Language Teacher Training in Second Life

Panel presentation / discussion

Note: this presentation is one of the plenary presentations of the SLanguages 2009 conference, which we are repeating at WiAOC09.

Abstract:

This panel discussion will present the experiences from a 6-week online workshop organised through TESOL's 'Electronic Village Online' and aimed at introducing educators to best practice in learning and teaching languages in virtual worlds (http://vwll.pbwiki.com/Course-Outline) Over 220 registrants signed up for the free workshop in Jan and Feb 2009. The team of four co-facilitators used both web 2.0 and virtual world platforms in helping a large number of participants in their journey from account creation to team teaching a practice lesson over the 6-week period. This presentation will begin by describing the experiences and evaluations from the perspectives of the participants and the facilitators and then we will have a guided discussion on the best ways of using Second Life for teaching and learning languages.

Presentation slides

About the Panel:

Dennis Newson stopped teaching full-time in 2000, but that has given him more chance to become enthusiastic about the potential use of TEFL in SL. If you are seriously interested in my curriculum vitae,, just go to: http://www.dennisnewson.de

Nergiz Kern is a DELTA-qualified English teacher and has taught in various contexts in different countries. Now, she lives in Turkey and teaches online and in Second Life. Her key interests include learner motivation, encouraging learner autonomy, ICT and the use of Web 2.0 tools and virtual worlds in teaching and learning languages. At the moment she is enrolled in a one-year postgraduate certificate course ‘Teaching and learning with MUVEs’ (Massively Multi-User Virtual Environments) funded by the EU. Her next goal is an MA in Educational Technology and TESOL. Nergiz blogs about her "Teaching in Second Life" experience here: http://slexperiments.edublogs.org

Nick Noakes (http://ihome.ust.hk/~ctnick/) works in educational development and his passion is emerging technologies in education. He was an ESL teacher and teacher developer for close to 20 years before moving into teacher development full-time. His current position is Director, Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (http://celt.ust.hk). He began working in text-based virtual worlds (MOOs) in the mid-nineties and has been working in the virtual world of Second Life for over 2 years. He co-ran the biweekly New Media Consortium Teacher Buzz sessions from Jun 2006 to May 2008. He is currently advising the University of Surrey on their virtual world projects and also works as a volunteer in a number of mentor groups for people new to Second Life.

Graham Stanley  is a senior teacher of English specialising in ICT at the British Council Young Learner Centre in Barcelona, Spain. He is also project manager of the British Council's 'Learn English Second Life for Teens' project and teaches a course on 'Virtual Tourism' (http://www.virtualtourism.info) using Second Life) at the University of Ramon Llull in Barcelona.