Di’s E-learning Experience

Over the last couple of weeks I have been doing the online short course in Spanish as part of Assignment 3 for this subject.  At the same time I have been looking at some articles on virtual classrooms and their advantages.  It seems to me that the virtual class room lends its self the learning of languages.

I was interested to find that Second Life has recognised this and established a virtual language lab called Languagelab.com.  They are at present running this program for English language classes for free and asking for feedback.  There are future plans to run a similar program in Spanish.

I think that the development of virtual classrooms in an online virtual classroom is the next step in online language learning.  I am looking forward to when Second Life develops it’s Spanish site.  Learning a language in a virtual environment will give the learner a more realistic experience and a virtual immersion in the language.

Some interesting additional resources on this are:

Avatar English:  Language Classes in SL, http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/28/avatar-english-language-classes-in-sl/

Norman Cole, The Virtual Language School for university students, http://www.uoc.edu/humfil/articles/eng/coe0303/coe0303.html

Micheal Erard, A boon to Second Life Language Schools, http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18510/

Howard Vicars, Language Teaching Gains Second Life:Virtual Worlds Offer New Methods to Teach Languages, http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/secondlife.php

Semester is drawing to a close, assignments to write, exams to study for!!! no time for fun. Just have to hang in there for another week.

Yesterday I did manage to take some time out to explore the Second Life site.  I logged in, and yes I managed to enter the imaginary world again.  I reflected, it is a little like being on site for the production of a Shrek movie. (Don’t get me wrong, I love Shrek). The graphics are amazing, (think I have said that before).  Today I made the bold step of actually communicating with a couple of the other avatars.  (just a quick wave and hello, can’t be too friendly on the first meeting.)   To my amazement, one of the other avatars did the whole flex the muscle macho bit!!! and then ran away.  It cracked me up!!!

I then thought I should explore some of the options that Second Life had to offer and discovered their Education Grid.  Very Interesting!

After reading through the extensive information provided on this site, and joining their education mailing list, I am beginning to see the value of using Second Life in virtual education. 

As the Web page states, it creates:

“ a safe environment to enhance experiential learning, allowing individuals to practice skills, try new ideas, and learn from their mistakes. Prepare your students or employees for real-world experiences by using Second Life as a simulation”

The Site features a variety of mailing lists to keep you in touch with new developments in many fields of education, opportunities to share information on Second Life wiki  and information about  the Education Campus on Second Life.

I am now looking forward to the end of next week, when all my assignments and exams are over and I will have time to explore this a little more.  I will keep you posted.

Recently when I have been looking at articles on distance learning and the virtual classroom I have come across regular references to the Web page Second Life.  What is this I thought?  After some surfing the net I have discovered it is an Internet based virtual world .  There are many articles promoting the innovation of this program for the future of e-learning.  However, I have also come across some articles that present arguments against Second Life.  Some of these arguments are that it is anti-social, people come addicted to the game and their real world existence suffers etc. 

Decision made!! If I am going to understand and learn about Second Life and its uses in respect to e-learning and the virtual classroom, I will have to join and experience it for myself. 

Well, I have now joined, downloaded the software I need to run the program and logged on.  This may seem a naive comment to the many who are experienced in  Second Life or playing 3D games, but Wow!!!! this site is amazing.  And I have no idea what I am doing? I am determined to keep going. 

Firstly, I have to create my avatar, or my virtual world persona.  I can be who ever I like???  With the flick of a switch (or should I say mouse) I can loose 20kgs, grow my hair and get a sun tan!!

My avatar completed, I decide to venture into the 3D world, experimenting with running and flying (crashing as well).  I have to admit I am very much a novice however I managed to fill a couple of hours exploring this new 3D world.  And I am fascinated!!!  This virtual learning experience will certainly be continued.  Further reports on Second Life to follow.