Workshop analysis feedback

I have attended some workshops in SL for the first time in my life. Some time before, I didn't know even what Second life means. I knew things about ICT and how to integrate it for educational purposes, but using virtual worlds such as Second life is what I used to ignore. I have discovered through the workshops I attended its great importance and effectiveness.
However, giving a workshop is not an easy task. It needs much preparation and planning and the more your are skillful in using Second life features, the more the task becomes easier. So I find that the degree of the effectiveness of a workshop you deliver is related to the mastery of the big number of facilities Second life offers. Or am I wrong?
My comments are about three workshops I attended.
* The first was a 1 hour workshop on Feb 10th, 2009 at 17:00 CET in MUVEnation sandbox. It was titled "Builder Buddy: Support" and was given by Melanie Rubenbauer.
* The second was in NCI class entitled: "Building 1- Basics" on Feb 10th, 2009 at 17:00 SLT. The duration was 1 hour and 30 min. The instructor was Protomas Auditorium.
* The third was given by Morgen String and was titled: "How to create a word grid and a drop box". It was 1 hour workshop in the instructor platform in MUVEnation on Feb 15th, 2009 at 02:00 SLT.
'Planning and preparation of the instruction':
For "Building Buddy: Support" workshop, there was no special setting. It took place in MUVEnation sandbox. However, for the two other workshops, they instructor had already prepared a special setting; one is different from the other but they both opt for making their platforms well-decorated. In NCI class, even the instructor outfit was special and was dressed in a magnificent way. She also made use of pre-prepared slides illustrating her instructions and activities step by step and a box from where the participants can get a note card containing all the instructions.
For all the workshops, the instructions were prepared an well-structured. The objectives were clear and were shared with the participants before starting to perform the activities. The participants knew what they had to do from the beginning. So, the objectives of the workshops were respectively as follows: working with builder's buddy base script and component script to build blocks by inter-related prims, using in-world stools to objects, the snowman a case in point and using word grid and a drop box to teach vocabulary.
'Delivery of the instruction':
These workshops didn't require any second life skills. They were mainly devoted for beginners. To achieve their goals, the instructors have prepared the instructions and have got some pre-prepared tools they either show to facilitate the job for them or send the participants some note cards containing instructions or materials the participants will need to use later. In the case of the NCI class, the tutor made use of some slides that visually illustrate her instructions. The conversation flow was often smooth. The nature of the workshops necessitates to be instructor-dominated conversation. The tutor gives instructions and the participants follow by performing the tasks. However, interactions are always welcomed and they often happen when the participants have questions or ask for clarifications.
The instructions used were text chat and sometimes are facilitating tools accompany the instructions for example slides, pictures, note cards, performance demonstrations...
The instructions were always directive. The objectives were set before starting the performance. So, the focus was on the rules and the procedure to get exact outcomes. The instructions functioned then to get to the result through giving clear and step-by-step commends.
‘Recall and transfer of learning’:
Sometimes the instructions were pre-prepared and the tutor use "speakme" tool to pass them to the participants, other times, the instructors tend to type their commends. The pace was fine, but when the participants feel the instructions quick or unclear, they ask the tutor to slow down or give more clarification. In the case of NCI class, the participants got note cards containing all the instructions and the visual aids for future use. In the case of "builder Buddy" workshop, the participants got materials needed for the performance. They were note cards; one was about the instruction and the two others were two scripts necessary for linking components prims to the base one. On the other hand, no after session activities were planned, but I think participants would try the activities by themselves if interested.
'follow up and evaluation':
The tutor in all the workshops didn't let the participants struggle alone, but they always interfere whenever they see someone was having problems. They all used to give their observations and ask to correct the mistakes by reformulating the instructions and give further clarifications. One thing that I like in all of them is their patience. They were all patient and helpful. When the work was done correctly, they also give their approval and encouragement.
I have personally learned a lot from these people and many others. Thanks to all of them. In fact, I have found out that I always learn new things whenever I get connected to second life.

