you can interact with conference presenters and participants in real time. The CoveritLive window in the blog (see above) will become active on 5 September. Incoming comments will be moderated.

Finally, I shall be dropping into the EUROCALL/CALICO HQ in Second Life from time to time. The joint HQ has really moved on in the last few weeks, thanks to the great work that has been done by Randall Sadler (CALICO). The Resources centre contains a growing collection of useful tools, objects and landmarks, and Randall has created some fantastic new holodecks. The combined HQ is linked via an internal teleport system that we have set up. At EUROCALL 2009 we will be formally endorsing the decision to set up a joint EUROCALL/CALICO Virtual Worlds SIG at our first SIG meeting, where we welcome suggestions for future developments. Here is the SLURL of the EUROCALL/CALICO Welcome pavilion:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/28/36/22

If you are a Second Life newbie then you may be interested in the introductory half-day workshop that I shall be running at EUROCALL 2009:
http://eurocall.webs.upv.es/eurocall2009/acwork.php#wkshp4

The AVALON team will be running a half-day workshop on their project, which will be useful as a follow-up to my workshop or for people who are already familiar with Second Life:
http://eurocall.webs.upv.es/eurocall2009/acwork.php#wkshp5

Further information about the Virtual Strand can be found here:
http://eurocall.webs.upv.es/eurocall2009/vsinfo.php

Graham Davies

Web2practice videos on Web 2.0 tools

I have recentl added a lot of new links to the ICT4LT Section on Web 2.0, Module 1.5, Section 2.1, headed What is Web 2.0?
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm#WEB2

This section now includes many more links to a range of social media tools and also to JISC's Web2practice videos on Blip TV:

- Social Media: http://web2practice.jiscinvolve.org/social-media/

- Microblogging: http://web2practice.jiscinvolve.org/microblogging/

- Podcasting: http://web2practice.jiscinvolve.org/podcasting/

- RSS: http://web2practice.jiscinvolve.org/rss-2/

- Collaborative Writing: http://web2practice.jiscinvolve.org/collaborative-writing/

and more to come...

Graham Davies

Students are not big users of Web 2.0 technologies

I've just read this article by Gregor Kennedy et al., which suggests that the new generation of students is less interested in Web 2.0 technologies than teachers imagine them to be. It reports on a research study conducted among a large number of students in Australia, which concludes:

- There is greater diversity in frequency of use of technology than many commentators have suggested.

- The use of collaborative and self-publishing Web 2.0 technologies that have often been associated with this generation is quite low.

"The net generation are not big users of Web 2.0 technologies: Preliminary findings", ASCILITE 2007 Conference, Singapore:

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/kennedy.pdf

Interesting - comments?

Graham Davies

We have been nominated in the Top 100 Language Blogs list

The ICT4LT blog has been nominated in the Top 100 Language blogs list in the category Language Technology. You can vote for us by clicking the link below:



Graham Davies

The VLE is dead. Long live the PLE!

There has been a good deal of discussion in various blogs that I read about the death of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Many educators are now arguing that the Personal Learning Environment (PLE) points to the future of e-learning. The Wikipedia article gives a good idea of what a PLE is all about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_learning_environments

I can see a PLE working for older learners (and that obviously includes me) - and in effect I have already set up my own PLE using a variety of Web 2.0 tools - but will it be suitable for children of school age? Will this be a feature, for example, of the new Open School for Languages (OSfL)? The contract for the development of the OSfL has been awarded to Lightbox Education: see the Press Release.

Graham Davies