I attended a very interesting session in Second Life this evening. Graham Stanley, Gary Motteram and Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart were describing their new business English course that is being run as part of the Avalon project in Second Life.
The idea is to run their classes of 16 student in four groups of four. Each group will discuss and agree on a business proposal and they will carry out research etc., and work up to making a presentation for the rest of the teams in a Dragon’s Den type of game. It is hoped that this will engage the students as they can choose their own project to collaborate on. It is also hoped that the language vocabulary etc., will come from this work. Currently the team feel that raised confidence in speaking English in an interview or presentation situation would be a positive outcome from the course which is just a pilot to see what tools are needed and how best to make use of the VWs for teaching and learning business English. The group think that doing this collaborative project will use Second Life, and possibly other virtual worlds at other times, for what virtual worlds do well, and that other work may be done through Moodle. If the pilot is successful it may be possible to expand the course.
For lots more information about the Avalon Project see http://avalon-project.ning.com/
Or visit the island in Second Life: http://slurl.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/141/168/33
Hear the audio - http://blip.tv/file/2587736
See more photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/24572238@N02/?saved=1
1 comment:
Indeed Carol, it was a very interesting session!!!
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