blog-efl

Looking back on 2011...Dogme ELT & Interactive Whiteboards

2011-07-08T09:53:00.002+02:00

As usual, time flies and blog posts that I'd intended to write don't get written. However, now that summer is upon us and I have more time...

So, looking back...

One of the most interesting dates for me was the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG's PCE (Pre-Conference Event) , where a whole day was spent looking at IWBs from all angles. I have already written a post about the event on the iTILT website, but here I want to take a closer look at the discussion led by Luke Meddings on Dogme ELT and interactive whiteboards.

This post has also been prompted by, and is a response to Gavin Dudeney's recent blog post about "the increasingly blurry-edged DOGME which is mutating into something to please everyone". I've written a version of the following as a comment on Gavin's post, but want to expand upon it here...

Luke Meddings didn't run a workshop on IWBs at the IATEFL LT SIG PCE. It was a discussion on 'Dogme ELT and IWBs' and I invited Luke to lead it. The reason why I did so? We'd invited Scott Thornbury to speak at the Unconference/PCE in Harrogate and this was a follow-up to this.

Scott's part in the PCE had gone down so well, it struck me that we could do something similar the year after, and so I tentatively proposed this to Luke at the 2010 IATEFL conference, and he said yes. I have to say, he had his reservations, and I did wonder if he'd feel the same way when I approached him months later to have his confirmation. I'm happy to say that he is a man of his word and he agreed to lead the discussion.

On the actual day, Luke took the pen of the SMARTBoard (for the first time in his life) and led the discussion. The notes he took on the board can be seen here.

I'd like to applaud his bravery for accepting my invitation. Aside from the discussion, I was also very impressed at his participation during the PCE. He attended the whole event, was an active participant in the other sessions and took part in the panel discussion at the end.

He was also true to himself and his approach to teaching. Like all fine educators, he approached the day with a very open mind, and although I don't think he left with the idea of teaching with an IWB, I think he was more able to see the ways that a teacher could use the tool to promote emergent language, and could see some of the benefits that using an IWB for this type of teaching (the ability to record everything on the board to look at later, for example).

I really think we need more of this. I for one have had enough of the 2 warring camps and the 'Tech vs Anti-tech' argument - I think we really have moved on. It's no longer a question of whether language teachers should use technology, but that teachers should use it judiciously and only when it advances the language learning in the classroom. There have been a number of posts (by myself, Nicky Hockly here and here, Sue Lyon-Jones) on this.

I also think that more teachers need to do what Luke did. Too much at conferences you see the same presenters talking to the same audience (preaching to the converted) about the same things. One of the reasons why the LT SIG got Scott and then Luke in to talk at the PCEs was to break this cycle - we should all be open to new ideas and to learning about what other 'special interest groups' can offer. This is also one reason why I went to the excellent Teaching Unplugged conference in Barcelona - I think the Dogme ELT approach has a lot to teach those of us who are interested in using technology in the language classroom, if we are open to listen to what is being said.

Update: Luke Meddings has also written a post about this.

PLNs and PLEs - It's the 'Personal' bit that counts the most

2011-06-19T12:11:00.001+02:00

I was writing a comment on an interesting blog post by Cecilia Lemos about what having a PLN has done for her, when I realised that this comment deserved to be expanded a blog post of its own, so here it is!

For some time now, I've been concerned about how some people are using this term, which stands for 'Personal Learning Network' and which developed out of the concept of PLE (Personal Learning Environment).

Shelly Terrell has said she prefers the term 'Passionate Learning Network' and others refer to Professional Learning Networks, but for me, the whole point about the term is that it's 'personal'.

The term PLN is bandied about so much these days it's starting to lose its meaning. Another thing I hear a lot now is people talking about 'the PLN' , which is fine when people are referring to 'their' PLN, but not if they have a big social club in mind that people are either part of or not. This is not a PLN. A PLN is something people have to build and which takes time to nurture and develop. It is also and involves active participation and hard work. It's not just about pressing a button and joining a Ning.

Where did the term PLN come from? You can find a great discussion about this on a blog post by Alec Couros, but I'll also share what I have come to understand about the differences here.

First of all there was the idea of PLE (Personal Learning Environment), which was a reaction to the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) represented by platforms such as Blackboard or Moodle. The VLE is all very well, but the big problem with it is that it is usually institution owned. You join when you are a student or employee of an organisation or institution and then when you leave (because you change jobs or stop studying at a particular university, etc) then you will probably have to leave the VLE. This usually means losing all of the learning content you have contributed and becoming divorced from the people you have connected with. Not ideal as it means you have to start all over again somewhere else.

A PLE, on the other hand is owned by the teacher or student and is all about 'small pieces loosely joined' (i.e. a collection of tools that work for you. Soon after the popularisation of the PLE, people started to realise that it wasn't about the tools (i.e. the environment) it's about the people you choose to connect to to enable learning to occur (i.e. your network). So, the idea of a PLN was born, and by all accounts we have David Warlick to thank for this.

Perversely, I have subsequently seen organisations trying to hijack the popularity of the term PLN and use it for what really is a VLE - I went to one presentation at a conference where the presenter talked about how her university was building a 'PLN system' to help their students - what they were in fact doing was building another VLE (i.e. a learning environment that was owned by the university) - bizarre,and totally missing the point!

The benefits a teacher can gain by building a PLN and how best to do it are the reasons why a group of us have started the aPLaNet project - to raise awareness of what this can do for teachers who are reluctant or who don't know how to begin. If you think you can help us by becoming a mentor to new teachers, then please join us here: http://aplanet-project.org.

Better 'the Five Ws' than 'Because it's there'

2011-05-02T13:40:00.002+02:00

I commented on Scott Thornbury's recent blog post 'T for Technology' that I was "happy to see the ‘edutech/no edutech’ debate has at least moved on, shifting away from the ‘should we use it?’ to the ‘We should be careful when and for what reasons we use it."

During the debate in the comment section on Scott's blog, it was mentioned that many learning technology (LT) presentations at conferences and blog posts are of the type '20 ways of using Wordle', etc., dealing with the 'how to use tech' but not the 'why it should be used'. I heard this criticism while I was at the IATEFL conference in Brighton too, and have to admit that it's often overlooked by many of us who use LT in our excitement to tell people about a new tool we have found to be of use. Sometimes, it's not that there isn't a good reason for using the technology, just that the reason is not made explicit. And, then, it has to be said that there are other times when the only reason for using this technology that is offered by the person presenting it is similar to the well worn mountaineer's adage, 'because it is there'.

So, we ('we', as in language teachers who use technology) should make sure not to fall into this trap, and also to make it explicit when we present ideas for using technology that our reasons for suggesting it are sound.

Related to this, and as a challenge laid down by Diarmuid Fogarty, Sue Lyon-Jones has produced a very useful check-list for anyone thinking about teaching with technology (reproduced below).

I've also been thinking about this, and after using Sue's checklist, I would like to suggest the use of 'The Five Ws' that is commonly used in journalism, police investigations, and which are considered basic in information gathering.

I've now adapted this for any teacher looking to use language learning technology, (and for any presenter or blogger telling others about it) suggesting that the practitioner should ask the following questions:

Why use the technology? In other words, don't just use it because it is there. Are you trying to do something with the technology that can be better done in without? As mentioned in Sue's checklist, will the learning be enhanced by using the technology?

Who is the technology best for? If learners, then what age/level/discipline? If you are suggesting other teachers use the technology, then you should say how much teaching/tech experience/training is required to use it effectively?

What is the technology best used for? It is worth considering if there is another technology that can be used instead that may better suit the learning objectives.

Where should it be used? Is it more suitable for the classroom / connected classroom (i.e. with one computer and the Internet) / computer room / at home? Think also about classroom management issues here. Where in the classroom is the tech to be used (i.e. if you are filming with a camera) and, if appropriate, what will the other learners be doing when one or some are using the technology (i.e. will they also be engaged?)

When should the technology be used? Not only when is the best moment during the class to use the technology (at the beginning/end/etc.), but also when in the term/syllabus (it is best if used to enhance and complement what you are already doing with the learners, rather than be used as an added extra).

How should the technology be used? This shouldn't just be about what to do, but also how best to incorporate the technology into your class.

It's interesting to note that the 'How' comes last in this information-gathering concept, and that makes sense. It is the last piece of information you need to know, as it deals with details of use.

Hope this makes sense and that you find it useful.

Teaching Large Classes - Can technology help?

2011-04-30T13:23:00.001+02:00

One of the great things about attending international conferences like IATEFL is that you can come across educators with experience and views so far removed from your own experience that your own deeply held views can be called into question.

I didn't get to attend the session on Investigating Large Classes - Are we making progess?, but it was one of the first sessions I decided to watch thanks to the wonderful recordings provided by the British Council's IATEFL Online site. I've been interested in this ever subject since reading David Graddol's English Next (PDF), and have made it part of a talk I've done on Innovations in Language Learning Spaces, which I'm updating for the keynotes I've been invited to give in the Autumn, at the IATEFL Poland and IATEFL Hungary conferences.

I didn't get very far into the session before my curiosity was aroused. Nigussie Negash from Ethiopia mentioned 'plasma teaching' in his overview of the situation in Ethiopia. Plasma teaching? What was that?

Here is an extract from Nigussie's report:

In primary schools and secondary schools, we can have 55-100 in one class...on top of this we have lots of changes...in the country. One we have for example is plasma teaching, where you have secondary school students sitting and listening to plasma transmission of lessons recorded in South Africa. The only duty the teacher has is switching on and off this TV; maybe 5 minutes introduction before the lesson, and maybe 10 minutes at the end. It's just mind-boggling, what's happening there.

As Nigussie continued, it was obvious that the problems that education in Ethiopia faces are grave and difficult to solve:

Now we're talking about a new curriculum in Ethiopia...there is a big gap between pre-service teacher training and what actually happens in an everyday teacher's life...the curriculum seems to be led by theory first and application later...teachers say they are unprepared for teaching large classes. Some of them say they don't even know how to use the blackboard...the teachers themselves do not have enough English language proficiency to conduct lessons.

With so many basic issues (shortage of teachers, lack of teacher education, teachers' low level of English), I wondered at the thinking behind introducing plasma TVs into classrooms as a solution. What did the government hope to achieve by this? And surely, this was throwing money down the drain rather than investing it wisely into teacher training? I decided to try and find out more.

One of the first things I came across was a report into plasma teaching:

Assessing the impact of plasma television by Kassahun Meless & Zelalem Teshome

Although it deals with Mathematics rather than English, the report has some general information and conclusions that are relevant to Ethiopian education and to plasma teaching as a whole:

On the reasons for adoption of the programme:

The standard of education in Ethiopia has been declining both in terms of quality and quantity for some decades...the system is unable to produce competent educated human power due to impoverishment of facilities, shortage of instructional materials, shortage of teachers and qualified teachers...New technologies offer opportunities to innovate on course content and teaching methods and to widen access to learning.

The plasma teaching programme was introduced by the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia in government secondary schools with the following rationale:

on the assumption that the system of education must be changed to active learning by using modern technology which brings us close to advanced world bringing every corner of Ethiopia where high schools coming together at equivalent better standard.

In theory, the idea of adopting plasma teaching to fill the gap that cannot yet be addressed in Ethiopia does seem like a good idea for the short term, so long as there is also investment being made into teacher education as a long term solution.

The conclusions of the report, which surveyed students opinions of this new method were that

introducing TV lessons in high schools created several new implementation problems like lack of coordination with the teacher, fast to understand, inappropriate planning of the lessons, inefficient utilization of the technology, misunderstanding as if the plasma TV present the lessons independently by it self with out the involvement of the teacher and the like which need adjustment some how.

Clearly, the idea of plasma teaching only works if the teacher does more than switch the TV on and off (as Nigussie Negash said was the case in many schools). If it is used as the basis of an active discussion, then both students and teacher can benefit.

Then on Facebook, a friend and ex-colleague of mine, Lucy Mardel wrote a little about her experience of visiting Ethiopia for a teacher training programme (that's one of her photos to the left, taken from English for Ethiopia, grade 2). Although I knew she was involved in the education of the blind, I saw she'd visited mainstream schools too, and so asked her if she'd seen any evidence of plasma training. This is what she said:

Graham, do you mean a programme of learning in High Schools via TV from South Africa? We were told about it on our last visit - but saw no evidence apart from some very knackered TVs locked in cupboards! There isn't a regular enough electricity supply where we were for this to be reliable.

I also found a survey on Facebook about the subject, where a teacher at Debremarkus high school asked the question:
What was your experience learning with plasma tv compared to learning face to face with your teacher?

The responses were mixed, but it was obvious that it did work for some students:

We had two teachers for one subject, one actual teacher and one plasma's teacher. actual teacher revises today's lessen, and if the school support some equipment, we do labs with our hands. every plasma's teachers are the best because they are highly educated. the plasma's teachers also are the same all over Ethiopia (Merkebu Amrach).

I was always glad by the plasma teaching especially because there is no time wastage; whether the class teacher has come or not is not my business. I just attend my class.And most of the plasma teachers were good (Abera Chanie).

So, I guess my point here is that the idea of leap-frogging and trying to stay up-to-date is great in theory, and I think using technology in this way could work well, but only if there is necessary support, infrastructure and training for it to happen. Otherwise, thinking that just supplying the technology is enough (sadly the case in many countries, not just in developing ones such as Ethiopia) is probably the best way of wasting money in education that exists in the 21st century.

I'd love to hear other people's views on this, and would be particularly interested to hear from people who know more about the plasma teaching initiative in Ethiopia or any other similar schemes to use technology to make up for a shortfall in teacher education or linguistic competence.

The IATEFL afterglow

2011-04-26T22:38:00.003+02:00

There is only one IATEFL conference, and this year's event, held in Brighton was a highly enjoyable if exhausting experience. The best thing about the IATEFL conference experience, and one thing that makes it so special, though, has got to be that although it's now over, you can catch up on what you missed out on in so many different ways. This IATEFL afterglow seems to last so much longer than it does with other events. There are several reasons for this.

Petra Pointer , Nik Peachey & Andi White

One of the most important reasons is the amazing work done by the British Council with IATEFL Online - now in its fifth year, the team have streamlined the experience and have developed a formula that works wonderfully. Alongside the live channel, which pipes out the plenaries as they are being delivered, and a succession of interviews with some of the presenters (the photo shows Petra Pointer being interviewed by Nik Peachey and Andi White) and then there are the sessions that are recorded by the team and made available for viewing after the event. Not only does this mean it's possible to catch up on some of the sessions you missed if you were there, it means you can get a flavour of the event even if you aren't able to attend.

Then, there's Twitter - even though the last tweet from the conference was sent over a week ago now, there's still a buzz about the conference that can be experienced by searching the hashtag #iatefl - it's still one of the best places to go to keep track of what people are saying and to find links to presenter's sessions and accounts of their IATEFL experience. Twitter was definitely flavour of the month at the 2010 Harrogate IATEFL conference, and it was interesting to note that it hardly featured in any of the sessions this year. However, this doesn't mean its effect hasn't been noted. Apart from its role pre- and post- conference (Twitter is the great virtual ice-breaker for conference goers and allows you to come to a conference already knowing much about many of the participants), you can see the effect it has had on the dynamics of the conference when you visit the forums at IATEFL online. In previous years, this was a hotbed of debate and discussion, but now the real party is all happening on Twitter and in the edublogosphere.

Speaking of the edublogosphere, post-conference reports and reflections have now been written by many participants, and I'm sure many more will follow. You can read what some others have said about the IATEFL conference below:

Being more involved with the IATEFL LTSIG this year, I feel I missed out on some of the many social occasions in Brighton. It's been a lot of fun catching up with what people were up to through Facebook and Flickr though, which are other places the IATEFL afterglow can be felt.

I plan to write a few posts about my IATEFL experience as I want to reflect on some of the thought-provoking sessions I saw, but this will do for starters. What about you? How was your experience? Are you now experiencing the IATEFL afterglow?

Mobile Apps & Language Learning #1 Foursquare

2011-02-01T10:58:00.003+01:00

Inspired by the recent short course at SEETA on Mobile Learning (m-learning) for language educators run by Nicky Hockly, I've decided to start posting about some of the apps that I've come across that I think can be used by language educators or learners.

The first of these is Foursquare, which is a mobile social networking tool that is also a game. Basically, it allows you to tell the people you are connected to where you are and what you think of the place you are at. So you 'check in' to a place (it works well with restaurants, cafes, etc.) and you can leave tips or your opinions for other people. This is helpful for other people who are in an area they do not know and are looking for a place to eat, have coffee, etc. As Foursquare gets more popular, some places have started recognising the marketing potential of this app. and offer discounts or freebies to customers who 'check in' to their establishment.

Apart from this, the gaming element works in this way:

You can unlock achievement badges - this appeals to gamers who like to collect awards, etc.
You compete to be the Foursquare mayor of a place - this is the competitive gaming aspect to Foursquare.

How can this be used for language learning? Apart from the incidental language practice that you can get by using Foursquare, there are ways that teachers can exploit Foursqare by creating specific venues and leaving questions at these venues. I'll leave this for a separate blog post, because it deserves to be illustrated with an example, and I haven't done this yet.

The video below is my first attempt at trying to explain a little about Foursquare, more of a trial to see if filming my mobile in this way works. I actually say very little about how Foursquare can be used for language learning. Once I've set up an activity for some of my learners and tried it out, I'm sure I'll try doing this again soon. Watch this space.

The Merging of the Second Life Grids - Teen and Main

2011-01-27T07:29:00.003+01:00

Last Friday, the Second Life Teen Grid (TG) merged with the Main Grid (MG) (you can see the area below in the bottom right of the map), putting a definitive end to a long-standing separation of teens in this virtual world, that caused more problems than it solved.

