| 1. |
- Deutschmann, Mats, 1964-, et al.
(author)
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Designing oral participation in second life : a comparative study of two language proficiency courses
- 2009
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In: ReCALL. - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. - 0958-3440 .- 1474-0109. ; 21:2, s. 206-226
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The following paper presents two stages of an action research project involving two oral proficiency courses held in the virtual world Second Life. Course 1 was conducted during the Autumn of 2007. Based on the experiences of this course, we redesigned many aspects of it in order to improve student activity in terms of oral participation and gave the course again in Spring 2008. By analysing the recordings of four 90-minute sessions, two from each course, we were able to measure student participation based on floor space, turn lengths and turn-taking patterns, and in the study we discuss how different changes in design may have contributed to more favourable outcomes. Results seem to indicate that meaning focussed task design, which involves authenticity and collaborative elements, has a direct impact on learner participation and engagement. Furthermore, our results seem to suggest that technical and social initiations into a complex environment such as SL are important factors that have to be worked into the course design.
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| 2. |
- Motteram, Gary, et al.
(author)
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The Euroversity Good Practice Framework (EGPF) and its application to minority languages and elder learners
- 2014
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In: CALL Design. - Dublin, Ireland : Research-publishing.net. ; , s. 241-247
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Euroversity Network project (2011-2014) has built a Good Practice Framework (GPF) that functions as a heuristic for course and activity designers wishing to develop courses and other materials for use in a range of virtual worlds. This framework has been tested with a number of courses during the running of the project and the aim is that it will be useful for new designers as a starting point for their own ideas development. The GPF is still open for adjustment and negotiation and this paper shows how two new case studies that were not the direct focus of the project, minority languages and elder learners, help to expose some of the framework’s weaknesses, but also many of its strengths. These case studies illustrate that a tool like the GPF can provide an effective mediating function for a variety of courses and other activity in virtual worlds.
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| 3. |
- Deutschmann, Mats, 1964-, et al.
(author)
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Analyzing the Design of Telecollaboration in Second Life Using Activity Theory
- 2011. - 1
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In: Teaching and Learning in 3D Immersive Worlds. - Hershey : Information Science Reference. - 9781609605179 - 9781609605186 ; , s. 151-168
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Internationally, Second Life (SL) has in recent years become accepted as a platform for innovative educational activities at many universities. One such activity includes ways of enabling students coming in contact with other students in so-called telecollaboration. Using an Activity Theoretical model, the present case study describes the design and initial implementation of a telecollaborative learning activity between four universities in Second Life. The four student groups were all attending quite different programs and the main challenges encountered were that of accommodating the different needs taking the diverse motivational objectives of each group into account, and making use of affordances the tool (SL) in this pursuit.
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| 4. |
- Deutschmann, Mats, 1964-, et al.
(author)
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Teaching Language in a Virtual World
- 2007
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In: NokobIT 2007. - Trondheim : Tapir University Press. - 9788251922616 ; , s. 97-109
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article explores the development of a course for teaching a language in a virtual world. In particular we evaluated the' Course entitled, "Social English for Doctoral Students" that took place in the spring semester of 2007. This course activated learners and educators using a variety of support media including Marratech, an online conferencing system, and Second Life, a virtual world platform. The pilot course formed part of a one year project sponsored by The Norwegian University program(NUV) entitled "A Virtual Platform for Life Long Learning". In addition to the description of the course framework, we contribute with the development of an evaluation framework that may be applied to other courses taught in Second Life.
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| 5. |
- Molka-Danielsen, Judith, et al.
(author)
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Designing Transient Learning Spaces in Second Life : a case study based on the Kamimo experience
- 2009
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In: Designs for Learning. - Stockholm : Stockholm University Press. - 1654-7608 .- 2001-7480. ; 2:2, s. 22-33
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Through the grant “Virtual Campus for Life Long Learning” (NUV, 2007), we have gained experience in the design and building of a virtual island or “sim” in Second Life for the purpose of education. This paper discusses the virtual representations, tools, context and spaces used in courses. While SL can replicate the classroom lecture, it gives further opportunities for interactive and active teaching as learning activities can be in dispersed and diversified virtual spaces. These are transient learning spaces because participants, activities and representations are in frequent change. Designing transient learning spaces raises different challenges and opportunities from the traditional physical classroom. Challenges include enabling new users to know where to go or how to behave. One opportunity is the ability to design and develop a new space for each course. This article will help the teacher and “sim” designers to recognize the factors of designing effective transient learning spaces.
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| 6. |
- Molka-Danielsen, Judith, et al.
(author)
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Reward Models for Active Language Learning in 3D Virtual Worlds
- 2010
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In: 3rd International Conference on Information Sciences and Interaction Sciences, ICIS 2010. - Chengdu, China : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). - 9781424473854 - 9781424473861 ; , s. 40-45
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Games are often used as incentive based approaches in learning a foreign language. A common part of DVD based toolkits; for example, include vocabulary, sound clips of the target language, exercises for learners to record their own voice, and games. The games can be matching exercises involving sound, text and images. What is missing from such standalone tools are other active speakers. Chat rooms can somewhat address this, but students often meet other students at the same level. In contrast, the 3D multi user virtual environment (MUVE) of Second Life, also referred to as a virtual world, offers social context that can allow for voice and text communication for language learning, often with native speakers of the target language. Reward models in such social contexts can have greater effect on the engagement and motivation of language learners. This article first presents a literature review of reward models used in learning and teaching in virtual worlds. We secondly identify the elements that need to be included in a reward model for active language learning in Second Life. We describe the stakeholders’ perspectives (educators and students) and suggest how the model should be integrated into the design of the virtual island or “sim” and into a course design.
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