Second Life - important aspects for me

This entry relates to my own personal experiences and research in SL since Dec 06.


The benefits of the community

The idea of Communities of Practice (Wenger) is well known now to educators. I'm an advocate of Second Life's ability to nurture learning communities in the same way that other communities flourish in-world. A well-formed educational community can allow learners to:

• Personalise their environment to suit their interests.
  
• Students can actively build and create their learning environment
• They can be more engaged through social interaction and personalisation
• A sense of ownership and belonging from this direct involvement in the community.
  
• Develop higher-level social skills desirable to employers
• Learners might also have an increased sense of trust, confidence, satisfaction and personal development through the use of a community. (Wenger)

However, communities involve work and involvement from the members and continued contributions to maintain interest. Any community that does not involve this will not prosper. In addition, it is likely that members may 'wander off' as they get involved with other activities for a while, but the return as they realise they miss their old friends.

Voice versus Chat and Language learning

... The intelligent use of voice and chat in identified contexts is desirable:

We did a presentation in February 2007 on the use of SL for language learning, particularly in relation to independent learning. In a discussion with the British Council, 2 things became apparent:

1. That learning preferences were extremely evident, this person was unhappy at the lack of voice and ambient noise. He placed a lot of emphasis on sound and voice in his needs for language learners.
   
2. That chat-based interaction for languages allows accessibility for those with lower-level skills and less ability in speaking. It allows for creativity in language use, translators, widgets outside of SL such as dictionaries and verb engines and to take time in reading the conversation if it is conducted in IM. From personal experience as a learner of Italian, I found that my confidence and abilities increased, and that my verbal skills increased in conjunction with this. My greatly increased skills in language use through text directly translated to my ability to use spoken languages. An encounter with a learner of English as a Second Language confirmed this view, as she related a similar tale of how her English improved and will now use voice on occasion.
   

SL classroom