Second Life - A Virtual World to Connect

What is Second Life?

Second Life (http://secondlife.com/) is a 3D virtual world platform developed by Linden Lab for participating social interaction, like online conference, lecture and group work through synchronous online text and voice chat with other residences. Through the avatar you created, you could explore the world and join individual and group activities as well. 

How to use Second Life?

- Register for new account 
- Create your own avatar
- Choose the place to go
- Explore the world and communicate with other avatars

Second Life in Language Teaching and Learning

• Teachers can arrange online courses with Second Life by inviting students to the specific place and time in the virtual world. Teachers and learners do not have to stay in the classroom and they could choose any place for Second Life lecture. Teachers could upload the PowerPoint in the conference room in the Second Life to give their presentation as well.
• Students can talk with other residences in English to exchange information. In this process, not only their communicative skills could be trained and improved, but also obtain cultural knowledge by communication with people from different backgrounds. 
• Teachers could play a role as researchers. They could arrange meeting with interviewees in the Second Life and conduct interviews. Second Life provides comfortable and relaxing places for interviews. 

My Experience on Second Life

• The first time to use Second Life was in the ICT class with Tilly, Simon, Cecilia and Lu. We explored the Kamimo Island and tried to find the subjects mentioned in the handout. It was fun to explore the virtual world since it looked similar with the real world with houses and places for conferences. We could control our avatars quite well. We could "run", "sit on the chairs" and even "fly" in this virtual world. Additionally, Tilly has invited  David, an expert of Second Life from Sweden to introduce us how to use Second Life and answer our questions on Second Life as well. 

• 2013/03/12 Joining the JURA Program - As an volunteer of JURA Program, I was arranged to join Group 2 with Fabienne from France, Louisa and Ana Julia from Netherland. We arranged our first meeting on Thursday night at CET 7 p.m. in the Kamimo Island. Since this was our first meeting, we needed to recognize our group mates by names. I met Louisa and Fabienne and waited for others for a while. After that, we found a place to "sit down" and began chatting with each other. After self-introduction (name, nationality, career/major, age, etc.), we talked about our hobbies for about an hour. Since the confusion of time (CET and GMT), Ana Julia showed up at GMT 7 p.m. but we managed to begin our belief conversation. It is interesting to talk with people from different countries and to get in touch with them. 

Benefits of Second Life

• Increase social interaction between people from different countries and backgrounds.
• Avaliable for online conference, lecture, presentation, meeting, interview, etc.
• Flexible time and places.
• Communication is avaliable through text and voice.
• Semi-authentic setting is provided.

Limitations

• Computer Facility: Second Life Viewer requires high-qualitied equipment of computers.
• Inappropriate Content: It might contain adult websites.
• Cost: Payment (Linden dollar) is required to decorate your avatar and increase your privilage.
• Privacy: Others residences could hear the conversation between you and your target residences.

• Security: Leaking personal information to strangers might get you into trouble.

• Community Involvement: Without your familiar people in real life joining Second Life, it would be relatively boring during exploration.

Further Reading

• Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage by Axel Bruns 
• Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human                     by Tom Boellstorff

Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?

Ideas from the Speech
''We're lonely, but we are afraind of intimacy.''

''There's plenty of time for us to reconsider how we use it, how we build it . I'm not suggesting that we turn way from our devices, just that we develop a more self-aware relationship with them, with each other and with ourselvs. ''

''We all really need to listen to each other, including to the boring bits. Because it's when we stumble or hesitate or lose our words that we reveal ourselves to each other.''

''Techology is making a bid to redefine human connection --- how we care for each other, how we care for ourselves --- but it's also giving us the opportunity to affirm our values and our direction. ''

''We're drawn to virtual romance, to computer games that seem like world, to the idea that robots will someday be our true companies. We spend an evening on the social network instead of going to the pub with friends. ''

''But our fantasies of substitution have cost us. Now we all need to focus on the many, many ways technology can lead us back to our real lives, our own bodies, our own communities, our own politics, our own planet. They need us. Let's talk about how we can use digital technology, the technology of our dreams, to make this life we can love.''

------ Sherry Turkle

Summary

Sherry comments that today people use technology to connect more often than the face-to-face connection. People are lonely while they are afraid of intimacy. They spend overweight time on the virtual world to the connection rather than focus on the real world. However, she ends her conversation with a wish that technology could lead people back to the real lives, communities, and the actual planet.

Reflection

Nowadays, people would have forgotten the lives without technology for communication. They cannot image the life without cellphone and computers, which provide them more opportunities to ''communicate'' with others.

