Blogs - AVALON

Christmas Holodeck at the EUROCALL/CALICO HQ

My colleague Randall Sadler has already done a lot of work on our EUROCALL/CALICO Christmas Holodeck. It's taking shape at the EUROCALL/CALICO HQ and will be accessible via the Horizons rezzer at ground level. It will include a skating rink: http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/31/35/22 I am putting together a box of Christmas goodies: decorations, trees covered in snow, and landmarks for Christmas fairs and ski resorts… Continue

Added by Graham Davies on November 11, 2009 at 4:00pm — No Comments

Arcadia Report published

May I draw your attention to the following report at http://arcadiaproject.lib.cam.ac.uk/docs/second_life.pdf Many of you have helped me in various ways while working on the report and I'm very grateful to you all. I look forward to your comments. Many thanks, Stefanie. Continue

Added by Stefanie Hundsberger on October 30, 2009 at 4:07pm — 1 Comment

Brit Lit Event in Second Life – Saturday October 31st

In case you're interested, we would like to welcome everyone to attend the first monthly event for teachers and students on the British Council Isle in the main grid of Second Life WHAT: Language and Literature in the English Language Classroom WHEN: Saturday October 31st at 9.30am UK time (02.30am SL time) - see http://timeanddate.com/s/1et0 WHERE: British Council Isle… Continue

Added by Graham Stanley on October 28, 2009 at 7:47am — 1 Comment

Video clip: Holodeck features

Hi, here a short machinima of the features of the holodeck we did for the AVALON project, as we have presented for the team today. We will post an hands-on session for all who want to check it out for themselves soon. (First priority is to do the mid-project report :-) Gary agreed, we might do this as a break-out session on our meeting in Vienna as well. It works, it is very easy to use and very useful for teachers :-) Continue

Added by Klaus on October 21, 2009 at 11:16pm — No Comments

Video Clip of EUROCALL 2009 Social Events

Video Clip of EUROCALL 2009 Social Events Those of you who attended the EUROCALL 2009 conference in Gandía can relive some of the social events in the video clip that I've uploaded to the EUROCALL CMC SIG Ning. Those of you who were not able to attend the conference can see what you missed! I have uploaded this video just once to the CMC SIG Ning rather than uploading it three times to all three EUROCALL Nings to which I belong, namely: EUROCALL CMC SIG:… Continue

Added by Graham Davies on October 11, 2009 at 3:17am — No Comments

EUROCALL/CALICO Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group

Following discussions between Graham Davies (EUROCALL), Randall Sadler (CALICO) and Thom Thibeault (CALICO) in early 2009, it was decided to approach EUROCALL and CALICO members with a proposal to create a joint EUROCALL/CALICO Worlds Special Interest Group (VW SIG) for teachers of modern foreign languages and English as a foreign language. A meeting, attended by 20 participants, took place on 11 September at the EUROCALL 2009 conference and it was agreed that a joint EUROCALL/CALICO VW SIG shou… Continue

Added by Graham Davies on October 1, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Business Talking (not an Avalon course) underway from Kalmar

I've just had an intensive week getting 19 students going on the Business Talking course from Kalmar in Kalmar. The student group is heterogeneous - to say the least. None of the Swedes actually live in Kalmar and most of them don't even live in Sweden, whilst the ones who are here IRL are Russian, Koreans, French, Austrian and Chinese exchange students. We started the usual way with a sort of cocktail party on Kamimo Island, where students from the University of Central Missouri (Dr Bryan Cart… Continue

Added by David Richardson on September 24, 2009 at 6:00am — No Comments

Interesting talk on Teaching English in Second Life

Nik Peachey spoke to Dennis Newson about Teaching English in Second Life last night http://blip.tv/file/2482035 Among other things, he spoke about the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats according to him. Here's a summary of what was talked about: WEAKNESSES *… Continue

Added by Graham Stanley on August 17, 2009 at 9:00am — No Comments

Number of virtual classrooms/language schools in SL

Hi everyone, I have almost finished my final report on foreign language learning in SL and the implications for resource provision in academic libraries. Many of you have contributed to this as interview volunteers, so many thanks again for that. A couple of people who have read my draft report have suggested that I find some hard data about the number of virtual classrooms/language schools in SL. This is turning out to be very difficult to quantify. Does anybody know (at least roughly) how many… Continue

Added by Stefanie Hundsberger on July 18, 2009 at 2:13pm — 5 Comments

Sexual harassment in SL

Hi everyone, I would like throw this question out to you. Several of my professional contacts/adult students (male and female) have reported being sexually harassessed within 3 to 5 mins of first entering the second life main grid. Their reactions have varied from embarassed to feeling upset and annoyed. It is my feeling that, had they not had a professional reason to return (a langauge course) or a "safe" place to go, i.e. Avalon Island or Kamimo, the experience would have been enough to put… Continue

Added by Luisa Panichi on June 22, 2009 at 5:31pm — 5 Comments

No fools, no horses at slanguages

What a high-profile conference with an excellent set of speakers the SLanguages conference proved to be. I truly learned a lot and am looking forward to sharing my learning highlights of this conference but also my frustration. My frustration about 'squeezing the second life blood' out of this great event. Yes, I strongly feel that to create a 'replica of a real conference' in Second Life is just as unimaginative as teaching a language in a 3D classroom a… Continue

Added by Heike Philp aka Gwen Gwasi on May 11, 2009 at 9:00am — 19 Comments

Integrating Technology and Teachers' Reflections

Watch 4 inspiring teachers integrate technology into the 20th century EFL classroom:

Continue

Added by Nellie Deutsch on April 25, 2009 at 1:30pm — No Comments

Adding personal photos

Thanks to everyone who has shown an interest and joined our NIng. Can I ask everyone to put up a picture. It would be nice for this to be one a 'real picture', but I realise that we won't get this from everyone :-) Continue

Added by Gary Motteram on March 4, 2009 at 7:47am — 3 Comments

Dear all - invitation to talkademy island & online courses

As we are planning to do a scenario for Business English, maybe you find it valuable to have a sneak look into our current Business English classes, which can serve as a starting point. SLURL and dates when these classes are performed, please have a look at our homepage talkademy.org. If you pop in classes, please sneaky ;-) For guided tours, please get in contact with Gerhilde or me at info@talkademy.org Looking forward our next steps! cy, Klaus alias Clau… Continue

Added by Klaus on March 3, 2009 at 3:32pm — 6 Comments

fotos in the internet

I take them in, I take them out - no idea which foto and even IF I should use one. But it is always nice to see the partners with whom I am networking. Similar to you?? Continue

Added by Rita Meissner on March 2, 2009 at 11:08pm — No Comments

Motion sickness in Second Life

Something amazing happened to me 2 days ago when I was preparing the event for the LEARNTEC with Moya. I thought what a cool thing to do to show people at the LEARNTEC the island of Moya in Second Life. Moya who is a pop-artist in the real life has turned an island in Second Life into the most wonderful thing I have come across. A whole island full of art. Moya himself is such a character with his colorful suit, the wings and the little children. Last time he took us in the car around the islan… Continue

Added by Heike Philp aka Gwen Gwasi on February 6, 2009 at 8:40am — 1 Comment

All Blog Posts (16)