Reflection on Beech sub-group collaboration

Deviding groups into sub-groups was meant to provide more comfortable room for more fruitful collaboration. However, I didn't see that we managed to get it through successfully. Some didn't show up at all and some others posted once or twice. I needed someone to work with especially that I had many questions to ask, but if we just have a look at the history of the postings that exists in our wiki page, we'd find out that some more committment and seriousness are needed. So, how can objectives be attained if we have never met? And how collaborative work could be done if we are all absent?
I waited for a long time and posted messages to the participants, but I didn't much feedback. I even sent private messages to their email boxes, but always in vain. That's why I sent a message to both Mr. Nick Kearney and Ms. Margarita Perez-Garcia asking for pzermission to work with Mr. Abdessalam Zouita. He's a person I know. In fact he's my friend and we live in the same city. We are in frequent contact with each other and I tought we could make it successful. At last, we've managed to do the activities together.
So, we decided to discover as many in-world educatinal places as we can and give a short description for each. We met each other in-world and discovered many places together. We exchaged ideas and benefited from eac other through sharing ideas and in-world problem solving experiences. Afterwards, our travel guide was made up of the places we discovered and got some information about.
Through participation and collaboration I personally managed to get alot of new things not only in the third section of module 1, but throughout all the activities of the muvenation course. If we had had chance to get the other participants involved, we would surely have learned more.
Another thing I'd like to mention is that the period of the holidays has brought some demotivation because it was too long. What do you think?

Second Life Educational Travel Guide

Education Travel Guide:

Doing the activities of section 3, module 1, our group has decided to explore educational places interested in teaching and learning languages, namely English as a second or a foreign language. We have managed to visit and get information about many places. For some guidance to anyone who would like to visit these places, we have decided to classify them into two main categories and give some information about everyone of them.
I . Public Regions.
II. Private Regions.

I. Public Regions:

If you want to learn or improve your English and you are looking for free places in Second Life, you can find the following ones very interesting:

1. Virtlantis: A region for learning languages. English language is one of these languages that one can learn there. It a nice place. Well designed and motivating through the use of different tools, activities and games.

2. Manchester Gallery: A nice place where a lot of beautiful and great art works and artists are exposed. The masterpieces are of different art types; ranging from painting to clothing...

3. Teachers TV: Two large rooms Education UK devoted to Teachers TV. As is the case of Teachers TV channel, the region is specialised in promoting education in general.

4. Education Island UK Office: This is where you can get orientation and information about the different places of Education UK is second life.

5. The British Literature Classroom: This is a place where you can learn about the British literature from the shakespearian age to now. Learners can get into assignments by just clicking on the picture of the chosen artistic work. It is a place where you can learn about a lot of well known English masterpieces.

II. Private Regions:

7. Language Lab: A region with teachers and over a 100 English classes and English courses to choose from with small class sizes. It offers a variety of choices.

8. English Language School: A school to practice and learn English. Qualified teachers and over a 100 English classes and English courses to choose from.

9. Matamata: Home of DRIVE-THROUGH ESL: A region to learn English for different purposes. Classes are for different levels. You need to pay to have access and take courses.

10. Instituto Espanol: A place to teach and learn Spanish for non-native speakers. There different classes for different levels. Course are not free.

Exploring Educational Places in SL

Wonderful ! I didn’t use to have any idea about the Second Life some time ago. Now, I know at leat what it means ; an amazing world. More than this I know that pleanty of things could be done there. The objective behind taking the course in discovering new technology that could help enhance the teaching and learning of languages, namely English. The idea was somehow unclear, but the more we proceed in the course, the more it becomes clearer. Exploring educational places in-world has given a better idea about how learning can take place in the Second World.