However, we need to ask ourselves a question that ''Does technology really provide us the real connection?'' With technology, we don't need to see friends face-to-face in the same place. We don't need to talk with them --- just text. We focus more on the messages from our Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, etc rather than the word from our friends and families next to us. We really need to reconsider the effect the technology bring about and how to use it to creat a better world. We cannot deny the positive effect the technology has for us and we are still enjoying this. What we should do is not to let it develop in the wrong direction.

Further Reading

• Alone Together by Sherry Turkle  http://alonetogetherbook.com/

• Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle – review by Rafael Behr

       http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/30/alone-together-sherry-turkle-review

• TEDxUIUC - Sherry Turkle - Alone Together 

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtLVCpZIiNs

• "Alone Together": An MIT Professor's New Book Urges Us to Unplug

      http://www.fastcompany.com/1716844/alone-together-mit-professors-new-book-urges-us-unplug

Present.me - Great Presentation tool

What is Present.me?

Present.me (https://present.me/) is a web program that enables you to create your presentation with your slides and webcam recording. You can upload your presentation (ppt., pptx., or pdf.) and add a narrative with the aid of webcam and microphone. 

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How to use  Present.me?

• Sign up for free account 

• Fill out form 

• Log in with your own account 

• Start to record your presentation 

       - Start to record 
       - End and review 
       - Publish 
       - Upload your presentation (ppt,pptx,or pdf)
          
        
 Here is a video from YouTube presenting how to use Present.me:

Here is my presentation by using Present.me:

 
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Present.me in Language Teaching and Learning

• Teachers can provide their additional tutorial materials through Present.me and send it to their students. Teachers can make the presentation as if they are facing students in the real classroom. Before recording the presentation, teachers can also prepare a whiteboard to write on to show important notes to students.

• Teachers can give specific topics to students and ask them to present their PowerPoint with Present.me. It is just like a real presentation but students don't need to stand in front of their classmates and reduce the speaking nervousness. By making presentation with Present.me, students would become more engaged and be more aware of their body languages and eye-contact. 

• Before teaching a new lesson, teachers can provide students a task to make a presentation with Present.me concerning the new topic of the lesson in order to elicit students' schemata and scaffold their ideas. At the end of the lesson, teachers demand students provide feedback and review the previous lessons by making the presentation.

• Both teachers and students can share useful resources with Present.me. In the recording with their PowerPoint or PDF file, they can explain the importance of the file and explain some questions for the audiences. 

• Present.me could be regarded as e-portfolio for record and assessment. Both teachers and students can create their own portfolio to store their work (PowerPoints or PDF) and their presentation. After a period of time, they can compare their former work and recent ones to analyse their differences as well as advantages and disadvantages. They can learn from their mistakes as well. 

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Benefits of Present.me

• You can add a narrative to your presentation. In the Present.me presentation, you can see the eye-contact, facial expression and body language of the presenter. 

• Present.me provides more opportunities for presenters to practice their speaking skill. 

• Completed presentation can be shared.

• When rehearsing  the presentation with Present.me, presenters can analyse the completed presentation (observing their pronunciation, body language, eye-contact, etc.) and manage to improve future performance. 

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Limitations

• Limited service for free plan.

• Presenter might feel nervous before the webcam. 

• Video recording might distract audience from the content of the presentation. 

• Presentation cannot show the flash of the original PowerPoint and cannot hide the ongoing content.

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Further Reading

• Present.me -  Free Technology for Teachers

          http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/presentme.html#.UR1Hy7KBUxU

Wallwisher - A "Magic" Wall for Collaborative Learning

What is Wallwisher

Wallwisher (www.wallwisher.com) is a free online program enabling user to create a "wall" and add information (e.g. texts, images, videos, maps, slideshows, documents, links, etc.). It is an excellent tool for collaborative learning.

How to use Wallwisher?

• Here is the Wallwisher blog for tips and updates: http://blog.wallwisher.com/
• If you need any technical help, you can write to Wallwisher at hello@wallwisher.com
• Here is my Wallwisher cooperated with my classmates Johnathan, East and Karen http://wallwisher.com/wall/russellmadrid

Wallwisher in Language Teaching and Learning

• In a new class, it is difficult to remember all the students' or classmates' names in a short time. In order to promote interaction between teacher and students, students and students, ice-breaker activities are of great importance. Teachers can create a "wall" using Wallwisher and invite students to post their names and introduction onto the wall to present themselves in the respects of personal interest, favorite color, sports, movies, etc.