The original idea of separating the13-17 year-olds was to protect them from some of the more unsavoury aspects of (second) life, but the over-strict regulations that existed to keep non-teens out of the TG meant that a lot of teenagers simply lied about their age in order to get an account in Second Life.

The original decision taken by Linden Labs was to close the Teen Grid, but they reversed this decision and plumped for a merger because of pressure from educators.

Now, everyone aged 16+ can join Second Life, but those under 18 have restricted access to certain areas. Some of the other teens (aged 13-15) still have access to certain islands, which have been moved, but which are not open to the public. However, most of the Teen population under 16 has been left without access to this virtual world.

As far as the British Council Isle project is concerned, our MG island was a duplicate of one of our TG Isles (it was principally used as a show-case for the TG project) and so we will be closing this, and we have now opened our former Teen Grid to the public.

So come and visit us! You can reach us here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/BritishCouncil%20Isle/232/125/40

How many online learners of English are there?

2011-01-18T13:03:00.000+01:00

As part of my role as social media consultant for the British Council's English Innovation team, I've just been involved in an interesting discussion about how many learners of English it's possible for the British Council to reach online.

I thought it would be interesting to share my thoughts about this with people here, as I'm be particularly interested in finding out from people if my thinking about this is completely off, or if I'm making a reasonable guestimate.

So, here it is:

David Graddol estimated the figure of 1 billion 'learners' of English in English Next (2006), saying it would increase to 2 billion in 10-15 years.

The figure of 1,000,000,000 is interesting. The total population of the world is currently 6,894,200,000 (US Census Bureau). So that means an estimated 14.5% of the world is learning English.

When you look for estimated figures for 'speakers' of English, you find the following figures:

371,000,000 people 'native speakers' of English
760,000,000 people are 'speakers' (native or second language speakers), which is 11% world population (via Wolfram Alpha), so there are more people learning English than there are who speak it.

As a side-note this makes me wonder...

When does a 'learner' of English become a 'speaker' of English?
At what point do these learners of English stop? When they become a 'speaker' of English?

Then there is the question of how many of these learners of English use the Internet. There are 1,571,000,000 Internet users in the world (again via Wolfram Alpha), so that's 22.7% of the world's population.

How many of these speakers is it possible to reach online? Taking into account all of this, perhaps we can assume it's only possible to reach a maximum of 22.7% of the world's language learners, which means 220,000,000 people.

If we assume this, then the British Council currently reaches around 14,000,000 learners a year with its websites, which is 6.4% of maximum possible audience.

One of the ways that this guesstimate falls down, perhaps, is in the % calculation of language learners who use the Internet. My educated guess is that the % of learners who have access to the Internet is much lower than this- perhaps half the figure above (so, 110,000,000 people).

If this is so, then the websites reach an estimated 12.7% of total possible online audience, which sounds like a more reasonable number.

As I'm no statistician, and Maths is one of my weak points, I'd love to hear if I'm completely off-track here . What do you think? Is this fuzzy thinking?

Edublog Awards 2010

2010-11-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

The Edublog Awards 2010 are now open for nomination!

As the site says, "This is our chance to nominate and celebrate "the achievements of edubloggers, twitterers, podcasters, video makers, online communities, wiki hosts and other web based users of educational technology."

Here are my nominations (I have decided just to nominate in categories that were very clear for me) and some of the reasons why I chose them:

Best individual blog : http://kalinago.blogspot.com/ I think there are few people who do so much to encourage blogging in ELT (indeed in education itself) more than Karenne Sylvester. Her posts are often provocative, always thoughtful, and never boring. She deserves to win this award for services above and beyond the call of duty to educational blogging.

Best individual tweeter : http://twitter.com/ShellTerrell Shelly is a dynamo of positivity who energises everything she gets involved with. She's very generous with her time and does so much to promote the idea of using Twitter and establishing a PLN for teacher development. I can think of nobody more worthy of this award.

Best group blog : http://www.tefl.net/ I'm nominating this site, which is more than a blog, but contains at least two very influential blogs (Alex Case's TEFLtastic http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/ and TEFL guest with Tara Benwell http://edition.tefl.net/category/guest/), which I think makes it viable for this category. The site has become essential reading for teachers of English and a great source of information as well as being a thought-provoking blog.

Best new blog : http://bcnpaul1.blogspot.com/ I work with Paul in Barcelona, at the British Council Young Learner Centre. This year I saw an amazing transformation take place in his online activity after he attended the IATEFL conference in Harrogate. He returned transformed and convinced about the power and value of connecting to people online, and plunged into Twitter, started wikis with his classes and set up this blog. His blog is fast becoming a testimony to his passion for teacher development through reflective practice and his faith in the learner-centred classroom. It deserves wider recognition.

Best resource sharing blog : http://quickshout.blogspot.com/ I am always amazed at the resources that Nik finds and his enthusiasm for sharing his findings and helping teachers with ideas on how they can be used in the classroom is admirable. His blog is a great one-stop-shop for teachers interested in using technology in class, and one of the things that makes it great is that it's never simply a collection of links, but always has well-thought out ideas of how the resources can be used in practice.

Most influential blog post : http://slife.dudeney.com/?p=446 I'm nominating Gavin Dudeney's post 'Second Life: The Long Goodbye' because behind it was a brave and well thought out decision/position and it really did shake the SL educational community that someone as influential as Gavin, who had done so much to promote this virtual world (and created a number of very useful artefacts), had been a spokesperson (sometimes even evangelist) for it, had established a strong reputation, and who was behind the most important event for language educators (SLanguages), would decide to throw in the towel. IT made all of us involved in SL rethink our position and has opened up a reflection on the value of using the platform which is still in progress. A truly influential post.

Most influential series of tweets : http://twitter.com/#eltpics I'm nominating this more for its potential than for the influence it's had, as it is very new, but deserves to be more widely recognised. IT shows how a hash tag can be utilised to engage a community of educators on Twitter and get them to collaborate in helping to build a valuable resource for the educational community (in this case a libnrary of pictures that can be used in ELT) - an initiative (I think) of Victoria, a teacher in Hanoi, who uploads the pics to http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/

Best teacher blog : http://tefltecher.wordpress.com/ This was a difficult decision to make. I've decided to nominate Ian James's excellent blog as I think it is full of very useful, well-thought-out and practical ideas for teachers. I also think that this blog needs wider recognition, as many teachers would benefit from reading it on a regular basis.

Best educational tech support blog : http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/ Ozge's blog is a treasure trove of resources and help for anyone interested in educational technology. And not only that, through her posts she makes it easy for other teachers to follow in her footsteps. Particularly interesting for teachers of young learners, and she is one of the few people out there who concentrates on primary level learners and ed-tech too, which means this blog is a highly valuable resource for the ELT community. Ozge is also a wonderful example of how the ELT ed-tech blogging community has been re-energised in recent years by a large group of very dynamic (mostly female) bloggers, who are leading the way and making it easy ofr others to follow in their footsteps.

Best elearning / corporate education blog : http://blogs.onestopenglish.com/ thanks to MacMillan's One Stop English, the ELT community has a great way of discovering new bloggers and existing bloggers are encouraged to do more for the community through the monthly stats overview of Top Bloggers. It's great for blogging motivation and I know the ELT blogging community appreciates their work.

Best educational wiki : http://kylemawer.wikispaces.com/ Kyle's wiki is full of lesson plans for computer games and links to the best ones to use in class. I also work with Kyle in the British Council's Young Learner Centre, and we collaborate on the Digital Play blog together. Before the blog, Kyle enthusiastically started to compile the best ideas for exploiting online games with learners and he's continued to do so here. If there's an online game that is good to use with English learners, you can be sure to find it on this wiki, and it'll probably have a walkthrough and ideas how to use it in class too. A wonderful resource that deserves wider recognition.

Best educational podcast : http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-elementary.htm I know of no better podcast for elementary students. It is a magazine format, and one of the wonderful things about it is that can be enjoyed to in so many different ways. In its entirety, or in sections; with or without transcript/exercises; on the iPod/iPhone using a new app.; online through the computer; through iTunes; on an mp3 player. It's become a very popular podcast and certainly one to recommend to your English language students.

Best educational webinar series : http://www.virtual-round-table.com/ This totally online conference (twice yearly) is fast-becoming a vital date in the diary for educators. Not only is it an incredibly well-organised event with something for everyone, but the fact that everything is recorded and made available means that the webinars provide a rich resource of artefacts that can be enjoyed by a very large number of people for a very long time after the event has happened.

Best educational use of a social network : http://eltchat.com/ I usually can't make this, but it's always useful to look back on the transcripts of the Twitter-based chat and to listen to the podcasts. I'm voting for this to be nominated in this category because it's an excellent example of how the dynamism of a social network such as Twitter, which is usually of an ephemeral nature, can be reined in to provide longer lasting value for educators. I think it provides a fabulous model that can be followed by lots of other educational areas.

Best educational use of a virtual world : http://www.slanguages.net/ When Gavin Dudeney and Howard Vickers announced they were not going to hold another SLanguages conference, there was a virtual wave of disappointment among the ELT community in Second Life. In four years, the conference had grown to become the event of the year for the languages community in Second Life. They had also done such a good job of it, that there were doubts that anyone could take over. However, SLanguages 2010 was a great success. I also think that if SLanguages wins this award, then it is only fair the praise be heaped on Gavin and Howard for the work they started 4 years ago. It is also testimony to their help, support, and encouragement of the new conference organisers that SLanguages 2010 was such a success.

Best use of a PLN : http://twitter.com/barbsaka/starter-pln Twitter has become such an important cornerstone for any educator's PLN, but it is also a difficult place to know where to start. Barbara Sakamoto had the brilliant idea of building a list of newbie-friendly Twitter educators for teachers who wanted to begin with Twitter, but who also need encouragement, could follow. A wonderful idea, which has been used by many teachers and is worth wider recognition.

Lifetime achievement : The Edu blogosphere. I'm not nominating any one person here, but everyone who has a blog and who shares their thoughts, ideas and reflections with other educators all over the world. Taken as a whole, the edu blogosphere makes up the greatest educational force on the Internet. It is also global, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and probably acts as a strong force in favour of greater communication, understanding and peace worldwide. Long may it last!

Final words:

I have to say it was very difficult to choose, and I am sad to say I had to leave out people I have learned a lot from and who do an excellent job of adding value to education online, but you can only choose one per category!

If you'd like to nominate someone, then you can find out how to do so here: http://edublogawards.com/

6 Tips for effective ICT use - ELT Peru Networks workshop for Teachers

2010-09-18T23:33:00.000+02:00

I was recently honoured when Leo Marin in Peru invited me to prepare a video message for teachers attending the ELT Peru Networks Event, Transforming English through Technology! that took place today. This is the video I made for the teachers:

I hope the event went well - I have now found a programme of the workshop online and see that my video (which lasts just over 3 minutes) and my colleague Graeme Hodgson's presentation was scheduled for an hour! I hope Graeme prepared a longer video session, or that they were able to have a discussion about the contents of both videos! Still waiting for feedback from Leo to find out...

Is the ELT blogging honeymoon over?

2010-09-09T19:57:00.001+02:00

Recently, Alex Case of TEFLTASTIC asked if the TEFL blogging boom was over. He was, of course, referring to the blogging explosion that happened over the last year or so in ELT, with lots of teachers who'd previously never done so starting blogs, and the fact that the hyper-activity of nine months or so has now died down. In particular, he cited the reduction in mutual linking and commenting.

I'm not sure if this lull has to do with the summer, and that once the new term begins (at least for many teachers in Europe), there'll be an increase in activity again. Time will tell. Alex wondered if the drop in activity was due to Twitter, but if anything, I think Twitter was probably behind the increase in blogging that ocurred in 2009. As this micro-blogging site took off and lots more teachers saw the value of it and got used to sharing their thoughts in 140 characters, I believe many of them then realised that sometimes, 140 characters wasn't enough, and the logical progression was for them to start a blog.

Taken together, Twitter and a blog are like Batman and Robin, a dynamic duo which has come to form the basis of a PLN (personal learning network) for many people. People pick up on trends using Twitter and expand upon them, writing posts on their blog, which they tell everyone about using Twitter, and so on.

There's also the Wow!factor of course. When someone first discovers blogging and gets a taste for it, then it's typical that they spend lots of time writing posts. It's new and it's fun and most people get a taste for it, especially when they have people visit and leave comments (the 'Hey! Someone is interested in what I have to say!' factor). As time goes by, however, and especially if the comments drop off, then it's not surprising if people start wondering if it's all worthwhile and post less frequently. Some will also stop blogging altogether.

As for me, I've gone through all of this, and have repeatedly told myself to be more of an active blogger, but, looking at my blogging statistics (below), in the eight years I have been blogging (2003-2010) seems to show that blogging is only something I do occasionally these days, and has been for a number of years. Making the chart below and tracking my blogging progress surprised me. Why? Because I still think of myself as a blogger, but I think I now read other people's blogs more and spend more time commenting upon them than I do on writing in my own blog. The exception, of course, is the Digital Play blog, which I share with my colleague Kyle Mawer – there we have been regularly blogging once a week and have every intention of carrying on doing so starting again this month.

So, what now for blog-efl? Well, I noticed that I've publicly stated on this blog that I was going to get back into blogging again and it never happened. Why was that? I think it was mainly because there were too many other things going on to occupy my attention, but I do keep coming back here, and I have every intention of becoming more of an active blogger. I think I've got my appetite back again. At least it now seems that my blogging activity is increasing (I've written one more post than I did last year) – I wonder if I'll ever return to the hyper-activity of 2003-4...

David Crystal - British Council Isle in Second Life

2010-07-11T12:50:00.000+02:00

On Monday and Tuesday next week, two of David Crystal's talks will be rebroadcast live on the British Council Isle in Second Life

Here are the details:

David Crystal Second Life July 2010

Private or Public? Has Facebook changed the privacy game?

2010-05-12T10:14:00.000+02:00

As Facebook starts to become more and more a part of people's online lives there seems to be a growing number of commentators who have decided to deactivate or delete their accounts.

Usually concerned about privacy issues, some people are opting out of Facebook and choosing not to take part in the social media revolution.

There are others, however, who have now started questioning this. Here's one that's worth a visit: 'Is Deleting Your Facebook Account Really a Good Idea?'

Two points are made here that are particularly worthy of discussion:

1) As Facebook becomes more and more useful as a source of public data, and as it becomes a greater part of the Web, do you think it's a wise decision to abandon Facebook?

2) The whole idea of privacy is changing, being re-written by anyone who has a life online. Isn't it better to consider everything you do online to be public?

As a teacher, like it or not, at sometime you're going to have photos of you taken in class which will end up on Facebook /elsewhere on the Web.

This happened to me recently when a Tourism student of mine used her mobile phone to take a snapshot of me as I stood on a chair for comic effect (see left - thanks Sol for permission to use the photo). It was a surprise when I saw I'd been tagged, as I had no idea she'd taken the photograph, but I really don't mind it being shared here.

I think this is because I have got so used to living my online life in a very public way. I know it was difficult at first, and these questions of what I should and shouldn't share with people came up when I started blogging in 2003. I also have to say that, give or take a few minor feuds, nothing bad has yet happened to me sharing online (that I know about!). I have, though, heard some horror stories concerning other teachers and students and am sure that if any of this had happened to me I'd feel differently.

Another related blog post worth a read is the 'Concerned about Facebook? You're probably getting old'. Here, the author makes the point that privacy concerns are being voiced by people aged 35+ and wonders if it's because young people using these social networks are naive. I really don't think so - I think it's because new generations are growing up with this new idea of privacy (or lack of privacy) online.

Finally, the ability to easily reach other people using the web is creating a new kind of 'fame' (although 'fame' is the wrong word here - probably better to say many of us are now becoming 'not unknown') because of our web presence (we turn up on Google searches, etc). I am enjoying this and think it's related to Andy Warhol's idea of fifteen minutes of fame, when he said "In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.".

I think Warhol's idea has changed. In the present day, it's more like 'everyone is famous in the eyes of fifteen people.'

Looking for students for AVALON Learning pilot courses

2010-05-09T12:28:00.000+02:00

If anyone knows students who are interested, there are two free courses for English students starting in Second Life later this month, organised through the AVALON EU funded project.

The first is a Speaking Skills course for B1 students preparing for the Cambridge First Certificate in English (FCE) . The details are in the document below.

AVALON FCE Speaking Skills May 2010

The second is a Business English course for B1 (upper intermediate) and above students (see document below for details)

AVALON Business English May 2010

Reflections on recent conferences (part one) : ISTEK

2010-05-08T10:01:00.005+02:00

I know this is very late, but I want to add my two pennies worth to the growing number of blog posts about the extraordinary ISTEK conference that was held on 27-28 March 2010 at Yeditepe University in Istanbul.

I'm not sure I know of an ELT conference that has generated so much online discussion. ISTEK the conference (and post-conference) has been the one everyone has been talking about. I started this post shortly after attending and then hesitated in posting as a fierce blog-storm brewed. Now that the hurricane seems to have passed,I thought I'd pick up where I left off, and write my account of the event as a record for me if nothing else. Here's a list of the posts I know have been written about ISTEK (apologies in advance to those I've missed off). Two other blog posts and their many comments have now been deleted, but anyone who is curious enough can follow the digital footprints to see what the fuss was all about:

Ken Wilson's overview of the event
Sean Banville's post about ISTEK and the power of the PLN
Jeremy Harmer's reflections on why it was such a good conference, with the just as interesting comments from participants and non-participants
Mark Andrew's reflections on attending the ISTEK conference virtually
Shelly Terrell's reflections
Burcu Akyol's blog: After ISTEK & IATEFL
Eva Büyüksimkesyan's Motivation and Inspiration
Andy/Olaf Elch's ISTEK review part one and part two

Now I'm going to concentrate on the experience of the actual conference. How it was for me. Much has already been written above, and was said just after the conference bu many about just how fabulous this conference was, with many of us who presented or attended saying it was the best conference they'd ever been to. All-in-all, I have to say that this was true for me too. I thoroughly enjoyed the event and was impressed at how smoothly everything ran. That's not to say that it was a perfect ELT conference. Here are a few of my reflections on what was and what could have been different.