I- VIRTLANTIS
The first place I visited was virtlantis : www.slurl.com/secondlife/virtlantis/203/56/21 It is a devoted to teaching languages. I have discovered that aims at least at teaching English and Italian. The one which is devoted for English is owned by Kip Yellowjacket. The Second Life English group has been helping language learners and teachers in Second Life since 2006. The activities are mainly held at the English Village where the moderators organize weekly team-teaching events and assiste learners and teachers in various ways.

The Second Life English SIM is a free resource for language learners and teachers. The place is not a school. The users are a community of language learners and teachers who share the desire to use the virtual world of Second Life for the learning and teaching of foreign languages*.

The design of the region is of crucial importance as it is devided into different sections and classrooms. There are rooms for playing games that would enhance the target language learning, other rooms are equiped with the interactive board, boaards with charts, pictures, grammar rules… There is also a hut like place where you can find links to other blogs, wikis, webpages, facebooks… with the interest of teaching and learning English. Onother important thing is that teachers can take teaching tools for free.

* Information taken from a notecard taken from the region : what is second life English ? www.slurl.com/secondlife/233/73/21

II- EDUCATION UK:

This region owned by Chris Eggplant. It is a huge and it is composed of different places, each of which is specialized in a particular domaine in education. There many classrooms, amphiteathers, screens... I set here some examples here:

Manchester Art Gallery:

A very nice place to visit. This place is deseigned for people with the interest in art genres. In the entry hall, there are a lot of pictures, boxes, boards and links. Everyone can have access to reading materials to explore Art through history or take free clothes, set for quizzes, get information, send postcard, take nice pictures wearing very old but wonderful clothes. People who are interested in the art can benefit a lot. In the realm of teaching English, I think it would also be interesting to explore the area especially with intermediate and advaced learners. The place would facilitate the job and offer to the students a kind of real meseum or gallery where they can see and do.

Education Island - Teachers TV:

Teachers TV a devoted TV channel to teachers. Its main concern is teachers and education development in UK in particular. Teachers do benefit from it all over the world. It has a wonderful website with a big number of videos related to the domaine. I was amazed when I discovered that there Teacher TV in-world. Wonderful!

The place is owned by Chris Eggplant and it is composed of two big a classroom like areas with places to sit and watch. One of the rooms has a big screen where you can watch videas. In the other room, there is a section for participation in a survey Teachers Tv is conducting. (I think the latter is still underconstruction).

Education Uk Island Office:

This is the administration blog where you can get information about the region; schools, colleges, universities and institutes.

The British Literature Classroom:

This is a place for advanced English learners who would like to explore British literature. The classroom is equipped with a huge screen and there are many posters all over. Some of them are of great poets, writers... There are a set of pictures showing different masterpieces. Each one of them gives an assignment about the content and the analysis of a particular literary work.

III- MATAMATA: Home of DRIVE-THROUGH ESL

ESL SL (English as a Second Language, SL

Owner: Giovanni Tweak
This region is called Matamata. It is a language school of English for different purposes starting from beginner levels upward. The owner is Giovanni Tweak. The access to the place is reserved to people who have subscribed. It is a free place where anyone can learn the language. I got there and asked for information. I managd to get some, but I wasn’t allowed to take any snapshot. The owner said that it is copywrighted.


IV- LANGUAGE LAB:

Place: ESL - Learn English - Languagelab (ESL, EFL, TESOL, TOEIC)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/language%20Lab/128/196/30
This region is not a public one. The owner is languagelab.com group. It is restricted to subscribed people who desire to learn English. Once you teleport there, there is an assistant at the entry to offer help. What is striking there is that there are boards on which you can choose a city to teleport for language practice. I wanted to take a tour to discover, but I didn’t have the permission as the responsible was absent. I managed to take some few snapshots. I also asked for information but I got none. I wonder what kind of learning place it is!!!!

V- INSTITUTO ESPANOL:

Teaching and Learning Spanish : Instituto Espanol

The region is owned by Instituto Espanol Segunda Vida Group. It is settled for teaching and learning Spanish. It doesn’t offer free courses, but people can subscribe and pay so as to learn the language. There are classes for beginners , false beginners and others for intermediate learners. The owner of the rgion is

Does my avatar look like me?