• Before a new unit, teachers can post background information of the lesson on the Wallwisher and send the link to their students for preparation. In this process, students can be invited to add their ideas on the topics as well. After finishing the lesson, teachers can post additional materials on the wall for learners with higher ability. Learners can be invited to post their questions on the lessons or language on the wall. Teachers and other learners can facilitate to answer questions.

• In the language classroom, teachers can create tasks for students, e.g. introducing hometown, experience of traveling, family, etc. and students work in pair or group to collect and organize their information with Wallwisher and use it to present their work to the class. With Wallwisher, students can add texts, photos, videos, slideshows, and websites to make their work more elaborated and dynamic.

• Teachers can utilize Wallwisher to collect feedback and comments from their students on their teaching and lessons. For example, talking about problems they have and what kinds of activities they would like to include in the classroom.

• Wallwisher can serve as a public notice board for the class out of the class. Students are encouraged to leave their messages and make comments in target language.

• Wallwisher can also be regarded as a sharing board for learners. They can post new vocabulary they learn from exercises or additional materials and share it with classmates. For example, a student post the new word "philosophy" and its meaning and usage on the wall. Other students can add more information of the new vocabulary, like in which context can we use "philosophy", discussion on the construction of the word (prefix, root and suffix) and other words with the same or similar prefix and suffix. Furthermore, students can introduce their favorite books, articles, music, operas, movies, etc and share their reviews with Wallwisher. In this respect, students' motivation and interest would be increased and they would be encouraged to autonomous learning.

• In some schools, teachers need to plan their lessons together with their colleges. With the application of Wallwisher, teachers can share their ideas of the lessons and useful resources for the lessons. Additionally, they can discuss questions and problems in the Wallwisher and provide solutions for the them. In this way, it would encourage collaborative wisdom of teaching and especially benefit the less experienced teachers.

Benefits of Wallwisher

• Good for collaborative learning and brainstorm in the language classroom.

• Pictures, videos, websites, slideshows, documents, maps, links, etc. are addable in the Wallwisher to elaborate ideas and opinions.

• Increase the engagement of students in the classroom.

• A good place to share useful resources in learning and teaching language.

• Easy operation and simple interface.

Limitations

• Not suitable for large class (more than 25 students). If so many students post their messages on the wall in the same time, the wall might become messy and important messages might be ignored. Meanwhile, it would become difficult to manage the messages.

• Time-consuming.

• When too many people are using the same wall in the same time, it would become quite difficult and slow to edit the messages and post pictures and videos due to the Internet speed.

• It is quite difficult the design the framework of your own wall. Sometimes you may not satisfy with the sizes and position of your messages. You can not enter precise numbers and edit sizes nd position of messages.

Further Reading

• Using Wallwisher in the Classroom

          http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/10/using-wall-wisher-in-classroom.html?m=1

Tricider - Collecting Ideas Tool

What is Tricider?

Tricider (https://tricider.com/) is an interactive web application for discussion, brainstorming and voting.  Users can post questions in the Tricider and invite friends, colleges or clients to express their ideas and opinions in the website. 

Simple Steps to Use Tricider

1. Navigate to Tricider (https://tricider.com/)                

2. Enter your question in the text box and press Go.

3. Send the unique URL to invite others to add ideas and comments.   

4. Read and analyse the ideas.

5. Make comments or vote for the ideas.

How to Use Tricider in Language Teaching and Learning

• Teacher can post questions in the Tricider and invite students to give answers and ideas. In this process, students can exchange their ideas and opinions with each other and learn from good views provided by peer. 

• When received collaborative task, students can discuss their task in the Tricider. They can brainstorm for good ideasand vote for the best solutions for the task. 

• Teachers can collect students' feedback on their lessons and teaching via Tricider. Students will feel free to provide their questions and their ideas for improving teachers' teaching. Based on students' opinions, teachers can draw on them and make reflective writing in order to improve their teaching practice in the classroom. 

Benefits of Tricider in Language Classroom

• A wonderful tool for eliciting and collecting ideas
  
  
• Good for interactive and collaborative activities and brainstorming

• Pros and cons comments are provided to show agreement or disagreement  

• No time and place limitations  (You can add your ideas any time any where)


• No registration and free


• Simple interface and operation 

Limitations

• Irrelevant comments might be provided without clear instruction.


• Some participants might stop innovative thinking and plagiarize others' results.


• No privacy for the content of discussion in Tricider (Passwords are not required).