Organisation. Second to none. Jeremy Harmer has already mentioned this in his post, but much of the success of the conference was due to the tireless efforts of the omnipresent Burcu Akyol . Without her sterling efforts and the team she assembled to help and support the event, I'm sure the ISTEK conference would have been just another conference. Whenever I've spoken at a conference in the past, I've learned not to expect to see much of the organisers. It's similar to attending a wedding. With so many guests, you shouldn't expect to see much of or spend much time with the bride and groom. At conferences, the organisers can be spotted quite easily. They are usually the people flitting past at breakneck speed on their way to or back from sorting out some potential organisational hiccup. That didn't seem to be true of Burcu. One of the first things I saw when I arrived at the venue was Burcu's presence, asking me if everything was OK, if I needed anything, etc. That seemed to be the case throughout the conference. She dedicated a lot of time to mingling with people and seemed to be very present throughout the conference.

Numbers. One thousand participants registered. This is a very nice number of people for a conference. Not too many, not too few. I wonder about next year, though. With the amount of attention the ISTEK conference has been getting, I'd expect to see a lot more people want to attend.

Plenary speakers. I have to say that one criticism of the ISTEK conference that I have is that it was plenary-heavy. There were more plenary sessions than other slots each day. There were three plenary sessions and two concurrent sessions and I'd have preferred it to have been the other way around. However, this aspect of the conference may well have resulted in the sensation that was felt by all present that I spoke to that we were all at 'the same conference', a feeling which doesn't usually happen at conferences, where you may not see some people all day long. I also have to say that the plenary sessions were all excellent in this conference, a factor which is unusual in my experience. So, I'm undecided. It worked at this conference.

Concurrent sessions. There were two slots a day and presenters were asked to repeat their session so that those who missed the morning slot could attend the afternoon one. As a speaker, I found this very interesting, but it was a shame that I couldn't attend any of the sessions that were on at the same time as mine. As a result, apart from the plenary speakers, I got to see only two other people speak.

Timetable. Something that is always a problem at conferences is how much time to leave between sessions. At ISTEK there was a fifteen minute gap, which was enough time for everyone to get from one place to another without rushing. So long as the speakers finished on time (but as is the norm, many didn't). I have been guilty of this in the past, but the more conferences I go to the more I realise that it's important that everyone presenting at a conference does not overrun. because it does cause problems for people. Some people in the audience are too embarrassed to stand up and walk out of a session and become anxious and therefore are no longer concentrating on what the speaker has to say anyway. And this could be the thing they remember about the session. I think a great talk therefore can be spoiled by taking too long. It's something that plenary speakers in particular should be careful not to do. If a plenary speaker overruns, then he or she holds up a lot of people, and bites into the time of the other speakers. At ISTEK, the time allotted to concurrent sessions was 45 minutes, but some of the sessions were shorter due to time delays. Going back to the time between sessions, I was pleasantly surprised at TESOL Spain this year that thirty minutes was allotted between sessions. On paper this seemed like a long time at first, but in reality, it allowed for the sessions to overrun and for people to network a lot more in the breaks.

PLN. I mentioned in a previous post on this blog that I thought this year was going to be the year of the PLN (personal learning network) and ISTEK was an indication of this. I met so many people face-to-face for the first time that I was connected to online. Twitter here was the key. I know it was a vital tool in the run-up of the conference (used extensively for the conference organisation and for getting news out about the event) . But it was also incredible just how warmly people responded to each other face-to-face because they'd been tweeting to each other. I'd met other people I've been connected to online before, but this was different; it was special. There's something about being connected to other people in this way that means when you meet them in person, you feel as if you know them very well.

Social Events. That a Pecha Kucha evening is quickly becoming a staple event at ELT conferences around the world is down to Lindsay Clandfield's enthusiasm and organisation. The ISTEK pecha kucha was another success, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the presentations. If I have any criticism of it, it's that the ELT pecha kucha is becoming a competitive event. I could see this in the run-up, with those presenting (most of whom are very seasoned speakers) saying how nervous they were, and tweeting about how much time they were spending on getting it right. I think this was also played up to this during the event. I think pecha kucha events are much better when not staged as competitions between speakers trying to outdo each other. Speaking to Luke Prodromou during the event was enlightening too. “Does a pecha kucha have to be humorous?” he asked me. And he's right, it doesn't have to be, but there seems to be a pressure now on ELT pecha kucha for people to try to get laughs. Storytelling event. Scheduled for the same evening, straight after the pecha kucha, I had my doubts that this was going to work, especially given the number of girating bodies on the dancefloor singing along to “I will survive”, etc. I obviously hadn't accounted for the mastery of Andrew Wright, who had us quietly hanging on his every word as he told an absorbing tale which was the perfect end to a fabulous evening. What could have been better? A bedtime story before we got into the buses and headed off home or to our hotels.

I could write more about ISTEK, but I'm going to stop here. To sum up, I think it was a model example of an ELT conference and I'm sure it'll become an important date for many on the calendar from now on.

It's worth taking a look at this blog - mobile learning

2010-05-03T09:58:00.000+02:00

I've just been tagged by Sheetal Makhan (be sure to check out her great blog btw) and this is as good an excuse as any to jump back into blogging again after a long absence. I've actually got a backlog of posts I've started (about the ISTEK conference, IATEFL and more), but rather than try to keep this chronological, I thought I'd just jump in with this.

The idea is for every blogger tagged to list ten blogs worth looking at, and for those who are tagged to do the same. That way, we'll be able to point people to blogs that would otherwise be overlooked and increase the community aspect of the blogosphere.

After staying clear of Mobile Learning (or M-Learning) for a long time (mostly from lack of time I suppose) I'm currently trying to catch up on what I've missed and what better way of doing this is there than checking on the blogosphere and what people are writing there about the subject.

So, my list contains bloggers who are all covering mobile learning :

1. Nicky Hockly's eModeration Station has some wonderful posts about emoderating in general, but she's also just started writing a series on mobile learning. Check out Mobile Learning #1 The Big Picture and Mobile Learning #2 The Issues - Nicky will be continuing this very informative series, which I'm really looking forward to.

2. Thanks to Nicky's posts, I found David Read's Mobile ESL blog, which is dedicated to m-learning. David's blog is an invaluable guide to the subject and his own enthusiastic efforts in introducing m-learning makes fascinating reading. Be sure to follow David (@dreadnought001) on Twitter for up-to-the-minute information and to join in the m-learning conversation.

3. For a more general picture (not just ESL) about m-learning, check out Leonard Low's reflective journal on mobile learning practice.

4. E-blah-blah , Sandra Pires is another commentator involved in ESL who blogs about m-learning among other aspects of digital learning.

5. Of course, there are lots of different ways of introducing m-learning. If it's the ipod Touch you're interested in, then Lindsay Thompson has a great blog about Personalising Learning with the iPod Touch

6. Mobile learning is not just about smartphones either. It is said that m-learning has the potential to bridge the digital divide as mobile phones are being bought by people all over the globe. check out M-learning Africa for information, research and projects in this continent.

7. Want to read more? Rob de Lorenzo has a great list of further reading on his blog Mobile Learning that makes a great place to start.

8. Peter Tobey's M-Learning is Good is a blog worth keeping an eye on.

9. Another ELT blogger who is starting to write a lot about mobile learning is Nik Peachey - Check out his practical ideas for learners on Nik's Learning Technology Blog.

10. Digital Play. This is cheating I suppose as I blog here with my friend and colleague Kyle Mawer, but we've just written a post about games and other fun apps for the iphone/ipod touch.

Know any more that I've missed? Please let me know in the comments section.

So, there you have it - if you've been tagged, then you can continue the wave in three easy steps:

1. Insert the picture/logo at the top of this blog to your post.
2. Compile your own list of ten blogs that you feel are worth reading.
3. Tell the bloggers that they have been tagged.

15th EFL / ESL /ELL blog carnival

2010-02-03T09:34:00.001+01:00

The fifteenth edition of the EFL/ESL/EEL carnival is now published, and I'm very happy to be a part of it.

The carnival is a great way of providing a snapshot of what people have been blogging about recently in the world of ELT. This time round the topics are:

Thought-provoking pedagogy

Teaching effectively with technology
Presentation and social media advice
Issues to ponder

There's so much good stuff here, it will take you a while to digest it - that's the other thing about the carnival : it's a great way of getting to know bloggers that you may not have come across before.

Of all the posts in the carnival, I particularly enjoyed Ozge Karaoglu's How to survive in 2010 - digitally and Marisa Constantinides' Don't Forget the Pedagogy. Karenee Sylvester's Powerpointing Me suggests a great way of using this technology well with a new class and Jeremy Harmer's On being nervous is a great read for anyone who's ever presented or is thinking about presenting at a conference. I also loved looking at Eva Büyüksimkeşyan's students' Glogster projects - fantastic work! I'd also like to take Vicky Saumell's 40 Things you can do with a data projector in an EFL/ESL lesson and expand upon it - a great resource to have .

And the best thing is...I haven't finished reading them all yet, so I'm sure this list of favourites will grow.

APLaNet - Exciting New Professional Development Opportunity for Language Teachers

2010-01-31T18:42:00.002+01:00

APLANet is a new European Union project proposal which aims to help language teachers to develop their own Personal Learning Network (PLN) .

We are looking for two types of people/organisations at the moment:

Educators who are skilled in using social networking tools and who would be interested in helping other teachers create their own Personal Learning Network using tools such asTwitter, Facebook, Ning, etc.
Teachers who would like to build their own PLN and would be interested in being mentored, piloting materials, etc. as part of their professional development.

Both of these would be recognised on the project documents as 'Associate Partners' (EU project trerminology which sounds more formal than it actually is) and would receive recognition in the form of a certificate of participation as well as a great opportunity to form part of an exciting new community of language professionals.

Think you're interested? Or know of anyone who may be interested? Read more about it below and download and return the document (link at the end of this post)

Autonomous ‘Personal Learning Networks’ for Language Teachers (APLaNet)

For Language Educators and Users of Internet Language Resources.

The APLaNet project will be showing and helping language educators how to join existing and create their own Personal Learning Networks (PLN) on existing social networks. The project will show you how to join and use the resources that are daily being created, shared, tested and talked about.

Using a PLN language educators will be able to find their way through the jungle of ICT resources on the net and find language teachers, just like themselves, that will help them use the resources.

We are looking for two types of Associate Partners (in the downloadable document we describe the associate partner roles in depth):

1. Teachers of languages – interested in piloting the project and building your own PLN

2. Existing users of social networks to help mentor the teachers and help them build their PLN

Please download the document to understand more about the project and how you can be involved:

You can download the document from the link below
http://burcuakyol.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Associate_Partner-form.doc

2010 - the year of the Personal Learning Network?

2010-01-09T12:38:00.008+01:00

One of the things I'll remember 2009 for is it was the first year that mainstream ELT teachers really took to using social media. This is something that Lindsay Clandfield mentions in a recent blog post on language teaching trends of the 00s). It was particularly interesting to be able to see blogs being set up by educators such as Ken Wilson, Jeremy Harmer and Scott Thornbury.

Of all the internet memes that emerged in 2009, it was surely PLN (Personal Learning Network) that caught the attention of the blogging educators.

The Twittering Classes

This was mainly due to the emergence of Twitter as an essential tool for the connected teacher, although there are still many teachers who have decided it's not for them. Some have been put off by its trendiness (in the UK it became much talked-about because of Stephen Fry and other celebrities - the same seems to have been true in other places too) and others don't see the point of the 140 character limitation or think it's just a variation of the status update in Facebook.It is similar, but people are far more likely to connect to lots of other people in Twitter than in Facebook (For me it's 1800 on Twitter to Facebook's 721). I think this is the whole point - I get so much out of having an extensive network of people there , and the fact that its focus is on short messages is what makes it work so well

It's interesting to see comments made by educators who have recently discovered the point of this social network, such as these words in a post at What's New in the World :

"I have found more resources and got more useful advice for professional development in 3 months on Twitter than in the previous 5 years without it. "

The blogger goes on to mention just some of the benefits of actively taking part in tweeting: the access to expert opinions, links to useful resources, advice and immediate feedback to any questions you may have. I would also add a few more to this: real time search (if you use a tool such as Tweetdeck this becomes even more useful), access to a quick and easy concordancer, debate on best practce.

PLN: Small Pieces Loosely Joined

Of course, Twitter is only one useful part of my own PLN. Having a blog and reading and commenting on other people's blogs is another, vital part. As is belonging to specialist social networks (usually using Ning). Facebook is also important, especially as there are so many teachers who use this social network and who don't use Twitter.

The Importance of Facebook

In fact, nowadays (at least in my situation) if you're not connected to people on Facebook, and other social networks, you'll miss out on what's happening (more and more people are using Facebook to organise events, etc.) in your social and professional circle of friends and colleagues.

Here's an example that comes from a conversation with a colleague yesterday - I was talking to someone about the TESOL EVO sessions, because I'd invited lots of people to take part through Facebook, and she asked me what we were talking about. The conversation that followed went something like this:

Me: Didn't I invite you too? Aren't we connected on Facebook?
Teacher: No, I keep my Facebook limited to close-friends and family

On the one-hand, I can totally understand the reasons for doing this, but this attitude is definitely not for me - I only started to appreciate the personal and professional advantages and benefits of social networks once I'd become more inclusive and widened my network to include people from all over the world and who I hardly know (or don't know). It's led to so many benefits: to me finding out about things I'd otherwise never have heard about, establishing friendships and reinforcing professional contacts, being invited to speak at conferences and take part in projects, etc (in some cases based on a single tweet being picked up by someone who was monitoring a term in Twitter!)

2010 - The year of the PLN

All of this is why I think 2010 will be the year when teachers many more mainstream start to embrace the idea of the PLN and begin to take a more active part in belonging to the global staffroom that is out there waiting for you, offering you friendship, support, help and advice - if you want it!

TESOL EVO 2010

2010-01-02T09:40:00.005+01:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Why not start 2010 with some professional development courtesy of TESOL's Electronic village Online?

The best place for educators to start, especially if they are new to teaching and learning languages with technology is the Becoming a Webhead (BaW2010) session. Run every year, this is the perfect introduction to the Webheads community of practice and it's specially suitable for those teachers who are interested in using technology but who are unsure of where to start.

After joining the BaW2010 Yahoo group, you'll be introduced to a dazzling array of possibilities and will be helped every step of the way by experienced and friendly mentors. By the end of the six week session, teachers will have a much better idea of how they can start to introduce technology into their classroom to enhance their lessons and will also be part of a supportive community of like-minded teachers they can draw on for inspiration and help.

For those of you with more experience, there are lots of other sessions to choose from:

Adaptive Technology
EVO Drama 2010
Digital Materials Preparation Techniques
Images4Education
Internet4YoungLearners
Multiliteracies for social Networking and Collaborative Learning Environments
EVO Video 2010
Online Games for ESL/EFL
Smart Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards
Teaching Languages in a Virtual World
Virtual Language Travel

Enrolment has now just opened for these six-week long hands-on virtual sessions and this year there is a wide variety you can choose to join,details of which are in the EVO Call for Participation

I'm excited about co-moderating the Teaching Languages in a Virtual World EVO session - essentially it's a repeat of the session we did last year, but so much has happened in the last year, and we're expecting the participants to have more experience, so the discussions should be very interesting. We're also hoping that more people will bring actual virtual world teaching experience to the mix. If you want to join in the fun, then sign up here: http://tlinvw.ning.com/

Digital Play - a new blog

2009-09-06T09:08:00.003+02:00

I've started a new blog with a colleague and friend, Kyle Mawer, called Digital Play, which you can find here: http://www.digitalplay.info/blog/

The blog will specialise in collecting news, information and ideas for teachers who want to use computer games and other digital toys to help language learners in and out of class.

This is something that we both have been involved in for several years now, especially in our jobs as teachers of young learners. During this time, we have tried out different ideas of exploiting digital games with young learners of English and teenagers, and have introduced a lot of our colleagues to using these too. The interest has grown and now many of our colleagues turn to lesson plans and worksheets featuring online games when they have a computer room slot.

Of course, we have presented our ideas about using digital games at various conferences and have had articles and ideas published in various places too. The next, natural step seemed to be to set up a blog to help draw the ELT world's attention to what can be done. And so, Digital Play was born.

Hope to see some of you over there sometime.

Interesting Talk on Teaching English in Second Life

2009-08-17T09:30:00.001+02:00

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

* lack of established social norms

The talk soon turned into a discussion with different participants agreeing / disagreeing with Nik. Talk mentioned the backchannel of the text chat sometimes interrupting the flow during meetings.

* no eye contact
* gestures and body language makes it difficult

Nik wondered about the effect of the lack of body language, gestures, etc have on students and the Teacher-Student relationship. Participants who have experience teaching online mentioned the fact that the more experience you have teaching online the better: you can pick things up in other ways (tone of voice, etc)

One participant, however, stated evidence has found that some students are more forthcoming because of this. Another mentioned the levels of control that classroom teachers have that do not exist in Second Life. She mentioned that this is similar to teaching high level business students - often teachers have to accept the interruptions that a lot of these (especially one-to-one) classes involve. Interruptions such as mobile calls, etc. Teaching in SL involves a similar degree of relinquishing control.

* Groupwork/Pairwork problems

Participants mentioned that groupwork is possible but other activities such as mingling activities do not work. Using different parcels or sending students to different areas makes groupwork possible. Nik mentioned that in particular, organisations that set up their SL schools like their RL schools have more problems than other types of language teaching organisations in SL.