I wanted to make my avatar look exactly like me. Is that really possible? I knew in advance that it is quite impossible to make it exact. May be, but I am not sure as I am a newbie in the second life. Someone told me in-world that there are people who can make money out of it. But as far as I started dealing with my appearnce, I discovered that it is a real challenge. My first trial was in vain. I ended up by making a strange face. When I showed the modified avatar to my wife, she made fun of me. She said that I am not that ugly!!! (I am not sure). She gave me then some help trying to make my avatar's appearance closer to me in real life. It took several attempts and some time to know how to deal with the features. I surely know now much more than before. The more you deal with it the more you discover more and you get more skills in SL. I also managed to do free shopping and discover landbox... It is a real and nice experience. I once was somehow frastrated when I got into an island to do some free shopping and found out that I lost my appearnce and became a ghost. I can't even see myself. I became a mere white smoke that can move under my control. What have I done? And how can I get back to my initial state. The problem was solved once I got in the SL the next time. But I don't know haow that happened and why. It is something I am trying to dicover.

I do still have two problems with my avatar. The first has to do with my skin color. I haven't managed to get the right one though I tried the options we have while changing appearnace. The second is my hair. I prefer to be hairless because I find it closer. The job hasn't finished yet; I do still have to work with my second self to make look better.

I would here cordially thank all the poeple who offered me help in-world. They are really nice and helpful.

My first experience in SL: What does SL mean?

I knew the training with muvenation is about integrating ICT in education. This has been my interest as a teacher of English for sometime. I knew how important technology is to facilitate learning, but I didn't know anything about the second life and how it would make my job easier and more efficient. I saw people in the forums talking about it, and I understood that "the second life" was simply refered to ICT generally speaking. As the course proceeds, I discovered through the given activities and the help of some participants that it is something more or less different. Not exactly as I had thought.
Th story of the second life began then. The begining was with some frustration. A part of it was due to my computer which did not use to support such a software because of hardware problem. I couldn't have access to SL. Time goes on and I felt I was late. I decided to buy a lap top which solved the problem. Now I could have SL on my computer. The second part was due to technical problems I encountered in SL. I was fascinated the first time I got there. I saw many people moving and talking to each other, changing clothes, changing appearance..., but I failed to understand. Many questions came to my mind. What should I do? What am I supposed to do here? Am I in the right place? Can I get someone whom I know? Can anyone help me here? But does all this stuff serve in education? What is the relationship between teaching and learning and the second life? I stopped for a while trying to understand. I realized that there must of course be some link and that the amazing and attractive world would serve in a sense or another in education. "This could be manupilated in many different ways" I said to myself.
Then, I started touching keys on the keyboard and I understood how I could move. I decided to ask for help. One of the people there must give some help! That is how I discovered how to move to muvenation island as I was somewhere I didn't know.
On the the muvenation island I met very helpful people who gave help with much patience, clear instructions and professionalism. Thanks to them I learned then how to create my avatar, change its clothes and apparance.I learned how to search for things, teleport, chat with the others in the island...
I guess that the frustration is over now. It is fascinating in fact, but all that it needs is committment and curiosity. The more I get there the more I learn.
Still, how the second life could practically be used in education and how it would make learning much easier and motivating is the main issue I am eager to discover.

Responding to self diagnostic exercise.

Hello everyone,

First of all, I’d like to thank muvenation for giving me the chance to take part in the course. ICT for me as a teacher of English is of paramount importance, I am so conscious of its utility and how easier it makes learning and teaching as well. However, my competency in the field is humble and that’s why I am looking forward to improve it.

A. I am your friend. I don’t work in education. You are talking to me about the idea that we all learn from each other, in all kinds of contexts, and that this can often be richer than more formal classroom based learning. I am sceptical0. Tell me about an informal learning experience you have had online in which collaboration was involved, show me a concrete example to help me to see what you mean.

