Thursday, November 27, 2014

2015 EDU: Learn English Network Academy: Kitely, Second Life. Free.

Learn English Network Academy: 
Kitely, Second Life.  Free.
Updated 1/10/2015
How we will learn languages in the future is not the way we learned them in the past.  And in virtual worlds, the future has arrived. 

Quick and easy starters: Skype and Google+

Learn by Immersion

Scenes from Kitely

  • Hop address (in Kitely, with Firestorm)
  • hop://osgrid.kitely.com:8002/Learn English Network Academy/127/199/32
  • Hypergrid address:
  • grid.kitely.com:8002:Learn English Network Academy
  • I have added comments about how the places could be used.
  • The uses may or may not be in the current build.
Click image to enlarge
  • What do you see?  (English, please)
  • Did you see the cars?
  • The plan here is to present a common scene.
  • And have learners talk about it in the target language.
  • That is English here but could be any language.
  • There will often be a guide who speaks fluent English.
  • The guide can talk about the place, give instructions, ask questions.
  • The learners can talk about the place.
  • Learners can visit alone or in groups.
  • Talk can be in voice or typed.
  • This could be a scavenger hunt: 
  • "Find the frozen pizza in the kitchen of the blue house."
  • Each thing you find can give you a notecard telling about it
  • Anything you click on could say its name aloud.  
  • A kitchen could offer a web page with a video about kitchens. 
  • The video could be made in the same kitchen 
  • A guide could talk about the kitchen and the things in it.  
  • For a hunt, the guide could give clues.  
  • There could be a murder mystery:
  • "Check the bathroom.  Did the murder wash off the blood there"
  • Have a group solve a murder mystery and find 
  • "the one thing that points right at the killer."
  • Have lots of clues.
  • So that group effort and group communication is needed.
  • Don't have a murder mystery?  
  • Organize a group to write one.
  • Write in the target language
  • Discuss in the target language
  • Act out conversations in the target language
  • Develop the clues in the target language
  • Imagine a world for beginning learners 
  • A click on an object could get its name, spoken and written in English
  • You might get a little information about the object
  • "What is this thing?"
  • "It's a bookcase with two shelves."  
  • "The top shelf has books.  The bottom shelf has boxes of games."
  • What do you see?  (English, please)
  • Group: Talk about what you see, what would people do there?
Beach
  • Group: tell a story about what happened here last night.
  • These are probably Non-Player Characters (NPCs)
  • It is easy to make NPCs in Opensim.  
  • NPCs can be animated, so they can show action (verbs)
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The general store
  • What would people do here?
Diner
  • If we put a M-F pair of NPCs at one of the tables
  • A group could discuss what they might be talking about
  • Learn the language of the grocery store
  • A hunt here could be a shopping list
  • Tomatoes
  • Chedder cheese
  • Milk
  • etc.
Deli and Bakery
  • Group: What would you expect to find here?
  • Each: What is your favorite thing you would want to find here?
  • Each: Describe your favorite thing.
  • Not just the names.  (nouns)
  • What do you do with them? (verbs)
  • What do you like about them? (adjectives) 
  • Group: What are these red things on the bushes?
  • Group: Name 6 ways that people eat them.
Cabins and general store
  • Group:  What kind of people are here?
  • Group: What do they do for a living?
  • Group: Why are they here now?
  • Each:  Describe a person or a couple living in one of the cabins
The owl talks

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News and Notes

Contests and dated calls/invitations/events


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Not a popularity vote. This is your prediction of who the actual top 10 will be in the official judging.  Deadline:  Midnight SLT 3rd December 2014

Newcomer Help in Virtual Worlds


Education


How to handle a Hypergrid address 

From any Hypergrid-enabled grid, paste the address into the address bar of Firestorm and press enter. Or paste it into the world map search bar of any viewer, search, and click Teleport when the destination is found. If it doesn't work, don't give up. Try again in couple of minutes.  Sometimes the first try fails (probably times out).  And try again a few hours later. Some hypergrid destinations are offline part of the day. 
If you get an address like this: 
 hg.francogrid.org:80:Residence-09:/119/128/190     
paste it into the address bar of Firestorm, see if it takes you to the exact coordinates. 