Another participant said that many professionals involved in distance learning now agree that distance learning is often more labour intensive than RL teaching and that the ideal group size would be around ten people.

Monitoring student groups in Second Life is difficult according to Nik. And the idea of working with smaller groups means it is more difficult to make teaching languages in SL economically viable.

* Autonomous language learning opportunities limited

There are lots of opportunities online for autonomous language learning but they are few and far between in SL. Participants stated that SL should be used for what it is good for, and there's no point trying to use Second Life to do everything when there are bettwer ways of doing certain things elsewhere online.

Second Life, according to one participant is an example of disruptive technology. Development in SL is definitely catching up though.

* Ability to handle text

SL is a graphics delivery system and its ability to deliver motivating text is still a challenge. If you compare notecards to typical worksheets and handouts there are limitations (no formatting, they do not behave consistently, they don't look very good). Placing text in SL on the wall etc. is still not satisfactory.

STRENGTHS

* SL is a good social platform

Nik thinks that SL regulars get strangely attached to their avatars. This attachment is something that puts SL on a different level from 2D Web. He also mentioned that if he has met someone in SL, he feels he has met them "on a deeper level" than those he has only talked to on Skype or exchanged emails with.

The 3D aspect of SL is very important. SL provides a feeling of sociability

* Space ownership

It is easy to develop an identification of ownership of space. You can't build same kind of attachment / sense of ownership to a Moodle space, for example.

The discussion then moved onto using virtual worlds with teens and pre-teens

Nik suggests providing space for students - it will motivate them more if they can take ownership of the space and will provide a stronger pull to keep them interested as 'virtual residents' .

OPPORTUNITIES

* Language Exchange

Sites such as livemocha, italki, and other language exchange sites work well and he believes that this could be done much better than it is in Second Life, with people helping each other to learn a language.

One participant mentioned this is an extension of tandem learning and pairing students up can work very well and offers great potential .

One of the problems for students find is not being able to find someone. Enabling students to find others to help them, to get feedback, etc offers great potential.

* Authentic tasks and projects

Nik thinks that SL offers a more authentic experience than learning in a classroom environment, which is very synthetic. SL hasa much more genuine correlation to the way languages are generally learned.

For example, there are real businesses in SL - there are real activities going on. If language teaching can tap into this, the real things that are happening, then this can provide a very authentic experience for students.

* Extra-curricular activities such as chat groups, drama groups, etc

There is a great opportunity to do this in SL and work on projects such as machinima / theatre in order to motivate students to use language in a real way.

* Playing/Creation of Video Games

Nik thinks SL is a playground and believes that SL can offer a great place where games can be created and played, motivating students through SL's visual strengths.

Many classroom activities do not work very well in SL. They lead to groups of students standing around in circles reading notecards. He believes the environment is so visually strong that we need to be able to use it, to create large spaces with motivating games. This will take serious groups of people with serious SL skills to be able to do this.

One participant mentions the common misconception of people thinking of SL as a game. This is good because it is attractive to students who like games. But it's also bad because teachers generally think of SL as a game and don't take it seriously.

Discussion moved onto Marc Prensky and the use of games in teaching and to another virtual world, There. Nik mentioned that he was impressed by this virtual world.

Strong motivations in computer games (mastering tasks, preserving life, evading enemies, etc) are lacking in SL. People will do things over and over again in order to get to the next stage of a game. This is one of the strengths of gaming that could be built into learning.

THREATS

* Reliability

We are never really sure that SL is going to work when we go there. This makes it difficult if you are offering a commercial product and students cannot get into SL for example.

One of the participants mentioned the threat of:-

* Griefers

Being interrupted by people during a class can be a problem. One way round this, according to a participant is to locate the classroom on a sky platform.

The key is to teach people how to deal with this when it happens. A griefing incident can be turned into a strength if the griefer can be engaged in conversation by students, etc.

The discussion branched off after this...

Nik mentioned that using a female avatar brought him more attention on There - he got approached a lot more.

One participant expressed that she loved the feeling of playfulness that SL gives her. She mentioned getting involved in activities that she wouldn't do in RL.

The discussion came to an end with Nik mentioning the resistance that someone had in their organisation to using Second Life. He believes that there are so many changes that have happened to teaching and education through technology in the last 5 years. The average teacher now has a huge amount of pressure to learn new skills and to step in front of their students and to use these skills. It is a great challenge for teachers and lots will need to take it slowly. Nik believes the best way to introduce SL to other teachers is to make it part of their professional practice first, before it can ever be part of their classroom practice. Teachers then will feel more comfortable about using it with students.

Nik then mentioned that the whole nature of the way we communicate is changing because of technology, and what we teach and the way that we teach it should reflect this. If our students want to use these tools, then they'll need help. Just as students needed help with writing a letter, then some will need help communicating in places such as Second Life.

One participant mentioned that SL would benefit a good intermediate learner best.

Nik said that for students who have a gaming background find SL much easier to use and understand.

All-in-all a very stimulating discussion.

Paper vs Digital ELT materials

2009-08-13T09:43:00.003+02:00

There is currently a debate going on in the IATEFL Young Learner SIG Yahoo Group about the the pros and cons of publishing digital ELT materials/resources as compared to paper-based ones (i.e. books).

I have been reading the posts on this thread with a great deal of interest, and can't help thinking that those defending the paper model echo what many in the music industry were saying about digital downloading when the first effective model (Napster) came on the scene. There was a time some years ago when the music industry had a real chance to utilise the emerging technology to provide a new business model for the industry. Instead, they chose to ignore the change implied by the new technology. As we all know now, this has led to widespread adoption of illegal file-sharing and huge losses by record companies all over the globe. Despite efforts to stop this (DRM, court cases, legal file-sharing through iTunes, etc), most people feel the battle has been lost and musicians are starting to realise that the money has to come from elsewhere.

What has this to do with ELT? It's tempting to think that books are different, that we will always want to hold the physical objects in our hands, to own and collect them as objects? This is true of our generation maybe, but what of the next? The current generation is fast becoming used to a different model, where access to information (video via Youtube, digital music streamed through programmes such as www.spotify.com, etc.)

Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference wortks have been the first books to suffer (like it or not, Wikipedia is fast overtaking the Encyclopedia Britanica as a source of information - the pros of Wikipedia far outstrip the cons: in the 21st Century, our sources of information need to be up-to-the-minute and dynamic).

What about the other arguments for paper-based material? Reading on a screen is not sustainable? You can't take it with you on the train? Devices such as Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPod Touch and the iPhone have changed that. I no longer buy a daily newspaper - I download the news from the BBC and El Pais to my iPod in the morning and read that on the metro.

What about the parts of the world where the Internet does not reach? The signs are that this will change in many of these areas. The Internet probably won't come via PCs, but will instead be available via mobile phones (did you know that most mobiles are in the developing world?), which are becoming ubiquitous in most parts of the world.

As we have seen (most recently in a heated exchange on Twitter between a wide variety of ELT professionals), there is a demand for digital copies of resource books and textbooks. The ELT publishers have yet to cater to this demand. The danger is that unless something is done, then what awaits them is what happened to the music industry re. digital downloading.

In fact, it's already happening. There has recently been a proliferation of websites and blogs offering illegal copies of most ELT textbooks and resource books. These are generally scanned copies of the books advertised by the sites as 'free ESL books to download.' The website authors claim they are providing a service to people, "freeing information", etc. but look carefully and you'll see the sites are generally full of advertising, so their aim is to make money by illegally copying and distributing the books. I am not providing any examples of sites as I really don't want to encourage this sort of activity. Of course, the publishers act against these websites when they are found (it is common for authors to report them to the publisher), but I fear they are fighting a losing battle if legal downloading of digital copies of ELT books is not going to be offered.

How things will turn out is difficult to say, but you can look at trends and predict. We are currently experiencing the death of the newspaper (http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/ - talk to any newspaper journalist and you'll hear the same thing). As mentioned before, the emergence of new reader-friendly devices and increase in Internet mean that the demand for digital downloads will increase whether you like it or not.

Although I am a book-lover and know I will continue to buy and read books for the rest of my life (I am also writing one!), I do think that the shift from paper to digital materials in ELT is inevitable.

To Blog or not to Blog?

2009-07-14T10:30:00.006+02:00

Why blog? Getting started - my experience

Recently, I've been thinking about blogging and why people do it. I've been encouraged by the nomination for an award I mentioned in my last post, and by Karenne Sylvester's call for entries to the blog carnival she has organised to help newbie EFL bloggers.

So, what makes someone sit down and write something and publish it on the Internet for all to see? In particular what makes an EFL teacher do this. The main reasons I suppose are self-expression, to communicate with other teachers, to share ideas, reflect on practice. Of course there's also the teacher who wants to try it out because you want your learners to blog and you don't think you should ask them to do something that you wouldn't do or haven't tried . That's why I started.

Let me start with some statistics - I've been blogging at http://blog-efl.blogspot.com for six years (since July 9th 2003), have written 553 posts so far and over 60,000 words.

My first post was directed at a group of teenage learners I was teaching in a summer school in Barcelona. I wanted to try out a new global community my school had set up for learners and had managed to get a daily computer room slot. Then, at the last minute, I was told that my students wouldn't be getting accounts in time, so I needed a backup plan. I remembered that a friend of mine had invited me to set up something called a blog six months previously - I'd joined and written one post and then not returned. But, I had seen that it was a quick and easy way of publishing on the Web and wondered if I could do this with my learners.

I jumped in and all of the learners in the two classes I was teaching se up blogs and started writing about themselves and reading what the learners in the other class had written - their curiosity was provoked, and although few of them wrote much, they were motivated enough to want to write and to read what the others had written, sharing their interests, and asking questions by leaving comments on the other learners' blogs.

I also started using the blog I'd set up to reflect upon the experience rather than write to the learners, as illustrated by the second post I wrote. By the end of the course, I was convinced that this was something that I should look into more, even though the learners had become a little bored with blogging during the course and I decided to do something else (you can read about this here if you like).

Getting Interested in blogging

I spent time after the course finding more out about blogging. At the time, there was little written about blogging and only a handful of EFL teachers were using blogs. One of them was Teresa Almeida D'Eca's Let's Blog. Teresa is a teacher based in Portugal - I'd been introduced to her through my colleague, Nik Peachey (who funnily enough has only recently started blogging himself) and was very impressed with her blog. So much so, I wrote a review of it on my blog.

I started learning a lot from the other educational bloggers out there about how best to use them. Aaron Campbell's article on Weblogging in ESL was very influential and there were tips from other bloggers about how best to encourage participation, and whether or not to correct.

You can tell from the amount I was writing to the blog (48 posts in August 2003!) just how enthusiastic I was getting. In fact this figure only shows a small part of it - I'd also been put in contact with a teacher in Brazil - Barbara Dieu (or Bee), who had been blogging with her students for some time. I wrote a review of her blog, Bee Online and also started responding to some of her ideas she had.

Sustaining Interest in Blogging

One of the many ideas that Bee had for promoting and sustaining learner interest in blogging was the idea of having a mystery guest on her blog. I was one of the two mystery guests in August 2003, and the results were convincing - the students responded well and wrote loads during this period. Bee said that they were all motivated and asking questions, trying to work out who the mystery guests were between classes, trying to get her to give them clues, etc. And afterwards, the conversations continued as we got to know each other. For me, this was the moment when I realised the power and potetnial of blogging with students. You can read the actual posts here - as a sidenote, I think it's wonderful that all of this still exists - it's been great to revisit this now, so many years afterwards.

I went on to run my own blogging experiments with classes that year and several years afterwards. Some of them were successful, others not so much. I kept in touch with both Teresa and Bee. They introduced me to the wonderful Community of Practice, the Webheads in Action, and to lots of other educators around the world. I co-moderated a series of online workshops about blogging with Bee and Aaron Campbell through the TESOL Electronic Village Online. Eventually, though, I found my interests turning more towards podcasting and then to social networking and games and virtual worlds. However, I still believe blogging is a great tool to use with students, and although my own blogging output has diminished recently, I can see how valuable it is for teachers' reflective practice and for sharing ideas and building community. Especially now, that it has started to be used by mainstream EFL teachers rather than just those who are interested in technology. This for me, is the key, and the main reason why I am interested in blogging regularly again.

Blogger's Block

So, what about the so-called blogger's block? Looking back at my blog entries, I can see that I have a lot of unpublished drafts. Posts that I started and didn't finish. And then I remember times when I wanted to write something and didn't. I think the most important thing is to be involved in the blogosphere. If you read other blogs (and nowadays take part in the conversations that are constantly happening in Twitter and Facebook, as well as on mailing lists, etc.), then you'll never be short of ideas for blog posts. Of course, the other thing to remember is that blogging is all about contributing - and no matter what you think, everyone has a unique voice and a relevant point-of-view - you can always add something interesting to the conversation. Just, as Karenne recently encouraged me to to on Facebook, jump in and do it - don't think too much about it.

I think it's also important not to feel overwhelmed - there is so much out there, you'll never be able to keep up with everything that's going on, vever be able to read all the blogs, etc, that you'd like to. Choose a few people to read regularly that you find interesting and then from time to time, let yourself be led by links from their blogs (or by serendipity) to other people. Be sure to contribute to other people's blogs by writing comments - it's very important for bloggers to feel that there's somebody out there reading what we are writing (otherwise, why write it, right?) - tools like clustrmaps are very important to a blogger to see that they have an audience (I prefer this visual demonstration of audience more than looking at a counter or at stats - I have also noticed that it impresses students more too)

Setting goals can be important to keep up interest too. apart from the goals you may set up with students (a good one is to always relate what you are doing in class to the blog and vice-versa), if you blog for other teachers or for yourself, then you might want to use the blog:-

for reflective practice (write what you think about how a particular class went)
as a repository for a future teaching e-portfolio
to sound out ideas that you may want to follow up in an article or a conference presentation / INSETT session
simply keep a record of your time as a teacher

Finally...

Most of all, treat blogging as something you do for fun that can also help your professional development and you should be able to continue, happy in the knowledge that what you are doing is of value.

BLOG-EFL nominated as one of the 100 Best Blogs (Language Technology)

2009-07-13T17:08:00.003+02:00

Are awards important for bloggers? The reason I ask is because I recently found out I've been nominated for one (from Anna, whose excellent blog about her experiences in Second Life has also been nominated).

The Top 100 Language Blogs 2009 Awards have been organised by LexioPhiles and there are four categories: Language Learning, Language Teaching, Language Technology and Language Professionals.

I was surprised to hear that I'd been nominated, because I haven't been blogging here much recently (much of what I used to use my blog for has been taken over by Twitter or Facebook or Delicous).

Surprised and also chuffed. And then I wondered why. Thinking about it, I realised I'd been wanting to get back into blogging, but needed a good reason for doing so. Browsing the other nominated blogs (for me - this is the most important reason for such awards - you can find out about bloggers you weren't previously aware of, or people you haven't looked at in a while), I started to realise just how much wonderful stuff was being written by so many. I know now should start making blogging a priority again, and wonder why I'd stopped doing so for so long.

Hello again, Blogosphere! I'm back! And Thank you, Lexiophiles for giving me a reason to start blogging again.

SLanguages 2009

2009-05-08T12:52:00.002+02:00

This year's SLanguages conference promises to be the best ever - it starts later today at 20.00 Central European time and continues for the next 24 hours.

I'm excited to be speaking several times, first as part of the AVALON project, a European Union funded initiative, with 26 partners in 8 European countries. AVALON stands for Access to Virtual Learning live ONline, and our goal is to explore the potential for scenario-based language learning. This (tonight and then again tomorrow morning - see schedule for details) will be the first time we've spoken about it in public together - looking forward to it.

I'm also speaking as part of the panel discussion plenary on language teacher training in Second Life, with Nergiz Kern, Nick Noakes and Dennis Newson, although I think Dennis can't make it after all. We'll be talking about our experience organising the TESOL Electronic Village Online session on Virtual Worlds & Language Learning. The social network, http://evovwll.ning.com, that was set up for the EVO session has now just under 3000 members, and the discussions and meetings have been continuing, even though the actual EVO session finished back in February.

Finally, on Saturday I'll be talking about the Virtual Tourism CLIL course I organised earlier this year in Second Life. I'll mention how it went, include references to what the students thought about it (collected here), and finish off by taking people on a short tour of some of the places the students had to visit.

If you're interested in innovative ways of language learning and teaching , be sure to check out the SLanguages conference - hope to see you there!

IATEFL double whammy: Milan & Cardiff

2009-03-17T23:20:00.003+01:00

I count myself among the lucky few who are going to attend in-person both of the upcoming events hosted by http://www.iatefl.org/ and the http://www.britishcouncil.org.

IATEFL 43rd Annual Conference - Cardiff

Starting on 31st March and running until 4th April, the 43rd annual IATEFL conference promises to be the best yet. The range and quality of the speakers at the IATEFL conference always poses a challenge when you're flipping through the programme deciding who to go to hear speak, although little does it matter, as rarely, in my experience are you disappointed.

The great news for those who can't be there in person is you'll be able to get more than a flavour of the conference by registering at IATEFL Cardiff Online: http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009/

Last year, there were 1600 participants at the conference and 5000 participating online. This year promises to be even better, with far more activity going on online to bring those not at the conference closer to the action.

Apart from the live broadcasts of the plenaries and video and audio recordings of some of the other sessions, wifi access at the conference means some participants in sessions will be live blogging or twittering (using http://www.twitter.com) to keep people in the loop. Should be a very special event indeed.

