Graham Davies

Graham Davies  has written a guide to SL Viewer 2 for newbies in Word format. He shall be using it for his first f2f workshop on Viewer 2 at EUROCALL 2010 in Bordeaux. You can download the guide and find other materials for newbies here in Section 14.2.1 of Module 1.5 at the ICT4LT site:

http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm#secondlife

He has also created three videos on the EUROCALL/CALICO HQs, in which He conducts a tour of the EUROCALL building and demonstrate holodecks and shared media. See the ICT4LT blog:

Second Life videos: Groovy Winkler tours the EUROCALL/CALICO HQs..

What I liked the most when visiting his site, it is that he has written about iii. Language learning and teaching in Second Life. He included a list of organizations that dedicate their efforts to help teachers learn how to teach in virtual worlds. These are some of the ones I knew about and some I will be visiting soon.... smiles..

• Association for Language Learning (ALL): See below.
  
• AVALON (Access to Virtual and Action Learning live ONline) is a two-year EU-funded project running from January 2009 to December 2010, aiming to explore 3D worlds for language learning: http://avalon-project.ning.com
  
• Avatar Languages: Online language courses Second Life: http://www.avatarlanguages.com
  
• British Council, Second Life for Teens: http://www.britishcouncil.org/hongkong-english-secondlife.htm
  
• CALICO: See below.
  
• Ciudad Bonita: A sim for learners of Spanish, with real-life Spanish teachers: http://blog.languagelab.com/2008/11/13/ciudad-bonita-is-open/. YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN3kfD64vbk
  
• The Consultants-E, who own EduNation, run training courses in using Second Life, with a special focus on language learning and teaching: http://www.theconsultants-e.com
  
• English Village: A space in Second Life for learners of English as a Foreign Language: http://englishvillage.asia/
  

• EUROCALL: See below.
  
• EUROCALL/CALICO Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group: http://virtualworldssig.ning.com
  
• Stefanie Hundsberger's Report (2009): Foreign language learning in Second Life and the implications for resource provision in academic libraries, Arcadia Fellowship Programme, Cambridge University Library: http://arcadiaproject.lib.cam.ac.uk/docs/second_life.pdf LanguageLab: Online language courses in Second Life: http://www.languagelab.com/en/
  

• Language learning in Second Life: an introduction: A useful video by Helen Myers (Karelia Kondor in SL) on her introduction to SL and her experiences in learning Italian: http://kareliakondor.blip.tv

• MFL Resources: See below.
  
• NIFLAR (Networked Interaction in Foreign Language Acquisition and Research): An EU-funded project, which began in January 2009: http://cms.let.uu.nl/niflar/ . The NIFLAR ning is here: http://niflar.ning.com
  
• Mark Pegrum's wiki on Web 2.0 in Education - Virtual worlds: Includes references to spaces in Second Life where language students can practise the target language with natives and other learners, e.g. the German-speaking München, the Spanish-speaking SecondLifeSpain, Berlin Deutschland and Roma: http://e-language.wikispaces.com/virtual-worlds
  
• Nick Peachey, Learning Technology Blog: Teaching English in Second Life:
  http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/2007/08/teaching-english-in-second-life.html
  
• RendezVu: A project, formerly known as Asimil8, that aims to provide immersive education for languages using virtual world technology: http://www.rendezvu.co.uk
  

• RezEd, Language Learning in Virtual Worlds: http://www.rezed.org/group/languagelearninginvirtualworlds
  
• Second Life English: http://esl-secondlife.blogspot.com
  
• SLanguages: A wiki on learning languages in virtual worlds: http://slanguages.wikispaces.com
  
• SLExperiments: A wiki written by Nergiz Kern (Daffodil Fargis in SL) for collecting and sharing ideas on how to use Second Life for teaching foreign languages: http://slexperiments.pbworks.com. See also Nergiz's personal blog: http://slexperiments.edublogs.org
  
• TalkAcademy: http://www.talkademy.org
  
• Teach You Teach Me: A buddy network in Second Life. The idea is simple: you pair up with somone who wants to learn your language and who is willing to teach you their language: http://teachyouteachme.ning.com. See Section 14.9 (below), headed Tandem learning (buddy learning).

• TESOL Electronic Village Online (EVO): A professional development project and virtual extension of the TESOL Convention. TESOL EVO offers workshops on teaching in Second Life: http://evosessions.pbworks.com
  
• Virtlantis: http://www.secondlifeenglish.com
  

• Wikipedia, Virtual World Language Learning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_world_language_learning