Further Reading

• TeacherTrainingVideos - Free online tutorial for using Tricider                                                                                                                      

          http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/tricider/index.html

• How To Brainstorm The Fun Way With Tricider

          http://www.fractuslearning.com/2011/12/05/how-to-brainstorm-with-tricider/

• Perfect Decision Making in Teams

         http://www.dailywebapps.com/tricider-com-perfect-decision-making-in-teams/

• Crowdsourcing Knowledge with Students by  Nik Peachey

          http://nikpeachey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/crowdsourcing-knowledge-with-students.html

• How do you keep developing your teaching?

     https://tricider.com/en/brainstorming/NmxE?wicket:pageMapName=wicket-5


powered by tricider

Breaking News English - News in English

What is Breaking News English 

Breaking News English (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/), operated by Sean Banville, is a gorgeous website providing current news and free, ready-to-print EFL/ESL lessons plans with new lessons every 2 days, including 26-page printable handout, more than 40 online activities and MP3 in American and British English.  

How to Use  Breaking News English in Teaching and Learning

• When preparing a lesson, teachers can tailor their lessons with the help of BreakingNewsEnglish.com. They can apply handouts, MP3, exercises and activities provided by the website to facilitate language teaching. 


• With conditions permitted, teacher can ask students to finish some exercises in the classroom. Some exercises, e.g. Hangman, No Letters, Sentence Jumble can be completed in pairs or in group, which increase collaborative discussion, engagement and practice of using target language.


• Students can arrange their autonomous learning via BreakingNewsEnglish.com by listening the MP3 and finish exercises provided here. After finishing the exercises, correct answers are provided in the website and students can correct their answers by themselves. With questions on the exercises, students can ask their teacher or classmates for help. 

Benefits of  Breaking News English  in Language Classroom

• Fabulous exercises: 20 online quizzes and activities are provided for language teachers and learners

• Exercises are interactive

• Different skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) can be practiced via Breaking News English

• Frequent update on current English news and lesson plans

• Build confidence in dealting with news and reports

• MP3 of the news is provided in US & UK English

• Handouts are printable and MP3 are downloadable

Limitations

• Design of the website: the layout is a bit messy and complicated and the color is not attractive 

• Finishing all the exercises might take quite a long time 

• Too many advertisements in the website 

• Not all the exercises are helpful

 Further Reading

• Sean Banville's Blog        

          http://seanbanville.com/

• Facebook of BreakingNewsEnglish

          http://www.facebook.com/pages/BreakingNewsEnglish/155625444452176

• Websites Similar to BreakingNewsEnglish.com                             

          http://www.similarsitesearch.com/alternatives-to/breakingnewsenglish.com

Voki - Creating Speaking Avatars!

What is Voki 

Voki (http://www.voki.com/) is a website which allows you to create your customized speaking avatars to express yourself and interact with your friends. It is an excellent tool which could be utilized in language classroom to motivate learners and make the class fun.

Making Your Own Voki

This video is taken from YouTube presenting how to make your own Voki.

How to Apply Voki in Language Class

• Students can recorded themselves via Voki and analyse their language. They can practice for many time before saving their satisfactory recording. In this process, speaking anxiety could be reduced and they would like to have more speaking practice via this tool than speaking in front of others. They can also send their own Voki URL to their teacher or friends for feedback and comments. 

• Teacher can utilize Voki to make the text more vivid and stimulating when preparing for lessons. Teacher could record their own voice or text to speech. In the text to speech function, voice from different languages could be chosen. For example, teacher could show the differences between British English and American English by choosing different voices for the character. Students listen to the voices and find the differences.

• Students can learn from the pronunciation  of the character in the Voki by typing the text to add the voice. They can learn different languages and the voice is fairly authentic. 

Benefits of Voki in Language Classroom

• Simple steps to customize your own speaking characters 
• Motivate students to participate in the classroom and encourage autonomous learning 
• Different languages can be selected, e.g. English, French, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, etc.  
• More opportunities are provided for students to practice speaking, listening and writing skills
• Voice can be added via phone call, microphone, text to speech or upload a file
• Voice added via text to speech is fairly authentic
• Helpful to reduce anxiety produced when speaking in front of teacher or students 
• Your own speaking characters can be shared via blogger, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Limitations

• Sign-up process is needed and only 15 days free trial of Voki Classroom
• Customizing characters may need quite a long time
• When adding voice via text to speech, words of your text might be missing when trying different voices and modification is required.
• Conversation activity could not be practiced via Voki since only one avatar can be produced for each time.
• Time limitation of voice added to the avatars is quite short (around 60s)
• Too many advertisements are embedded in the website

Further Reading 

• TechWeb2 introducing Voki                                                              http://teachweb2.wikispaces.com/Voki 

• Make your own Voki                                        http://jenniferbarnett.wikispaces.com/file/view/Voki+Tutorial.pdf