IATEFL YL SIG & LT SIG Conference - Milan

But, the week before this, there's another very special event in the form of a joint Young Learner SIG (Special Interest Group) and Learning Technologies SIG conference in Milan (March 23rd-25th) examining 'Innovations in Teaching Children and Teenagers'. If you can make it and are interested in attending, there is still time to register here: http://www.britishcouncil.org/italy-english-milan-teacher-training-aggiornamento-insegnanti-inglese-milano.htm

This event promises to be a real treat for anyone who teaches young learners, and there are three strands to the conference, which are CLIL (Content & Language Integrated Learning), Learning Technologies and Testing & Assessment.

Although there won't be as much online activity at this event, there will be some, and I have agreed to try my best to keep people informed by blogging here. I'll also be twittering at http://www.twitter.com/grahamstanley - hope that some of you at least can join us for the educational journey!

Seven Things You Probably Don't Know About Me

2009-01-07T14:11:00.008+01:00

Happy New Year everyone.

I'm not even going to say that one of my New Year's resolutions is to start blogging regularly again, as I think I said that last year (and it didn't work out - probably because I was so busy elsewhere). This year, however...well, this year it'll be a different story...

So, wondering how to start the year off, I was going to post more resolutions, but Lindsay Clandfield asked me if I'd write six New Year Web 2 Resolutions for his blog, so I needed something else.

Then I found I'd been tagged by Gavin Dudeney for the ‘Seven Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me’ , which will make a perfect start to the year.

Here are the rules:

Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog
Share 7 facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird
Tag seven people at the end of your post
Let them know they’ve been tagged

Well, here goes nothing...

1. Before becoming a teacher, I worked in London for a number of architectural and design companies, starting off in document control/data management and moving onto administration / office management. This is where I started using computers, and I remember well the green on black screens of the first IBM PCs (I'm still sure it's the reason why everyone working there started wearing glasses) while working at SOM back in 1986. When I first started there, there were five employees. Three years later, when I left, the London practice had grown to well over 350 during the construction boom that saw the practice being mainly involved in the building of Broadgate and Canary Wharf.

It was here that I worked with Mark Dytham, who then won an architectural competition and moved to Japan, setting up his now prestigious company. Years later, I came across his name again as co-creator of the pecha kucha presentation format, which subsequently I've used both with students, at the 2007 ETP Live conference and at the second pecha kucha night in Barcelona. Pecha Kucha is becoming a popular ELT conference event, thanks to Lindsay Clandfield, who has started a special pecha kucha ELT site to help promote this fun experience. I'm happy to say I'll be part of the pecha kucha event to be held at the IATEFL conference in Cardiff in April 2009.

2. The most embarrassing moment of my childhood was when I played Aladdin in the school play (I must have been aged 7 or so) - I was dressed in a splendid oriental costume, complete with make-up and a fabulous Chinese hat with attached ponytail. At the end of the rehearsal performance in front of the entire school, I took a bow and my hat fell off. Everyone in the audience burst into laughter. I think that is the reason I never considered a career on the stage.

In later years, my most embarrassing moment was probably when, as a new player of a company softball team, a gorgeous girl suggested we go for lunch together. I turned up the next day with the whole softball team in tow, thinking that was what she'd suggested. At the end of lunch, she came up to me and said "Hey! That was nice, but maybe the next time we could have lunch just you and me."

3. My most famous private student was Spain's 2002 Eurovision candidate, Rosa Lopez (Rosa de España) , who I was introduced to by a friend of a friend. She had been catapulted to fame as the people's favourite in the first edition of Operación Triunfo (OT), the music reality show.

I met her after the show and after Eurovision. It seemed then that she was the most famous person in Spain - there wasn't a magazine or a newspaper that didn't feature her on the front cover. Everytime you turned on the TV she was there, and the paparazzi staked out her flat waiting on her every move. Her management's idea was to rework what they saw as an uncut diamond into a dazzling gem, and among other things, this included extensive dental work, daily gym workouts (she was the only OT candidate who was over-weight), elocution lessons and English classes!

Before I could start, her brothers and bodyguards had to give me the once over (presumably to make sure I wasn't a journalist in disguise) then I went up to her flat in Barcelona to start. The first couple of days went well. She was almost a total beginner, which is difficult to find in Barcelona these days. And this, despite the fact that she had sung in English during the TV programme. Later I was to find out that she had learned the words phonetically. This was one thing in her favour - she had an excellent ear for music and sounds.

A very kind and sociable person, each class, before we started, she insisted on making us breakfast (usually a turkey salad sandwich and coffee). Once we started, I found that she was easily distracted and getting her to turn off the TV during class was a trial. I tried to reach her with music, and brought in Delaney & Bonnie's 'Superstar' to listen to in class. She loved it, and asked to borrow the CD. At one point, the word 'something' came up, and she started to sing the George Harrisson song (which she had learned phonetically) , belting it out as we sat at the table. I was blown away, both by how well she could sing, and also the fact that she remembered all of the lyrics without being able to speak much English. Shortly after we started, Rosa mentioned she now had an English teacher called Graham when she was interviewed on TV and in the magazine Que Me Dices - the first and probably the last time I'll be featured in a gossip magazine.

Unfortunately, things weren't working out for Rosa in Barcelona, and the pressure soon got too much for her - she had some kind of breakdown and returned to Granada in the South of Spain. We'd made little progress - cancelled classes, others that were spent with her in tears, unable to speak any English. Once, she told me that the moment she decided that she wanted to learn English was when she was at a party in New York. Introduced to her idol, Whitney Houston, she realised she couldn't say a thing to her, not even "I love your songs" - a missed opportunity that she didn't want to let happen again. However, there was just too much going on in her life. The last time I saw her, I turned up for class and she was in the middle of a photo-shoot in her apartment. She was sorry, but she would have to cancel. A week later, she was back at home suffering a crisis.

Fortunately, she's back on track now, and seems to be doing well, despite the fact that many people in Spain thought she'd end up giving it all up and going back to her family. Good on her. I sometimes wonder if she's managed to learn any more English.

4. I've been an extra in a Woody Allen film (Vicki Christina Barcelona) - read more about the experience here. It's now out and I'm on screen for about half a second towards the end, buying flowers for my film-wife behind Rebecca Hall as she's on the phone to Javier Bardem.

Since then, the agency has called a few times asking if I could do more extra work. At first it didn't work out, but I finally got to do more extra work last November - this time it was for Suspicious Minds, a Spanish psychological thriller. I played the manager of a garage and spent three hours signing receipts on film in the middle of the night in an industrial estate in Barcelona. Hmmm, the cinema world isn't as glamorous as people make it out to be. With a bit of luck, though, I'll be on-screen for a second - if things continue at this rate (doubling my on-screen appearances every year), I reckon I could be a star by 2016.

5. Hundreds of hours of my teenage years were spent rolling dice over my parents' dining room table with a group of three friends. We mainly played AD&D and Traveller, and met to do so most Wednesdays (13.00-23.00), Fridays (19.00-23.00) and Saturdays (13.00-23.00) for at least a couple of years. At 24 hours a week, around 50 weeks of the year (allowing for holidays, etc), that makes around 240 hours. Phew! My parents worried that I wasn't going to school discos and classmates spread rumours that we were meeting to perform 'strange experiments'. Strangely enough, that time spent playing role-playing games has paid off creatively, especially as I was usually dungeon-master, mainly involved in creating the story for others to follow, writing and imagining scenarios for the others to follow.

6. While in my twenties, and living in the UK, I was called to do jury service. I spent the best part of a week in the waiting room, then was called to sit on a case. At the first session the judge told us that because of the nature of the crime (armed bank robbery, policeman shot) and the fact that a gang was involved, each juror would be assigned 2 armed bodyguards 24-hours-a-day. So, I went home on the bus with 2 policemen following me and that was the case for the rest of the week-end and week afterwards. At first it was a novelty, and I delighted in turning up at a friend's house and telling them to look out the window. But after a few days of this, it became a real pain - I became self-conscious and everything I did I had to keep in mind that there'd be two coppers following me. I went to a pub to play pool and there they'd be, at a safe distance (I had been told not to approach them) keeping an eye on me. After a week of being followed I was really cheesed off.

On the Friday, some of the jurors asked for permission to go out for lunch. We'd been cooped up all week (so that the bodyguards wouldn't have to be called), and really needed to get out. We were told to go as far away from the Old Bailey as possible, to make it less likely that family members / friends of the accused would bump into us. Four of us (and our 8 bodyguards) went to have lunch in a pub. On return, one of the jurors I was with said that he thought he'd spotted someone from the visitor's gallery in the pub. The judge heard about this and decided to suspend the case. The four of us who'd been to the pub were told that we'd almost been charged with contempt of court (even though we'd had permission) and the front page headlines in the national newspapers turned the court case into a 'gang tries to reach jury' story - I still can't believe the rubbish they wrote about the case...

7. My great unfulfilled ambition is (like so many other people) to write a novel. I wasted a good part of my twenties standing around in pubs boring the pants off the people who were kind (or stupid) enough to listen to my ideas for plots. In my thirties, I stopped talking and actually started writing this rubbish down on paper. Then, I discovered NaNoWriMo, and, as I'd become a blogger, actually started blogging a novel, trying to put down a minimum 60,000 in 30 days. Soon, I discovered I'd actually built up a readership (of four!), which inspired me to continue. After 20,000 words I gave up, unable to persuade my dull and earnest main character to leave his flat. I suppose Sandy's right - I should've injected made it a comedy. Maybe the next time...

Now, in my forties, I find the sum result of these long hours: the last section of a blog post about 'Seven Things You Probably Don't Know About Me'. Still, I have recently been given a new glimmer of hope, after seeing the success a colleague, Adam Dalton, has had with his novel, Necromancer's Gambit. If you like metaphysical fantasy, I can highly recommend it.

And now I'm tagging, Lindsay Clandfield, Bee (Barbara Dieu), Sean (EFLGeek), Nick Noakes, Dennis Newson, Isa F Munn, Language Lab (Grammar Girl)

Learn English Second Life for Teens - new video

2008-06-26T21:52:00.000+02:00

SLanguages 2008

2008-05-29T10:59:00.001+02:00

Last weekend's SLanguages conference/festival was quite something. Over 300 people registered (compared to last year's 40) and 19 presenters (to last year's 5) over a 24-hour period. The launch was lots of fun with over 80 avatars attending the first plenary. I took lots of snapshots during the event and have created an overview of it using Slideshare, which you can see below. The SLanguages archive also now has many of the individual presentation slides and audio from the conference.

I found the event itself to be quite an eye-opener and will definitely go back and listen to the sessions I didn't get the chance to attend and also revist a few of the ones I did get to. There were also lots of places mentioned in SL that I want to visit (when I have time!).

It was particularly interesting to see how things have moved on in a year (there's now so much educational and language education activity going on in Second Life it's really exciting) and I also met lots of new people and re encountered others I'd not seen in a while. Great stuff, although I echo the sentiments expressed on the HUMlab blog - now it's time for more "students that need to be exposed to such situations." Hopefully, after next year's SLanguages event we'll be talking more about this.

The other comment that was made in the feedback to the event, which you can find summarised on Dudeney Ge's blog is that there was an over-emphasis on Power Point type presentations, which was a shame. I have to agree, and I hope we can move away from this in the future. However, as I wrote on Goodday Tomorrow's blog, this kind of presentation is the easiest to prepare (we wanted to prepare a quest to present our quests but just ran out of time) and also the safest format when you have lots of avatars at a conference. There were tours, for example, which were great, but these tours do take a lot more organisation (getting people the landmarks, etc) . I went on one, and was impressed, especially as people had been lined up to talk about particular areas...

I'd definitely like to attend more events and see how other people use SL to present ideas, etc. and also would like to follow up the idea of a quest in the Main Grid. I wonder where I'll find the time from though...

| View | Upload your own

Education@Edunation Session V - Saturday 17th May 1.30am SL Time

2008-05-13T22:35:00.002+02:00

April was so busy that it came and went without a chance to organise an Education@Edunation event. However, I am very excited about the next one, which will feature Nick Noakes (Corwin Carillon in SL), who is a very active educator in Second Life.

Corwin will be leading a discussion - Here's how he describes the event:

Come join us for a discussion of self-directed team learning in Second Life where we will share ideas and practices for giving learning teams greater control through inquiry-driven projects.

Because Nick is based in Hong Kong, we've rearranged the time and date. This time it will be on:

Saturday 17th May at 1.30am SL Time (PDT), which is 8.30 GMT

Come and join us if you can - Space is limited, so please sign up now by visiting the sign-up stands at Edunation III (see photo below).

Hope to see you there!

Will Wright:: Toys that Make worlds

2008-05-04T23:55:00.000+02:00

Education@Edunation - Sunday 30th March 2008

2008-03-24T23:31:00.001+01:00

The fourth in the EduCation@EduNation Second Life monthly series of presentations, talks, seminars, etc. will be next Sunday 30th March at 12:00 PST (Second Life Time), 19:00 UTC/GMT or 21:00 CET.

The special guest this time round is Jeremy Harmer, the well-known and best-selling ELT author and international speaker, and it will be his first public event in Second Life - he'll be behind the avatar Dirk Beatty.

The session is entitled “Watching Teachers Watch Themselves” and will be a real-world talk (rather than being about SL education) looking at teacher observation and how teachers perceive their work and their teaching practice.

The session concerns the teacher observation Jeremy carried out whole preparing the new edition of ‘How to Teach English‘ [ Pearson Longman, 2007 ]. More about this project can be found in the DVD that accompanies the printed book.

So, be sure to sign up quickly to ensure a place next Sunday (by visiting the sign-up stands in-world on EduNation III) - it promises to be a lively session which ELT teachers worldwide will undoubtedly enjoy and benefit from.

SLanguages Conference - May 2008

2008-03-24T22:03:00.002+01:00

I'm excited about the forthcoming SLanguages conference, the second edition, which promises to be bigger and better than last year.

| View | Upload your own

This time, it'll be held on 23 and 24 May 2008, and it's hoped that there'll be more languages represented this year: the conference now also has a website this year (www.slanguages.net) with information in various languages.

It's being sponsored by the Consultants-E, owners of the Edunation sims, where the conference is to be held, and Avatar Languages.

I'm still wondering what to propose for a presentation - the call for proposals is now open (until May 1st), and you read more about it over at Gavin Dudeney's blog, That'SLife.

Language Learners & Computer Games: From Space Invaders to Second Life

2008-03-24T17:18:00.000+01:00

I recently revisited the online presentation that Kyle and I did on Digital Games and Language Learning for last year's Webheads in Action Online Convergence because the Proceedings have just been published in the TESL-EJ.

Our article is now available online here: http://tesl-ej.org/ej44/a5.html .

TESOL Spain Presentation: Learn English Second Life for Teens

2008-03-18T18:34:00.001+01:00

I was in Madrid recently for the TESOL Spain 2008 convention, which was a lot of fun.

I was there presenting the British Council's Learn English Second Life for Teens project, which has been going through a pilot. The slideshow with recording made in Madrid is included below. If you'd prefer to download the audio only, then you can do so here.

| View | Upload your own

I also set up a wiki to support the presentation: http://tesol-spain.wikispaces.com/

Education@Edunation - Friday 29th February

2008-02-27T08:47:00.000+01:00

Educational Games in Second Life - 29th Feb (12.30-13.30 PST)

Join us for the third monthly session of Education@EduNation on Friday February 29th from 12:30 - 13:30 PST for a special session on educational games in Second Life with Jeremy Koester (Jeremy Braver in SL)

Here's Jeremy's biodata:

I am first of all an educator. My heart is to work with learners in interactive learning environments. I am the Founder and President of Gaming and Learning in Second Life. I consult with educational entities regarding learning and technology. I am currently working on my graduate degree in Instructional Technology at the University of Texas at San Antonio (ant. '08). Gaming and learning is a passionate interest of mine. I regularly present my educational technology findings at large conventions such as SLBPE, SLCC, TCEA and CAMT. I want to be a part in shaping the future of education and how America addresses it's educational needs going into this digital, global environment.

I will be talking about Gaming and Learning in SL as an organization. Participants will learn about what GaLiSL is, what we do, and also get a chance to play a game that Jeremy Braver (Jeremy Koester-RL) designed. The game is called 'Windbag'. It's a whimsical game of social bluffing where everyone has a good laugh and learns at the same time.

Be sure to sign up beforehand at Edunation III

Education@Edunation - Teen Grid Angst

2008-01-17T20:56:00.000+01:00

Later this month will be the second in a monthly series of educational talks, visits and other events to be held at the island of Edunation III in Second Life

Sunday January 27th
12.30 Second Life Time (20:30 UTC, 21:30 CET)

Teen Grid Angst

In this session,I'll be talking about the differences between running educational projects on the Teen and Main Grids of Second Life and will be sharing my experience so far of being involved in setting up a three-island virtual self-access centre for language learners

I'll be looking mainly at the project that I've been involved with for the British Council, which recently opened in beta on the Teen Grid. We have just started running a trial with EFL students and I should be ready to report on the first impressions and have their feedback for this session.

More Info here:
http://www.theconsultants-e.com/edunation/educationedunation.asp

Web 2.0 for EFL Teachers

2007-11-26T11:23:00.000+01:00

I'm currently in Caracas, Venezuela, where I'm the facilitator of this seminar: Web 2.0 for EFL Teachers: Podcasts, Blogs, Wikis, Virtual Worlds and Digital Games. The seminar has been organised by the British Council & AVEALMEC, a relatively new CALL Association for teachers in Venezuela.

We have started a ning and over 40 people have joined, although only 27 of these people will be at the f2f seminar. Today, day 1, we'll be looking at social software, blogging, RSS & tagging, and some of the teachers will be presenting a few of their blogging projects they have been involved in.

It's great to see so much enthusiasm and expertise here in Venezuela and can't wait to get to know everyone better and find out what they have been doing.

