Virtual Worlds & Language Learning

 

Week 1 2010

Page history last edited by Włodzimierz Sobkowiak 3 days ago

Week 1 - Introductions (work in progress)

Week 1: Jan 11 - 17

 

Overview

This week, we will be meeting each other and introducing ourselves. You are also encouraged to sign up for the accounts for the online tools we will be using in the course: Ning, Second Life (and Flickr if you want). If you have had no experience of Second Life, you should complete the orientation this week. If you have provided us with your Second Life name when signing up for Ning, one of the moderators will send you an invitation to our Second Life group (the group name is 'TLVW10') .

 

Learning outcomes 

By the end of this week, you should:

  • have started to get to know your colleagues on the TLVW session
  • be familiar and have a basic comfort level with the main tools for interaction and communication through
    • reading the course information here on the session outline pages and sent by email.
    • reading your colleagues welcome messages and posting your welcome message to the TLVW Ning.
    • moving, communicating and navigating in Second Life at a basic level, as a result of completing a self-paced orientation and attending a synchronous meeting
  • know what the expectations are for the 6 weeks of the TLVW10 EVO in terms of what you should leave with and the commitment it is likely to involve

 

 

SL skills required 

→ The moderators will help you with the voice and other functions during the first meetings and answer your questions. You can also ask your questions in the forum.

 

Activities  ---> I've starting updating this but it still needs checking and rewriting.

 

  1. Join and post to the TLVW Ning;
    1. read your colleagues welcome messages; and
    2. post your welcome
    3. read the course outline and the activities for each week and plan your schedule accordingly for what you are able to commit to
  2. Join Second Life, download and install the software, complete an orientation and attend a synchronous meeting;
    1. Join Second Life, log in and complete the orientation at Virtual Ability (if you have already joined Second Life, installed the software and completed some form of orientation in Second Life, then this step has already been completed and you should skip to c. below)
    2. Download and install the software.
    3. During the first week, you will receive an invitation to join the TLVW group in Second Life. This will appear as a blue drop down menu in the top right corner when you login at some point. Please click the Join button when this happens. Please note the TLVW moderators' avatar names: Graham Stanley = Baldric Commons, Nergiz Kern  = Daffodil Fargis, Dennis Newson = Osnacantab Nesterov, Maria Pinto = Mary Roussel, Nahir Aparicio = Nahiram VanivaWÅ‚odzimierz Sobkowiak = Wlodek Barbosa
  3. Attend one of the 1-hour, synchronous Introductions meeting sessions at the Webheads in Action HQ in Second Life during this week. You only need to attend one but there will be 2-3 repeated sessions at different times to accommodate the global span of participants' time zones. Check the Events page on the TLVW Ning to find out when they are scheduled.

 

 

Resources 

 

   ---> Will be updated once we have the new snapshot with the new posters.

 

Here's one that may be handy later:

 

 

 

  • TLVW headquarters in Second Life (also called Webheads HQ) (see snapshot above) - please note you need to have Second Life installed for this link to work) - here you will find information organised by weeks and landmarks to places to visit in Second Life. You will receive this information by clicking on the posters.

 

 

Optional Readings/Viewings 

 

 

------------

Suggested inclusion ISTE (Dennis) ISTE? International Society for Technology in Education

 

http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/172/26/30

 

I hate this... Have 9 images of the ISTE introduction for begoinners. I've uploaded some, but they don't show.

Comments (5)

profile picture

Włodzimierz Sobkowiak said

at 2:54 pm on Nov 23, 2009

I edited this week somewhat (mostly surface stuff).
Added a link to Torley's voice chat tutorial.
I believe we should be consistent with week heading font size (heading 2?)

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Nergiz Kern said

at 3:18 pm on Nov 23, 2009

Thanks Wlodek!
I updated this week but it is so easy to overlook something.
I have the feeling that the "Activities" part needs rewriting but the overview is OK and I have copied it over to the course outline page.

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Włodzimierz Sobkowiak said

at 5:43 pm on Nov 23, 2009

Here's a list of Torley's video tutorials on text chatting:

Text chat:
------------
Torley's tutorial on text chat, basics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thBdLhXkzEQ
Torley's tutorial on text chat, chat font size: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7v-zvsbnMU
Torley's tutorial on text chat, chat bubbles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rliqNvybcR4
Torley's tutorial on text chat, chat bar shortcuts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhZRIqnSpZA
Torley's tutorial on text chat, active chatters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TURjRZHmClE
Torley's tutorial on text chat, typing animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gksPZPFqwY
Torley's tutorial on text chat, macros: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZgz1KNQKMc
Torley's tutorial on text chat, muting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4ZqkTgAZ30
Torley's tutorial on text chat, typing animation and sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNuhbSpk4s8



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Dennis Newson said

at 12:45 am on Nov 25, 2009

Q I've often been asked: "How can you turn your avatar round so that you can see its face.?" I've personally not found as easy way of doing this.

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Włodzimierz Sobkowiak said

at 12:15 pm on Nov 25, 2009

Camera control! An absolute priority skill we must insist on and help them with in the very first meetings.
I'm often surprised that even old SL salts keep using the on-screen mouse controls or the keyboard arrows (in combination with shift-ctrl-alt) to control their camera, while alt+mouse is by far the most efficient and convenient method for camming around :-)

I'll need to brush up my two guideline docs (sysreqs and sound), so maybe someone else would like to fish for nice guidelines and write them up for us?

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