EFL Professor in SL

WooooWW!! VWBPE is back! Pio is so excited to participate again but this time as a presenter with the good help of two of her best friends in SL.. Ana Begonia and Elaine Khandr ... of course we'll be introducing Artstonia at this very important world conference. Well, I will tell you  more about it when we have a confirmation of our proposal to participate. But, now... what's the VWBPE 2011? smiles... it's a conference .. "the conference"...it will take place – March 17-19, 2011 as you can read in their site: The Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) is a community-based conference that provides opportunities for participants in all virtual worlds to share current teaching, learning, and research practices in 3D virtual environments. Conference presentations focus on teaching/learning, scholarly work, projects, events, activities and new and innovative tools for virtual education. Presenters will focus on the identification of best practices in educat...

Well, on her traveling and adventuring Pio got to Cypris Chat Island , a Virtual World English Learning Community in Second Life and what she found there was a wonderful community of educators and students. Visiting their website , Pio read their credo: SHARE -- RESPECT-- RESPOND -- BE ACTIVE and also found a really smart idea of what learning English should be about:  "Learning English should be a way of life instead of a struggle to achieve." - Professor Merryman, Founder Today she received an invitation on the chat group to join a class on grammar and also to participate in a Christmas group photo. Of course, she loved the idea, since she's been there before observing classes. After the class and before going to the photo place, she found a note card that explains what this community is about... Professor Merryman wrote it. But let's Pio introduce this wonderful educator first: Also known as Mike McKay M.Ed Tech - is the founder of Cypris Chat , a not...

Pio was invited to attend a really special party. The House warming Party at EduNation . But, what's EduNation you might ask yourself.  Well, that's great place for educators and students in SL. There are three EduNation islands and according to what we can read in their wiki, they are focused on the potential for Virtual Worlds (VWs) to enhance the language learning process and is maintained by a community of educators who contribute towards paying for the rent of the islands in Second Life. These islands are owned by Gavin Dudeney, Randall Sadler, Heike Philp and Paul East, educators and visionaries that dedicate their time and resources to provide this virtual space in a not-for-profit manner. So, this Sunday, 12 December 2010, Pio teleported to the first Island: EduNation I , there she participated in he opening of the Webheads HQ . Webheads in Action is a woderful CoP, (Community of Practice). The Webheads are a world-wide, cross-cultural, and vibrant online-community...

8th virtual and real INST  World Conference CCKS CITIES, CULTURES AND KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY 25-28 November 2010 Vienna, Austria and Second Life Conference hashtag: #ccks Section hashtag: #cclvw On Friday, 26 November (8am GMT - 6pm GMT), Heike Philp aka Gwen Gwasi, invited us for a full-day event series in Vienna and in Second Life to discuss “Cities, cultures and languages in virtual worlds”. Virtual worlds, such as Second Life, Virtual Life, Open Sim, Twinity and similar are user-generated environments. Cities like London, Paris, Berlin and New York are being rebuilt and offer a virtual environment where commerce, arts and fashion and night life are thriving. They also attract avatars in large numbers, the 3D representation of a human using a PC. As avatar you enjoy a world, that does not seem to know any limitations and where even gravity no longer exists. People, sometimes in human, sometimes in animal form are helpful and open and relationships and friendships are not inhibit...

Visualization of Data from Ariella Furman on Vimeo .

Edith Paillat [Cyber Placebo] -- Virtual Language Resource Centre for French FL The Virtual Language Resource Centre for French FL seeks to provide language resources for independent learning as well learning with the help of a tutor. With this platform I wish to offer a relaxed meeting point where students can come on their own, as a group to work on resources and/or, more formally with a tutor. The Centre offers French related Landmarks and objects with notecards with links to online resources and suggestions of activities. The scope of this project can be extended to building a broader language Resource Centre for other languages. Language. At a later stage a central reception area with teleporter could then be added for access possibly a holodeck rezzing rooms with specific language and cultural elements. During this showcase I hope to explain how and why I built such centre and, if time allows, engage participants in a discussion about the role of resource centres and independe...

Pio tried to attend this session but as she crashed, she couldn't go back to the session.. so.. she had to go to another one instead.. anyway....This is the RECORDING: http://avalon-project.ning.com/profiles/blogs/baal-by-bertolt-brecht Heike Philp [Gwen Gwasi] and German students -- Baal by Berthold Brecht VIRTUAL WORLD PREMIERE -- Theatre play by German students. The actors, script writers and stage technicians are German students of the 20s Berlin project. Baal is a poet who rejects the bourgeois society only to end up drunk, broke, a womanizer and a murderer. In this play you will see his decline and fall from favor of the rich publisher Mäch to the becoming of a murderer of his best friend Ekkart. The first scene is the decadent dinner party and the second and last scene takes place 7 years later, with a horrible surprise at a smoke filled beer café. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_%28play%29 Bertolt Brecht is a German poet, playwright and theatre director who wrote Baal ...

Pio will be presenting at SLanguages 2010 today... wowow.. she's so nervous but happy to be able to share her passion for teaching and learning in SL. Well, this is the info on the workshop.. Later she'll tell us about the conf and her experience... ooops almost forget... she'll be also participating in an unconference: Unconference Randall Sadler [Randall Renoir] , Dr. Doris Molero [Pionia Destiny] , Kip Boahn [Kip Yellowjacket] An unconference is a part without set program when conference participants get together, vote for a topic that they wish to discuss with others and then split into discussion groups. At the end of the 30 min discussion everyone meets again and a spokesman of each group relates their findings. Conferences which are entirely based on this concept are called barcamps or educamps. This session will last 60 minutes VENUE: EduNation III Mega Temple http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/127/130/28 Now back to the workshop.... she...

Well, at 5pm GMT/ 10am PDT on October 15th ( World time ), the SLanguages 2010 Conference opens its virtual doors. Hashtag of the conference is #slang10 What an exciting programme ahead with 47 presenters offering more than sessions over a period of 24 hours ! Presentations, workshops, tours, theatre place and a kitchen fire prepared to inform about best practise in language teaching and learning in virtual worlds. This year's SLanguages Conference which acknowledges Gavin Dudeney 's sterling work over the first three years of its existence has been organised by a committee of volunteers. Among the many highlights of this conference are... 3 panel discussions an unconference presentations and workshops an Italian and a German theatre play (Bacchus and Bertolt Brecht's Baal) a teaching tools stand in the EduNation II sandbox coordinated by [Alexandra Ergenthal] a poster exhibition at EduNation II and AVALON by Shelly Terrell [Rainey Zapatero] an arts display a...

Pio will be attending the  3rd Virtual Round Table conference. This is a 2-day conference which takes place completely online on Friday and Saturday, 8 - 9 October 2010 and is a conference dedicated to language learning with technology in Second Life. This year..  we will be able to enjoy presentations and workshops by ... Nicky Hockly , Lindsay Clandfield , Vicki Hollett , Duncan Baker, Graham Stanley , Barbara Sakamoto , Andy Chaplin , Jennifer Verschoor , Marisa Constantinides , Russell Stannard , Vance Stevens , Janet Bianchini , Henrick Oprea , Mike Harrison, Paul East, Marisa Pavan, Isil Boy, Genevieve Besserer, Kevin Westbrook, Judie Haynes, Sirin Soyoz, Paul Braddock, Wayne Cabana Jr., Stewart Tunnicliff, Guido Europeaantje, Björn Sauerhammer, Marina Petrovic , Antonella Baerriolo and Greta Sadler . Pio is thrilled that many of those names are so familiar and deared to her like Vance, Jenny, Graham, Antoella, and Gwen. Company presentations include... ...