Education@Edunation - Second Life Teaching Tools

2007-11-17T11:13:00.000+01:00

I'm now getting excited about the new initiative that the Consultants-E are launching in two weeks: a new series of monthly events, Education@Edunation, which I've been asked to help co-ordinate. The first one, which unfortunately I won't be able to attend (I'll be on a plane coming back from Venezuela) looks like a very promising launch to what I'm sure will be a very popular event in Second Life:

Title: SL Teaching Tools

Time: Saturday 1st December, 08.00-09.00 (SL time)17.00-18.00 (UTC)

Place: Edunation III Conference Crossover Space (EduNation III 202, 27, 21)

Details: Dudeney Ge will be be giving an introduction to some of the tools available for teaching in Second Life (free gift for teachers included!)

This first event will be followed by others, approximately once a month, so it should be a great way to meet interesting people and find out about Second Life educational initiatives, etc. Here's the details:

Education@Edunation is a series of free monthly talks, workshops and discussions on education in-and-outside of Second Life, organised by the Consultants-E (http://www.theconsultants-e.com/)

Meet fellow educators and trainers at Edunation III for sessions dealing with:

· Teaching Tools

· Teacher Training

· Gaming & Education

· Materials Design

· Language Education

and many more...from seminars to pecha kucha sessions

Location

The events will take place in the Seminar Area of EduNation III, one of the Consultants-E sims in Second Life. You can find the island using the Search facility in Second Life, or by following this URL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Edunation%20III/202/27/21/

You can also go directly to EduNation III- 202, 27, 21

Maximum 100 particpants (click the sign on Edunation III to register)

Each event has a limit of 100 participants, so you are encouraged to sign up early to avoid disappointment. You can sign up for the event in-world by clicking the sign on Edunation III or by sending an email to gavin.dudeney@theconsultants-e.com . Please make sure you include the name of the speaker/event you wish to attend. If sign-ups exceed 100, we will put people on a waiting list and they will be moved into the participant list as and when spaces become available.

Hope to see some of you there!

Webheads in Second Life Monday Tours (again)

2007-10-28T20:00:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow from 20.00-22.00 GMT (Monday 29th October) we'll be meeting at the Webheads HQ @ Edunation for another Monday night SL Webheads tour. This time it'll be a visit to some Second Life quests followed by a discussion of how something similar may be exploited for language learning.

Using Second Life as a platform for games is becoming more popular, with the recent 'CSI' and 'I am Legion' game launches. How feasible is it to do something similar (albeit on a smaller, less ambitious scale) for language learning?

So much for being able to keep up a weekly Webheads tour / meeting in Second Life - workload has meant it is impossible, but hopefully a once monthly meet is possible for me to organise.

So, after being contacted about this by by Seth Dickens, who is bringing along some colleagues tomorrow, we've decided to restart the tours / discussions tomorrow.

What's the theme this time? Rather than explore more real life cities (by no means exhausted, however, and I'm sure we'll return to this), I thought it would be interesting to explore some of Second Life's quests and treasure hunts, which offer engaging possibilities for anyone hoping to do something similar for language learning.

It's also something that I have researched for the Second Life Teen Grid project I am involved in, and recently revisted the quests on a tour to give some of the other people involved in the project an idea of what we were aiming for.

Hope to see some of you there tomorrow!

Second Wind for Second Life?

2007-10-28T19:17:00.000+01:00

Second Life (SL) seems to be back in the news, thanks to the TV programme CSI:New York, which has featured the virtual world in some episodes and also launched a Second Life game based on the show (see video below). As there are competitions to solve crimes and track down murderers by finding clues and filing reports, it could be interesting to English language learners (I've only just joined in so I'm not sure how valuable it is yet).

(above - the CSI SL game also has its own SL viewer and simplified SL orientation to help players with the interface and the game. More photos here)

This transmedia storytelling (thanks to Ewan McIntosh for the link) seems to be something we'll be seeing a lot more of, and Second Life is an attractive option because it is cheaper to build a game using this platform than starting from scratch. It also takes advantage of its existing user base. Could this prove to be a second wind for SL, now that the hype / criticism cycle of the virtual world has slowed down.

Another example of this happening is the game that has been made in Second Life to coincide with the launch of the film I am Legion, which looks like a Hollywood version of the film 28 Weeks Later. The Second Life game is "a multiplayer first person shooter / RPG" game, and so is probably not as valuable as CSI is for language learning possibilities.

Webheads @ Edunation - 1st October 2007

2007-10-02T23:41:00.000+02:00

Yesterday's Monday night meeting of the Webheads in Second Life was supposed to be an introduction to the new Webheads HQ @ Edunation III.

Eveything was set for 20.00GMT - I was waiting there for people to arrive when the region started logging out (this 'rolling restart' to regions happens occasionally when servers are reset etc.) . I was teleported to another sim and couldn't find my way back for another twenty minutes! Finally, I managed to get back to Edunation, but not to the Webheads HQ, which remained inaccessible for the rest of the evening.

Not able to proceed as planned, as people started to arrive, we sat back in the comfy bean bags and chatted, watched a Teachers TV podcast and then Dudeney G demonstrated the fabulous new Flickr in SL tool that he has been developing.

How does it work? Well, you can type a tag and then when you touch the too it displays an image from Flickr that has been tagged with this word. We all got carried away trying it out and much fun was had by all.

Find out more by watching the Voicethread slide show (below) and by reading the chat transcript below.

You can also go and check out the Webheads HQ @ Edunation, where hopefully we'll soon have a copy of the tool that you can play with.

Come and join us there next Monday evening from 20.00GMT...

CHAT TRANSCRIPT:

SusNy Foss: Hi Baldric
SusNy Foss: Edunation 3 can take up to 60 people
Dudeney Ge: Graham - can you hear us now?
SusNy Foss: Hi Graham can you hear us?
Kita Coage: i'v lost sound ....
SusNy Foss: People who wish to use the space for teaching would be added to the Consultants-E group
Kita Coage: back
SusNy Foss: Now we can just lean back and enjoy :-)
Dudeney Ge: Video quality in SL is pretty good, I think
SusNy Foss: Any smart way to see TV screen just in front of my eyes?
SusNy Foss: Cam controls of course, but not fast enough
Dudeney Ge: So put mouse pointer over screen, then Alt + left mouse button + move mouse forward
SusNy Foss: Hmmm - got a trackball style mousie, not working that way
Dudeney Ge shouts: People outside the glass! Come in!!!!!
Pedro Lustre: hi all
Dudeney Ge: Click the loudpseaker (bottom right) to get all seven audio volume controls
Kita Coage: hi Pedro - long time ... :)
Norse Writer: hi thre
Dudeney Ge: Hi Pedro
SusNy Foss: Hi Pedro, welcome
Dudeney Ge: EduNation III has sunk into the ocean, so we're just relaxing instead
You: aha...that's better
Pedro Lustre is Offline
Dudeney Ge: So, Graham, did you have any plans for the new space?
You: good question, Gavin
You: I was going to ask people what they thought should be there tonight
You: what do people think?
You: Sus, what do you think we need to put in the Webheads space?
SusNy Foss: teachersTV look good
SusNy Foss: I'm hypnotized
Dudeney Ge: I had a little idea for a writing class in SL
You: lol
You: really?
Norse Writer: me too Susny
Norse Writer: :)
Dudeney Ge: We're nearly finished designing a Flickr browser that will take a keyword and then go to FLickr and bring back pictures and display them on a screen, one every x second... I thought it might make a fun activity
SusNy Foss: Well, well - as everyone could build there, either there will be a huge amount of useful stuff crowded all over, or chaos
Dudeney Ge: If somebody wanted to do some creative writing - or similar
Dudeney Ge: Chaos might be fun :-)
You: it uses tags to find the pictures I presume?
SusNy Foss: sounds like an interesting engine
Dudeney Ge: Yes, so you can type 'Barcelona' and it will go and get an image tagged with Barcelona
Norse Writer: The flickr idea sound great....
You: sounds like a lot of fun
Dudeney Ge: We've got a basic model working
SusNy Foss: Could you show this now?
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to Barcelona
Norse Writer: btw. where can i get some more info/learn about how to interface web and SL?
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to Paris
Norse Writer: cool
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to baldric
You: seems to work well already Gavin
SusNy Foss: Norse, I've got a SLTweet HUD so I can write on my Twitter form in world
SusNy Foss: I sort of like it
Dudeney Ge: It only does one at a time - I want it to do automatic every x seconds - but it's getting there
Osnacantab Nesterov is Online
Dudeney Ge: Yes, twittering from here is good
You: lol that's funny...looks a little like onme of our cats
Norse Writer: Realy SusNy - i must learn more about that....
Dudeney Ge: You can try it by typing /1 tag and then clicking the screen
SusNy Foss: Where can I see the Flickr screen
Helter Alexandre is Offline
SusNy Foss: Got it
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Norse Writer to Oslo
Flickr Browser whispers: I don't know what kind of picture to show you.
Type '/1 sometag' to tell me what tag to search for on flickr and I'll remember it.
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Norse Writer to Oslo
Dudeney Ge: It'll fall over if everyone does it at the same time :-)
SLTweets Hud v0.78: SLTweets HUD Plus v0.78
SLTweets Hud v0.78: Hello Baldric, ready to Tweet?
SLTweets Hud v0.78: Say '/123 help' for help
SusNy Foss: / secondlife
Norse Writer: he he
Dudeney Ge: There's Oslo, apparently
Flickr Browser whispers: I don't know what kind of picture to show you.
Type '/1 sometag' to tell me what tag to search for on flickr and I'll remember it.
Dudeney Ge: So it's /1 tag
Dudeney Ge: Then left-click to get a pictire
Norse Writer: it is
Flickr Browser whispers: I don't know what kind of picture to show you.
Type '/1 sometag' to tell me what tag to search for on flickr and I'll remember it.
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for SusNy Foss to secondlife
Dudeney Ge: Check the blue floatingtext above it to see if it's fdoing anything at the moment
floor: Please use the laptop keyboard to change slides.
Dudeney Ge: I think it's running slowly due to SL - worked a lot quicker earlier
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to webheads
SusNy Foss: sometimes it would make sense to move away from the group environment and watch one screen only
Norse Writer: Well, SusNy if you could show me to some info about the web interface sometime I would appreciate it
Dudeney Ge: Yep - that can be done by parcelling up the new place if needed
SLTweets Hud v0.78: Contacting server...
Dudeney Ge: So different media can be done in different spaces
Norse Writer: cool
SLTweets Hud v0.78: Your tweet has been posted on Twitter.Com.
Dudeney Ge: The only trouble is you can't parcel floors - only flat space
SusNy Foss: I also heard about a device for Could you place screen in the ceiling so we could lie flat down on the ground (or a mattress)
Dudeney Ge: The screens can go anywhere you like
SusNy Foss: oops - forget about first part of that sentence
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to beer
Dudeney Ge: Hmmmm.... results can be .... unpredictable!
Dudeney Ge: Yay! Beer!
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Baldric Commons to edunation
SusNy Foss: Fruitbars!
Dudeney Ge: You need to click the screen now Baldric
Dudeney Ge: And wait a little
You: ok now I get it
Bee Kerouac is Online
Kita Coage is Online
Dudeney Ge: First you set the tag, then click the screen
Dudeney Ge: It needs a bit of reining
Dudeney Ge: refining
You: what about explicit content - I mean if you don't want that? Can you set it to only retrieve PG photos?
Dudeney Ge: I'm also working on something that grabs a screenshot of a webpage dynamically and displays it on a screen
Dudeney Ge: No - I'd have to investigate, Baldric - not sure if FLickr divides things up like that
Dudeney Ge: The FLickr API is a little complicated
You: I think you can turn on a parental or safe search button
Dudeney Ge: Ah, ok - so it must be in the API as well - I'll take a look
SusNy Foss: hmmm, explicit content - does that mean brutal violence?
Bee Kerouac is Offline
Dudeney Ge: Amongst other things, presumably :-)
You: here comes dennis
Flickr Browser whispers: I don't know what kind of picture to show you.
Type '/1 sometag' to tell me what tag to search for on flickr and I'll remember it.
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for SusNy Foss to newborn
You: hi Dennis
Dudeney Ge: Hi Dennis
floor: Please use the laptop keyboard to change slides.
You: come down here and join us
SusNy Foss: Dennis haning around!
Osnacantab Nesterov: Hi, everyone. SL has been down for me.
SusNy Foss: hanging
You: we've had problems too
Bee Kerouac is Online
SusNy Foss: which keys could be used to change slides?
Dudeney Ge: Keys? As in keyboard keys?
SusNy Foss: is there a "laptop keybard " somewhere
Dudeney Ge: At the moment you just click the screen to get a new one
SusNy Foss: That's what the Fkickr screen whispers to me
Dudeney Ge: I think that's the PPT screen behind it you're clicking Sus
SusNy Foss: OHh I see
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Baldric Commons to osnacantab
SusNy Foss: multiple screen challenged
Dudeney Ge: That photo doesn't look like Dennis at all!
You: here comes bee
Dudeney Ge: Hey Bee!
SusNy Foss: Hello Bee
Bee Kerouac: ouch
You: hi bee..one more space left here
Bee Kerouac: hi there
SusNy Foss: have a beanbag seat
You: come and take a seat
Osnacantab Nesterov: Hey. How did my photo get there?
SusNy Foss: lol
SusNy Foss: you myst have tagged it on Flickr
SusNy Foss: with osnacantab
Osnacantab Nesterov: I did.
You: lol...I put your tag in
Osnacantab Nesterov: Harlech Beach!
You: I like this a lot Gavin
SusNy Foss: This is a Flickr show machine that is tag driven
Dudeney Ge: It's quite good, isn't it?
SusNy Foss: love it
Dudeney Ge: Lots of possiblities
You: bee, this tool Gavin's developing displays tagged flickr photos
Bee Kerouac: looks interesting
SusNy Foss: is there a script
Bee Kerouac: how do you do it?
Dudeney Ge: I'm working with EP to get it working perfectly - she's a genius
Dudeney Ge: Yes. it's a script that links into the Flickr API
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to octopus
SusNy Foss: Is that a script that you're going to make available or sell
Dudeney Ge: Free, when it's finished
SusNy Foss: sounds perfect
Dudeney Ge: One tries :-)
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to baldric
Osnacantab Nesterov: How does this marvellous free motive work on the Internet?
Bee Kerouac: too much lag here
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Baldric Commons to beeconch
Dudeney Ge: I love the whole Baldric = cat thing
Dudeney Ge: You're lagging?
You: just tagged one of bees photos
Able Thursday is Offline
Bee Kerouac: lagging behind...definitely
Dudeney Ge: I've only got 1.2% packet loss
You: I suppose if there's no image it shows the black screen Gavin?
Dudeney Ge: I'm getting 57 FPS - is anyone else lagging hugely?
Dudeney Ge: Yep
Bee Kerouac: almost 3rds red here
You: I'm not lagging
Bee Kerouac: how do you project the photos from Flickr here?
Osnacantab Nesterov: I'm seeing 4 black tyres.
Norse Writer: im not lagging right now
Bee Kerouac: can I project mine?
SusNy Foss: apparently no problem here
Dudeney Ge: The screen queries the Flickr API then sets the parcel media texture to the image, Bee
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Baldric Commons to hss07
Bee Kerouac: greek to me but understand API somewhat
Dudeney Ge: Bee - type
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to tag
Dudeney Ge: and then left-click the screen
Bee Kerouac: oh this is the summer school
Dudeney Ge: type /1 tag
Bee Kerouac: in january
Dudeney Ge: e.g. /1 Barcelona
SusNy Foss: yes, you're right
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for SusNy Foss to Copenhagen
You: it works really well with special tags
Dudeney Ge: Yes, it does
floor: Please use the laptop keyboard to change slides.
Bee Kerouac: 1/ozzie
Dudeney Ge: I'm going to try to get it to set a diferent media texture for each avatar - so we could have one with communal browsing and one that only you see what's on it
Bee Kerouac: how do Ihange the tags?
Dudeney Ge: So one screen would serve each avatar the picture of their choice - on the same screen
Dudeney Ge: Bee type /1 tag
Dudeney Ge: e.g. /1 Barcelona
SusNy Foss: very useful feature indeed
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Bee Kerouac to ozzie
Norse Writer: yeah, a realy nice feature.
Dudeney Ge: Then left-click the screen to get an image
Dudeney Ge: You have to wait about five seconds or so after you left-click the screen while it gets the image and displays it
Bee Kerouac: oopsz..this is not mine
SusNy Foss: others might use same tag Bee
Dudeney Ge: Must be a cat called ozzie
SusNy Foss: yes :-) cute
Flickr Browser whispers: I don't know what kind of picture to show you.
Type '/1 sometag' to tell me what tag to search for on flickr and I'll remember it.
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Bee Kerouac to babi
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Kita Coage to kulkanin
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Baldric Commons to farruca
Dudeney Ge: Anyway, it's one new tool we're working on for some fun. When it's finished I'll dsitribute copies
Bee Kerouac: lol
SusNy Foss: Please do
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to gavindudeney
Dudeney Ge: Nothing :-(
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to London Bus
Dudeney Ge: Hmmm......
Bee Kerouac: roling restarts
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for SusNy Foss to Farum
Dudeney Ge: People need a lesson in good tagging!
SusNy Foss: tag literacy
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Baldric Commons to dudeney
Dudeney Ge: Still, I think it might have a few creative uses
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Bee Kerouac to mairinque
SusNy Foss: this is near my home!
SusNy Foss: our local lake
Dudeney Ge: I think you're confusing the poor thing!
Dudeney Ge: Nice!
Bee Kerouac: lol
You: ha ha...we're getting carried away
Dudeney Ge: I think one that could serve individual avatars would be good too
SusNy Foss: I think I would call this a good evening
Bee Kerouac: what did you do beforehand?
SusNy Foss: and back leaned
Dudeney Ge: Chatted, watched some Teachers TV, wondered where EduNation III had gone!
Bee Kerouac: look
Norse Writer: :)
You: we were wiaitng to get into the Webheads HQ bee...but never made it out of these comfy seats
SusNy Foss: smalltalked a bit about rolling restart and lost horizons
Dudeney Ge: And islands underwater
Bee Kerouac: right
Dudeney Ge: They say sims come up 'some hours after the rolling restart finishes'
Dudeney Ge: So I guess EduNation III will be back tomorrow
SusNy Foss: has anyone reconstructed Atlantis
Osnacantab Nesterov: Do you all prefer typing to talking?
You: funnt though...the other two islands also restarted but they are up now
Dudeney Ge: I quite like typing
You: me too
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Bee Kerouac to mairinque
Bee Kerouac: ah sushi is there
Dudeney Ge: I have someone sitting near me watching TV
Dudeney Ge: So voice can be annoying
Dudeney Ge: Sushi!
Osnacantab Nesterov: I didn't realise sound was on!!
Bee Kerouac: anyone wants to buy a puppy called sushi?
Bee Kerouac: a giant schanuzer
Chris Eggplant is Offline
Dudeney Ge: Not really - the cat would;t be too happy
Bee Kerouac: schnauzer
Dudeney Ge: Dennis - do you hear voice ok?
Bee Kerouac: I do
Bee Kerouac: can hear you laughing
Bee Kerouac: this would be a wonderful device for my keynote
Bee Kerouac: beautiful
floor: Please use the laptop keyboard to change slides.
Chris Eggplant is Online
Bee Kerouac: can you have a slideshow on this?
Dudeney Ge: Bee - we're working on a slideshow mode now
Dudeney Ge: So it will do a tag and display an image every x seconds
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Norse Writer to Flaam
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Bee Kerouac to nola2007
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Kita Coage to kulkanin
Ladyjane Plympton is Offline
Bee Kerouac: how do you call this device?
Osnacantab Nesterov: Who?
Dudeney Ge: It's a prototype of a Flickr Browser
Dudeney Ge: But it hasn't got a name yet
Dudeney Ge: Maybe SLickr!
SusNy Foss: Dennis, can you hear us
SusNy Foss: SLickr
Bee Kerouac: good name
Osnacantab Nesterov: No. I can hear you fine....My wife just came in and reminded me we are leaving early for Berlin.
Bee Kerouac: dennis travels all the time !
You: Dennis is presenting SL in Berlin, isn't that right?
Osnacantab Nesterov: 3 hours by train.
SusNy Foss: so does Bee
Dudeney Ge: Are you talking about SL, Dennis?
You: Dogme in SL...very impressive
Dudeney Ge: Nice!
SusNy Foss: for which audience Dennis?
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to Berlin
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Bee Kerouac to natureincircles
Bee Kerouac: I cannot see them
Nobody Fugazi is Online
Flickr Browser: Setting the tag for Dudeney Ge to golden gate
Bee Kerouac: lots of echo here
Bee Kerouac: thank you for sharing it with us
Howie Yoshikawa: ok, good night
Bee Kerouac: gnight
You: goodnight everyone
Dudeney Ge: Goodnight!
You: good luck in berlin dennis
Dudeney Ge is Offline
Osnacantab Nesterov is Offline
SusNy Foss: Pajama party!
Kita Coage: nice meeting with you again :) hope to see you soon again