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Video-Machinima in virtual worlds
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6 comments:

  1. Lynne HandNovember 28, 2014 at 4:27 AM

    Some great ideas. Thanks for sharing, and featuring us. You have made my day. :)

    The sim on Kitely changes regularly, for example next month we will have our winter sim, being able to upload OARs is one of the major strengths of Open Sim.

    Over the last few weeks, this autumn sim has hosted Halloween sessions, where we listened to and talked about a spooky story. During a session in the diner, we talked about phrasal verbs that may be used in that setting. In another session, in the grocery store we decided what to have dinner that night. (Although we ended up with about 5 dishes to cook). And on Thanksgiving we met in one of the cabins and talked about the traditions, food, and history of Thanksgiving. :)

    Really, there are no limits, and whilst we could have run those sessions on Skype, or in Google +, being surrounded by the things we are talking about, adds an immersive dimension to our sessions, which would be next to impossible in a traditional classroom. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Selby EvansNovember 28, 2014 at 5:30 AM

      Thanks for the added information. I may be interested in reporting on seasonal events that you have. I will join the Google+ community to keep informed.

      You might think about making a video of one of your sessions.

      Delete
    2. Lynne HandDecember 3, 2014 at 3:51 PM

      I often think about it. It's actually getting round to doing it that's the problem. :)

      Delete
  2. Professor NovelliJanuary 10, 2015 at 7:32 PM

    I'm Barbara Novelli. I made the SLESL video at the top of this blog. I'm glad you like what I'm doing, but I am not very happy with the way you put "Learn English Network Academy: Kitely, Second Life. Free." above my video as if LEN and Kitely produced my video and all the ideas in it that I've spent years developing for my company-- SLESL.net.

    I feel like my work has been hacked which is something you complain about others doing to you elsewhere on this website.

    Also, although I think you have done some wonderful things, I am irritated with all the "free" instruction being offered by you and others on the web. I and most teachers I know can not survive if we work for free. In fact, one of the reasons I set up my company (SLESL.net) was to try and give teachers a reasonable wage for the work we do. I have 30 years of TESL experience and multiple degrees and awards for my teaching and my training of other teachers. I think I and other teachers deserve to be paid for our work.

    The virtual world medium is a wonderful opportunity to improve teaching, and I would like to make what I do available to everyone, but I was horrified to find out that no existing virtual world company will pay teachers more than $10.00 an hour to teach. In much of California where I live, that’s below the minimum wage. How can anyone think it’s okay to pay teachers with advanced education and many years of experience such paltry sums or nothing at all?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Selby EvansJanuary 10, 2015 at 9:10 PM

      I am sorry that I inadvertantly misused your video. I found the link at the LEN sim and assumed that they had made it or had permission to use it. I have removed the video from the article.

      I can understand your position with regard to free instruction. I am a retired professor and certainly did expect to get paid for teaching. On the other hand, people offering free instruction are entitled to do that. I don't offer free instruction in the face2face sense, but I do report on it. It is information of value to my readers.

      I believe that free instruction is not viable in the long term and will not scale up in numbers. I have an article scheduled that suggests some ways that teachers of virtual world skills can earn money for their work. I think the long term solution for adequate compensation in teaching "real world" skills will lie in the development of teaching methods that teach large number of students with less cost in professional time.

      Delete
    2. Professor NovelliJanuary 12, 2015 at 1:20 PM

      I really appreciate that you posted my comment and your reply. I am not opposed to anyone posting my video, but I should be given credit for it, not someone else. Genuinely looking forward to your future articles.

      Barbara

      Delete

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