Learning doesn’t only take place in classrooms. It doesn’t really need to have a board, chalk, books, copybooks… in a stuffy room to learn. Then, the whole life is a school and learning is a long life process. When I first knew about learning in the virtual world, I quickly discovered that much learning could be done easier in a freer and more relaxing atmosphere. More than this, technology has broken all the boundaries and made the whole universe a small but rich place where all people from all over the world can get in touch with each other and exchange knowledge and experience.

The first time I knew about it was in an ICT conference that our association, “Moroccan Association of Teachers of English” – MATE- www.mate.org.ma , organized about two years ago. I discovered that it is an exciting virtual environment where learning and teaching can take place. All the papers presented in the conference turned about ICT, but three of them were about the teaching and learning English using information and communication technology. That’s how I discovered virtual platform like moodle, yahoogroups and blogs. I was fascinated by what high technology can do. One of the proceedings of the conference was the creation of a yahoogroup called “ICT4ELT“ where much cooperation between teachers and learning have been taking place since then. ICT4ELT is where I managed to improve my competency in the domain and to get many other new things. The latest thing I learned there is PBwiki. This happened last August when one of my colleagues sent invitations to join the platform. That is how I knew about it and thanks to him and to the yahoogroup I managed to know what it is about and what it is good for.

B.We all explore new technologies, some grab our attention more than others, some seem revolutionary, others simply bore us. Tell us about that new tool, or set of tools, you have just discovered that really excites you, talk about the potential it has to change your work. What do you want to do with it?

Technology products vary and they can’t cater for all the interests. What is interesting for us might be boring for someone else because simply the domains of interest vary as well. A product could be described as revolutionary or outstanding because it serves to facilitate our job and to give better results. Using yahoogroups with my students is an instance. I make use of the platform to create a non formal atmosphere where they can learn through doing some exercises, listening to songs, reading authentic texts, giving presentations and provoking discussions in the forum. I have realized that they learn much better from each other. However, it doesn’t need to be a teacher to use the virtual world for teaching and learning. I know that it can work with any domain you might be working in as it might work even with your family life. Just give it a try and you’ll see how wonderful it is to discuss professional issues with your colleagues and how this can help to solve many problems; or you can just use it for fun to share information, pictures… with your friends and relatives. That's why I see that it is of great utility to everyone.

C. Do you see yourself as a pioneer? Do you think you are more innovative than others in your organisation? Do you think your organisation is lagging behind? Tell us how you feel about this?

My competency in ICT is humble. I haven’t taken any formal course, but I have always been trying to improve myself. There are things I got from colleagues, professional conferences, study days, virtual platforms or by my own curiosity through the internet exploration, reading and trial. Being conscious of the practicality and the benefits of these tools in Language teaching, I always try to make use of them in my teaching.

I do see myself as one of the very few innovative teachers in my school at least in integrating ICT and new ways of teaching. On the one hand, I know that many of them are aware of the importance of high-tech, but they are not keen on adopting it in their classrooms perhaps because of the large number of students we have in the classrooms, the scarcity of these tools or the lack of competency or interest. So, the use of technology at schools is still low in the region where I work compared to many other countries. The schools here are not all equipped in the same way. In better situations there are equipped classrooms with computers and internet connection. In cooperation with UNESCO, a programme called GENIE has been also lauched to equip all the schools with multimedia classrooms. There is a serious work to make ICT reachable in all schools and and to make teachers able to use it more and more in their classrooms appropriately. On the other hand, I see that the students are much attracted by high technology, but the access to it at our school is still low. However, most of them have computers at home and can surf the web regularly. Therefore, if the little baby refuses to take medicine, we can give it to him by mixing it in a cup of milk or yogurt. And if the students are reluctant to study in the classroom, we can teach them in places they like more; in forums, blogs and so on.