Is there a demand for studying English in Second Life?

2007-09-10T11:25:00.000+02:00

In Japan, 30% of those surveyed by Goo Research’s online monitor group would like to. Or at least that's what was said in April this year (I've only just seen this now) - I wonder, if you asked the same people now, would the answer be any different? How many of those people have tried to study English in Second Life? And, Perhaps the answer would have been different if they had used a different verb instead of study - learn or practise, for example.

It's amazing what you find by chance...

I came across the What Japan Thinks survey ("Are you interested in studying English in Second Life?") while trying to find out the source of an extremely annoying error message* that keeps nagging my avatar (see below). Needless to say, I got sidetracked and now find myself blogging about the survey instead of finding the solution to my Second Life problem.

Learning a language in Second Life

This topic was discussed extensively at the 2007 Second Life Languages Seminar, and I recommend anyone interested in the subject to listen to the recordings, which are still available at Edunation (where the seminar was held)

From what I gathered, I think most people agreed the idea of supplementing (i.e. using it for blended learning) is the most probable use of Second Life.

The British Council Second Life project (which I'm involved in), for example, will be using this virtual world as a way of having contact with people the organisation does not normally reach (as well as exisiting customers) , and offering extra resources, events, etc. for learners to supplement face-to-face classes. You can read more about this at my avatar's blog (not much there at the moment, but I'll be posting more frequently from now on).

The Second-Life-only company Languagelab.com , however, will be offering courses there (they are still in beta at the moment) , and they have started offering a variety of 'formal, informal and social' ways of learning English. I had the opportunity to take a tour of the languagelab.com islands this summer and was most impressed with the amount of thought and work that has gone into the company and methodology. They also have some very bright minds working on the project, which should show favourable results.

There are also other people that have been using Second Life for teaching language classes, and have gone through some interesting changes in the way their facilities are being used as a result. The English Village is the one that springs to mind, who have changed the way they conduct classes, from imitating sit-down-real-life classes through holodecks and (the latest I've seen) pirate role-playing games.

One thing is certain - I'm certain that we're going to see and hear a lot more about language learning in Second Life over the next year or so.

* The annoying message is one that informs me "Online Monitor: Time's Up, Baldric Commons - you need a break from the computer..." when I've been in Second Life for over 30 minutes. I can't seem to find what device is causing this message to be displayed - if anyone can help, please let me know and I'll buy you a virtual beer...

Webheads Tour Second Life #2

2007-09-10T09:33:00.000+02:00

WEBHEADS DISCUSSION TOUR #2

REAL LIFE EUROPEAN CITIES IN SECOND LIFE

For anyone out there interested in meeting up in Second Life on Mondays, I thought it would be interesting to continue the tour of Real Cities we started last week.

We only got to visit two, and there are lots more that we can take a look at.

As the best part of last week's tour was having a guide speak us through it in Wonderful Denmark, I thought I could attempt to do something similar in..

* Barcelona
* Liverpool

and if anyone comes along who'd like to give a tour of another destination, please let us know. Here are some of the other cities I proposed visiting last week...

* Moscow
* Amsterdam
* Lisbon
* Brussels
* Dublin

FOR DISCUSSION:

Second Life has its fair share of Real Life cities that people have
created. Why build a recreation of a Real Life city in a virtual world
where what you build is confined only by your imagination? Do these
places attract native speakers from these countries and people
interested in learning the language associated with the cities? What
can you learn about culture from visiting these places?

Join us for the discussion tour and find out the answer to these
questions and more.

DATE/TIME : Monday, September 10, 2007 at 20:00:00 UTC time: http://tinyurl.com/39j7n9 =
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=9&day=10&year=2007&hour=20&min=0&sec=0&p1=0

MEETING PLACE: Meet at the Webheads hut at Edunation :
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Edunation/73/51/22/

CONTACT: IM Baldric Commons for a teleport link if you're late

NOTE: If you activate the Second Life Voice Client before you come, you will get more out of this experience: In Second Life, go to Edit ->Preferences->Voice Chat and click on the box 'Enable Voice Chat' __._,_.___

Webheads Tour #1 of Second Life: Real Life Cities in Second Life

2007-09-04T09:41:00.001+02:00

The idea behind this tour was to visit a number of cities in Second Life that have been based on their Real Life counterparts. There are lots of these and they are mainly European cities for some reason, so we decided to visit a number of them:

In the usual Webheads fashion, it didn't turn out as planned, but what did happen was very educational ("inspiring, even" was a comment I received from one of the participants)

The general idea I had in mind was for us to visit these places and try and find out the answer to some of these questions:

why do people choose to recreate Real Life places in in a virtual world where what you build is confined only by your imagination?
Do these places attract native speakers from these countries?
Are these places interesting visits for learning the language associated with the cities?
What can you learn about culture from visiting these places?

I was surprised at the turnout, and after briefly assembling at the Webheads beach hut in Edunation, I handed out a landmark and we headed off to Venice Island.

This place is not unique - you can go to another sim called Venice , but here the feel is quite artificial and the buildings are mostly boxes. It's so obviously a quick build by somebody out to try and make money - the lack of love and care comes through and (because of this?) whenever I have been there there's never been anyone around nor a gondola in sight.

There are gondolas at Venezia, another Venice build in Second Life, and here the buildings and atmosphere is better. Far more love and care has gone into this sim and there's distinct lack of tacky publicity (which you can find all over the last Venice build).

I suggest that a field trip to all three, followed by a discussion might make an interesting discussion activity for learners in Second Life, especially if you ask learners to take photos and write up their opinion in a blog afterwards.

After ten minutes I think we were all tired of wandering around aimlessly in Venice, and disappointed at finding a lack of Italians (there had been groups of Italians the last time I visited, I wanted to tell everyone - perhaps they've moved on to a better place?)

Sus then suggested we visit Wonderful Denmark, and she IMd some friends and arranged a guided tour of the sim. This tour ended up being so absorbing that we didn't make it to any of the other cities...

Our guide was fabulous and used a combination of the Second Life voice client and relayed text (not everyone had voice installed) to talk us through the different spaces of the sim, based on a typical Danish town from a popular Danish TV series. It was obvious that unlike the Venice sim, this is a real community of people working together to create something special - there were no shortage of people here, and signs of life everywhere we went : a healthy mix of commercial, cultural and leisure spaces that is obviously being used by many. A great example of virtual tourism and it woul also be a fabulous place for anyone interested in learning Danish to head for.

I have included the (partial) transcript of our tour below so you can get an idea of the experience, but I highly recommend you go and take the tour yourself.

More photos can be found here

TOUR TRANSCRIPT

You: we can go to Edunation now Vance...
Webhead Link: will you t/p me?
Papallona Flow: Ok
Red Seesaw: ok
You: I'll tp you vance
Webhead Link: thanks
Webhead Link: I'm so lazy
Charles3D Raymaker: great carpet
Charles3D Raymaker: and wall :)
You: hi evertyone
Kati Voss: Hello Baldric
Wlodek Barbosa: Hi
Gwen Gwasi: hi
SusNy Foss: Hello everyone :-)
Kati Voss: Thanks for inviting us on the grand tour
Gwen Gwasi: yes, thank a lot
You: thanks for coming!
You: I didn't think so many would come!
Gwen Gwasi: :-)
SusNy Foss: Good to be among webheads friends, old and new
You: I thought it would be nice to take a tour of some of the RL cities in SL
Charles3D Raymaker: well an interesting topic
SusNy Foss: There are some Danish cities as well, mostly polulated by Danes speaking Danish
You: to do some exploring and to see if they are a magnet for culture/language
SusNy Foss: (I'm a Dane in Denmark)
Gwen Gwasi: yes, I dont recommend Frankfurt Main City
Gwen Gwasi: but Barcelona is nice
You: excellent sus - we can visit one of those too if you like
You: are we going to use text or can we use voice too?
SusNy Foss: the Swedish culture institute is more international
SusNy Foss: I would need to install the new version to get voice, sorry
Webhead Link: what do we have to do to use voice?
You: that's ok
Webhead Link: it seems to have just happened before
You: we'll stick to text
Gwen Gwasi: yes, need a new version here too
You: however, tell me something
Gwen Gwasi: but I can change computers
Gwen Gwasi: and on the other one it works already
Gwen Gwasi: good voip
You: if I speak and you don't have the voice client installed does that mean you can't hear me?
Gwen Gwasi: 20min and you stop hearing the other person
You: let me try it
Webhead Link: it worked on this computer before
Webhead Link: how do you get it going?
Kati Voss: yes
Babaluna Cuddihy: sorry voice is not working on my pce - i am afraid
Kati Voss: I can hear you
Gwen Gwasi: so I change pc
You: ok, not to worry
You: well, we can use a combination of text and voice
SusNy Foss: I'm installing new version for audio in another PC now
SusNy Foss: takes some time to get ready
Charles3D Raymaker: no problem
Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
Connected
SusNy Foss: but go ahead and speak :-)
You: if anyone wants to set voice, you need to go to Edit->PReferences.>Voice Chat
You: and then click on 'Enable Voice Chat'
Misha Writer: oops - headphones on then!
You: Shall we start with our first city?
SusNy Foss: ok
You: I suggest we head off to Venice
You: to see if we can find anyone speaking Italian
Kati Voss: :)
Gwen Gwasi: Venice sounds nice
You: I'll give everyone a landmark
Gwen Gwasi is Online
Misha Writer: a bit watery
Wlodek Barbosa accepted your inventory offer.
Charles3D Raymaker: great
Webhead Link accepted your inventory offer.
Charles3D Raymaker: hehe soggy venice
Kati Voss accepted your inventory offer.
Charles3D Raymaker accepted your inventory offer.
SusNy Foss accepted your inventory offer.
Misha Writer accepted your inventory offer.
Gwen Gwasi accepted your inventory offer.
Babaluna Cuddihy accepted your inventory offer.
You: if we make each other friends too, that should mean we don't lose each other
You: ok, shall we go?
Gwen Gwasi: yes
Koen Antonioni: right
You: see you all in Venice
Kati Voss: I'm ready
Koen Antonioni accepted your inventory offer.
Kati Voss declined your inventory offer.
You: open the landmark and teleport there
You: IM me if you get lost
Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
Connected
Gwen Gwasi: SusNy you need to move
Gwen Gwasi: otherwise we stand on top of you
Koen Antonioni: Buona sera
Gwen Gwasi: buona sera
Kati Voss: ciao
Misha Writer: wondered why I was so high up
You: here we are...
You: buona sera
Egmont Sperber: hi
You: let's take a look around and then meet here in say 5 minutes?
Kati Voss: ok
You: hi egmont
Koen Antonioni: can we have voice here?
Gwen Gwasi: che bella la vita a Venice
Gwen Gwasi: per un baccione
You: I think I want to take a gondola ride
Webhead Link: how did you manage that
Misha Writer: can we all get in?
Webhead Link: I did a sail thing and just flopped on it
You: right click vance
Webhead Link: here comes another
Webhead Link: I did, and chose sail
You: it's not going anywhere though
You: misha, I didn't know you cared
You: lol
Misha Writer: yes, close, isn't it
Misha Writer: I'm being offered Venice 1 or 2
SusNy Foss: Baldric, I have made an appointment with some Danes - we can meet now - I AM sailing!
You: you got it to work sus - well done!

Kati Voss: wow, pretty nice bridge
SusNy Foss: Oh Kati, how romantic!
Kati Voss: where are you from, Sus?
Indigo Mougin is Online
Misha Writer: can you rt click & sit?
You: sorry
Koen Antonioni: same here
You: not much language activity going on here
Koen Antonioni: good to see you started blogging again
You: yes, I'm happy too - want to keep it up- I'll write this up later
Jamesinparis Picnic is Online
Papallona Flow is Offline
Koen Antonioni: I dived into this ARG bizz too, interesting stuff
Jamesinparis Picnic: hi
Koen Antonioni: hello
Jamesinparis Picnic: hi do you have mike's active or are we just text chatting?
Jamesinparis Picnic: hi everyone
Charles3D Raymaker: hi James
Red Seesaw: hi
Koen Antonioni: yes I would be interested to try the voice functionaliy
Red Seesaw: oh a gondola
You: Hi Red
Jamesinparis Picnic: hi sorry i'm late... I had to update the program
Red Seesaw: hi
Head Teacher is Online
Charles3D Raymaker: well voice works sometimes, sort of :)
You: Sus has suggested going to a representative Danish city
Jamesinparis Picnic: fine with me
You: there are friends of hers there now
Koen Antonioni: Ok, let's
Jamesinparis Picnic: i might well get lost... how do we travel?
Charles3D Raymaker: this sim seems pretty popular, is it mostly our party?
Babaluna Cuddihy: do you think those cities would attract people in sl to learn another language?
Jamesinparis Picnic: ok we just click on the slurl right???
You: yes James
Charles3D Raymaker: where are we going next?
Jamesinparis Picnic: ok I'm going I think
You: then that should open the map and we tp over
You: shall we go?
You: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wonderful%20Denmark/131/115/22

Charles3D Raymaker: great thank you
You: if anyone gets lost, ask for a tp
You: see you over there
Pach Voom: SusNy : go to the cityhall, it's on my right
Pine Greenwood: sikke en trængsel
Josephine Planer: ja det må man sige. nu lagger det lidt
Pine Greenwood: det lakker mod enden
You: hi
Josephine Planer: haha
Webhead Link: party time
Ane Rhode: Det er bare dig som gør det Jose..
Ane Rhode: Har du vidst altid gjort...
Josephine Planer: hvad gør jeg??
Ane Rhode: Du står stille...
Ane Rhode: LOL
Josephine Planer: står ikke stille, jeg danser
SusNy Foss: we're about 8 people I think
You: hi sus
niels Mizser: ok
Charles3D Raymaker: ty gwen :)
Gwen Gwasi: hi Charles
Charles3D Raymaker: hi there
Jamesinparis Picnic: hi everyone
Jamesinparis Picnic: i'm back again
SusNy Foss: oh - what a crowd!
Matilda Little: ja hade 1 expresso men veek
Gwen Gwasi: you are my neighbour right
niels Mizser: jeg körer dansk og så oversätter us
niels Mizser: sus
Gwen Gwasi: ah, dont speak Danish
Unik Mayo: nå oki ellers sødt af dig
Kati Voss: me neither...
Charles3D Raymaker: neighbor? where?
SusNy Foss: ok - Niels will speak Danish I I'll translate!
Charles3D Raymaker: beside you now
Matilda Little: :)
You: excellent
Pach Voom: OK susnu du siger hvornår vi starter
Gwen Gwasi: who knows danish?
SusNy Foss: Can we start now?
Pach Voom: here we got the cityghall
Jamesinparis Picnic: it's great I hear lots of danish in my headphones...
Pach Voom: its not a house from RL
SusNy Foss: I don't have audio tonight
Jamesinparis Picnic: someone helped me to find you and explained that the town was based on a tv series
Liv Cioc: hva så diz
Free Radar HUD v1.1 by Crystal Gadgets
Gwen Gwasi: ah, I want to hear too
Gwen Gwasi: will change PC now
Liv Cioc: hvad går du og laver?
Pach Voom: every house has a funktion, you can go into eatch building and se things
Gunnar Randt: hehe
Dizzy Larsson: Hejsa JM
Pach Voom: we go down Westergade (weststreet)
Gunnar Randt: hej på er
Dizzy Larsson: Jamen suser lidt rundt
Matilda Little: whos talking everyone ?
Liv Cioc: heeeej john ;-))
SusNy Foss: Follow Mr. Voom :-)
Johnmartin Larsson: Hejsa alle
You: sounds great
Unik Mayo: heyyyy JM
SusNy Foss: he's a local
Pach Voom: Just follow Niels all the time
Pach Voom: This is Hithouse wuitch was very populare in the 1960's in Copenhagen
Jamesinparis Picnic: lets go with him
Pach Voom: you are welcome to go inside
SusNy Foss: Hit house was a dance place
niels Mizser: picture is from famos danish bands
SusNy Foss: great!

You: I think the voice has been turned off in here, is that right?
Gwen Gwasi: no music
SusNy Foss: I never made it by then, but some older friends came to Hit House
niels Mizser: yes no voice
Pach Voom: No not tonight, but sometimes
Kati Voss: I can hear the music
Charles3D Raymaker: your music player is at the bottom of your screen gwan
Gwen Gwasi: ah, music alright
Charles3D Raymaker: gwen
Gwen Gwasi: nice music
Gwen Gwasi: yes Charles
niels Mizser: ok we leve hit house
Charles3D Raymaker: great club
Misha Writer is Offline
Pach Voom: you can all come outside
Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
Connected
Misha Writer is Online
Cobalt Motors - 59' Kaddy Kruiser: Anti-Theft system activated. Enjoy your flight.
SusNy Foss: Many Danes meet here, right Niels and Pach?
Gwen Gwasi is Offline
niels Mizser: waiting for the last one
Gwen Gwasi is Online
Pach Voom: Yes there are more than 500 members of this town¨
Pach Voom: moestly danes
You: do you find anyone here trying to learn Danish?
Gwen Gwasi: ah, I can finally hear now
niels Mizser: this is the waitingroom
niels Mizser: with old danish signs
SusNy Foss: This is kind of Virtual Roskilde famous from a TV show almost like Upstairs and Downstairs
niels Mizser: famos tuborg to
Gwen Gwasi: hi Vance, shame you cant hear
Webhead Link: why not i wonder
Gwen Gwasi: update the software
Webhead Link: I hear sl sound
You: that's odd vance - you had voice on Saturday
niels Mizser: korsbäk has the longest railway about 100 yard

Gwen Gwasi: a train that cant drive
Gwen Gwasi: never mind
SusNy Foss: Korsbaek has everything you would need!
Jamesinparis Picnic: it's a hundred years old?.
niels Mizser: this town is typical 1930-1945
Misha Writer: was that the train puffing?
niels Mizser: the tv serie
Charles3D Raymaker: around the left I think here
SusNy Foss: I am sitting in tge train!
SusNy Foss: my wings are poking outside the window
Charles3D Raymaker: oh I heard someone clearing their throat! Voice :)
Koen Antonioni: that is in the gestures menu, trying things out actually
niels Mizser: we walk to the littel townplace
Charles3D Raymaker: ah ok
Babaluna Cuddihy: well what interests me is -do you think those replic placesa atttrac people more then other sl places?
Babaluna Cuddihy: or to start learning its language
Charles3D Raymaker: more than fantasy places you mean?
Babaluna Cuddihy: y
niels Mizser: here we ha some buldings from tv serie
niels Mizser: it is very likli danmark
SusNy Foss: It is very much how we think Denmark was back then
Babaluna Cuddihy: yes its lovely!
Charles3D Raymaker: it is charming
Jamesinparis Picnic: niel is explaining the economic structure
SusNy Foss: our nostalgic sense
Jamesinparis Picnic: the stores here are real stores in denmark
Gwen Gwasi: hey this is even 3 D sound
Gwen Gwasi: wow
Babaluna Cuddihy: i just wonder as it seams all those real live place to be empty
Gwen Gwasi: when I turn my head, it fades too
SusNy Foss: my grandfather was born here, and my grandson :-)
Gwen Gwasi: not only distance
You: do you get sponsorship from the companies?
Gwen Gwasi: impressive
Jamesinparis Picnic: a company that makes beds... about 12 companies
Jamesinparis Picnic: in all
niels Mizser: we can say this part is the historik part of the city
Webhead Link is Offline
Jamesinparis Picnic: and they use real money as well as lindens
SusNy Foss: Niels, who sponsored this, do you know?
Door: SusNy Foss is at the door.
Gwen Gwasi: ah, a church
Koen Antonioni: this is interactive audio I assume: triggered by our presence?
Helter Alexandre is Online
Jamesinparis Picnic: pach explained that there are real tombstones outside... that are in memory of real people
You: hi Helter, welcome to Denmark
You: we are in the middle of a city tour
Jamesinparis Picnic: sus is here..
SusNy Foss: I was working on my other PC, sorry
You: susny - love the way your name is pronounced!
Jamesinparis Picnic: susny is Danish... so Pach is saying that she can tell us about the island

Jamesinparis Picnic: it gives us historical perspective about how people used to live in the 30s
SusNy Foss: Yes
SusNy Foss: because this is modeled over a TV serial in 24 chapters called Matador (Monopoly)
SusNy Foss: it was turned in the 70's but shown again just recently on national TV
Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
Gwen Gwasi is Online
Helter Alexandre is Online
Misha Writer is Online
Unik Mayo: okey så du var heldig
Kati Voss: lagging big time though
Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
Connected
Gwen Gwasi: hi
Babaluna Cuddihy: is it mostly commercial area or also residential -anybody knows?
Jamesinparis Picnic: a unino like a trade union?
Doctor Asp: most shops in Wonderful Denmark are owned by RL compagnies
Jamesinparis Picnic: we're heading into the harbour area now...
Babaluna Cuddihy: ah kk-- ty
Doctor Asp: btw - I am the manager of Wonderful Denmark :-)
Gwen Gwasi: you dont seem to be hearing me anymore
Charles3D Raymaker: it is actually unusual to see so many real world products for sale in SL
Babaluna Cuddihy: congratulation -y did a wonderful job
Doctor Asp: feel free to ask any questions you might have
Jamesinparis Picnic: the 12 real life companies ...one of them is here
Gwen Gwasi: thanks again
Jamesinparis Picnic: doctor asp is the owner of the iland i believe
Doctor Asp: JYSK, 1902 and Krifa are all RL compagnies
Misha Writer: Thanks Pach, a v interesting tour
Charles3D Raymaker: yes thank you very much, a wonderful site
SusNy Foss: And they are sponsors?
Doctor Asp: we also have a TV compagny and a travel agency

Doctor Asp: no - they are customers
Gwen Gwasi: so this is the end of the tour
Gwen Gwasi: right?
SusNy Foss: Interesting
niels Mizser: we come to the tv company later
Head Teacher: thanks everyone. I really enjoyed this - really interesting
Gwen Gwasi: me too
Doctor Asp: they rent a shop here on a monthly basis to promote there RL activities
Head Teacher is Offline
niels Mizser: ok
Gwen Gwasi: ever so great
Kati Voss: yes, thank you all
Jamesinparis Picnic: they even have a tv station
Babaluna Cuddihy: are y promoting it in rl to make the join sl -Doctor asp?
Jamesinparis Picnic: let's go to the harbor...
SusNy Foss: ask me for eventual translation :-)
niels Mizser: this is at typical danish haburg
Jamesinparis Picnic: a typical danish harbor
Jamesinparis Picnic: why is it typical? the fishing boat?
Jamesinparis Picnic: Fisheauktion is where the catch is sold?
Jamesinparis Picnic: auction?
SusNy Foss: yes

Falk Bergman is Online
SusNy Foss: and there's a smokery chimney
Kati Voss is Offline
Jamesinparis Picnic: bbc world journalists do this too of course
Jamesinparis Picnic: so this is a real danish station with a presence here
You: this is the latest from the BBC World Service
Gwen Gwasi is Online
niels Mizser: in this faktory you can se some of the things from ouer builders
Gwen Gwasi: my voice doent work anymore
Gwen Gwasi: shame
Jamesinparis Picnic: this factory makes things for sl people

Doctor Asp: note that the brown signs actually are in english :-)
SusNy Foss: rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrI have never seen so many corners of Korsbaek before
Jamesinparis Picnic: korsbaek is fascinating
SusNy Foss: This is a great place for learning!
Second Life: Items coming in too fast, automatic preview disabled for 10 seconds.
Misha Writer: most of your visitors are English speakers?
Pach Voom: It sure is
SusNy Foss: I already have a hoge horse now I also have a cow!
Gwen Gwasi: hi
Babaluna Cuddihy: are ther danish courses as well here?
Gwen Gwasi: voice crashed
Jamesinparis Picnic: the bikes are often available in Denmark sl
Gwen Gwasi: must reboot
Gwen Gwasi is Offline
Jamesinparis Picnic: you pay a deposit but it's returned when you return the bike
Babaluna Cuddihy: oh clever system
Babaluna Cuddihy: saves off the litter
Jamesinparis Picnic: bikes are available like that in all the cities in denmark
Jamesinparis Picnic: and there are lots of bike paths so it's not too iffy
CJ Tomorrow: Fulgte der ikke en bjørneskinshue med
Jamesinparis Picnic: i'm wondering if the webheads are going to move on soon or not
CJ Tomorrow: er skin også nyt?
Gwen Gwasi is Online

Burgess & Sons standing double bass: Beginning playback...
Burgess & Sons standing double bass: Playback Halted...
You: thankyou so much for the tour
Charles3D Raymaker: yes, thank you, it was wonderful
Doctor Asp: you are welcome back anytime
Doctor Asp: remember to create a Landmark
Wlodek Barbosa: Thank you! This place is GREAT!
Burgess & Sons Grand Piano (Goldberg Edition): Beginning playback...
Burgess & Sons Grand Piano (Goldberg Edition): Playback Halted...
Misha Writer: well I'm playing this double bass but I can't hear any music . . .
Doctor Asp: glad you like it
Doctor Asp: luckely:)
You: yes it is...
Doctor Asp: hehe
Misha Writer: who's singing?
Misha Writer: is it Niels?
Pedro Lustre is Online
Misha Writer: or is it Pach??
niels Mizser: thank to you to
Doctor Asp: i think its playback
SL:Tenor Steel-Pan (RED): Touch to Change Pattern
niels Mizser: yes we like to do that
You: thanks a lot for the tour
Jamesinparis Picnic: thank you and Niels for this great tour!
You: got to go - bye everyone
Doctor Asp: look for the groupname WD Byguide
Pach Voom: your all welcome
Gwen Gwasi: thanks a lot Pach

The Interactive Whiteboard - white elephant or teacher's pet?

2007-08-31T10:01:00.000+02:00

The Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) is a technology that promises to truly transform the classroom and yet is seen as a threat or a waste of money by many teachers. Their views range from luddite, regarding the introduction of any teaching technology as unnecessarily contaminating the classroom to the (more reasonable) preoccupation that this tool will lead to a overly teacher-focused environment and a group of learners passively sitting dazzled by the bells and whistles used by the sage on the stage.

It doesn't have to be that way though. In this post, I will reflect upon the recent discussion on the Dogme (teaching unplugged) list about the pros and cons of IWBs, and put forward the view that the key to a successful IWB implementation is in the training, something which seems to be missing when many organisations unpack and install these shiny new toys.

A good workman never blames his tools

Before I continue, let's stop and take a look at the tool itself. There are many different types of IWBs, but features are similar (consult the Wikipedia entry on Interactive Whiteboards for further details).

The market leaders at the moment are Promethean, Smart and Mimio. These manufacturers make IWBs which have similar features (but with some important distinctions) but it is important to note that the software used by each company is not compatible. Thus, the first important decision to make before buying is which one to choose.

Smart technologies seems to have been around the longest and is very common in the USA, and this is why many people still call IWBs Smartboards, but this is the equivalent to calling a vacuum cleaner a Hoover.

Promethean appears to have gained more ground recently and is very popular in the UK and Australia. The British Council (my employer - I should declare now that I have a bias for Promethean boards because they are the ones I have used the most), for example, is installing ACTIVBoards in many of their teaching centres around the world.

Mimio seems to have become popular of late because they offer the possibility of turning regular whiteboards into IWBs, thus being a lower cost solution. I have no direct experience of the Mimio system, but I do know colleagues who have tried it and were not that impressed.

Apart from the hardware, careful attention should be paid to the software, how it works and how it is supported. This is the key to IWB functionality and makes the big difference between using an IWB or a data projector (beamer) and a standard whiteboard. Most IWB software works like a combination between a graphics package and presentation software (e.g. Powerpoint). Certainly, teachers who have used graphics software before have a much easier time than those who haven't.

What differences are there between software? Much is down to look and feel, but, for example, you can write on a smartboard with your finger, but need a special pen to write on a Promethean ACTIVboard.

Software support is important too: Promethean, for example, offers online training and accreditation and a user site, Promethean Planet, whose forums (where teachers share resources, tips and ideas) are second to none. An important reason why the British Council chose the Promethean IWB system was because the licence includes the ability to install the software on their home computers (so they can plan from home) and a free student version (view only) which means they can review flipcharts (what the Promethean IWB created materials are called) at home.

Interactive White Elephant

The discussion on the Dogme (teaching unplugged) list began when Scott Thornbury appealed to its members for "ammunition" after calling the IWB an 'interactive white elephant' during a conference in Brazil.

It wasn't the first time that the subject of IWBs had appeared in the Dogme list. Previously, in April 2007, Alan Pulverness had mentioned that there was a tendency for "the technology to
produce a more frontal style of teaching, and consequently fewer opportunities for genuine interaction."

I think this is true if teachers are let loose without any training on how to use the IWB effectively. One of the ironic things about the IWB is that although it resembles a tool that is familiar to all teachers, it requires a sea change in methodology if it is to be used optimally in the classroom. Of course, you can use it in the same way as any other (black or white) board (i.e. by walking into class and writing on it without any prior preparation), but this is akin to using a truck to drive to the corner shop for groceries and coming back home with a bottle of milk and a tin of baked beans.

Strangely enough, writing on an IWB during class time takes longer than on a regular whiteboard, and you'll probably not be able to fit as much on the board. And as for those teachers who are used to sectioning a board with part for class agenda and space for vocabulary? This is a waste of space and time on the IWB, especially as you have unlimited number of pages to flip back and forth through whenever you want. And there's no need to make students wait while you write something from a coursebook on the board - you should have done that before the students even entered the room. Breaking old teacher habits that have no place and make no sense when using this tool is as important as experimenting with new ways of using it.

It should come as no surprise that training and practice are the keys to using the IWB effectively. The interactive whiteboard is not cheap technology, but this is one of the hidden costs. Another is a need for increased technical support in situ, but as far as learner impact is concerned, the sure way to drive a stake through the heart of an IWB project is to try to cut costs in training. But, because it looks like a reglular board, there is a temptation for organisations to hand teachers a pen and let them get on with it. This results in the learners losing out.

Back to the Dogme discussion . Browsing the other posts written by members of the Dogme list about IWBs, it becomes clear that some of these teachers have had as much experience of and interest in using an interactive whiteboard as Paolo Freire had of playing with a Nintendo Gameboy. Then there are others that have formed opinions based on observing sales reps. giving ten minute demonstrations of the technology at conferences. The negative "seems to be used for presenting grammar mcnuggets" view is hardly surprising given the kind of ELT publisher materials available I suppose. Only one or two of these people seem to have based their opinions on actual teacher observation (albeit cursory observation, i.e. saw a teacher through a window...). And most interestingly, those of us who have actually used an IWB were positive about the potential.

Conclusions

So, what was the result of all this debate? I'm pleased to say that some of the Dogme die-hards have been prompted to take another look at the technology. And if we can persuade organisations to invest more in training teachers how to use the interactive whiteboard well, then this will do a great favour to teachers and learners who find themselves having to use it. Will all teachers have to use one in the future? Who knows? I have started to see "experience in using an IWB" appearing in some of the job advertisements for teachers, and I think we will see more of this in the future. So long as the potential of this fabulous tool is not wasted by misuse and methodological abuse.

Note: Please feel free to contact me for IWB training offers
_______________________________________________________

Further Reading / References

Follow the Dogme discussions on using the IWB in a learner-centred way here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_whiteboard

Schmid, E. Cutrim : Investigating the Use of Interactive Whiteboard Technology in the English Language Classroom through the Lens of a Critical Theory of Technology

Using the Interactive White Board in EFL - a blog I started in 2005. I've been encouraged by this experience to started posting here again

Promethean/Mirandanet project report on interactive whiteboard use worldwide : http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/partners/promethean_iwb.htm

Alternate Reality Games

2007-08-27T20:00:00.000+02:00

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging so much is because of the increased time I've been spending in Second Life, but I'm determined to get back to blogging again. More than anything else, I miss it. But blogging is also such a useful tool for sounding out ideas. Which brings me to...

The main project I'm working on in Second Life is in the teen grid and, is looking more like a language learning laboratory for testing out different ideas. Among the experiments we're adding is mystery in the form of an alternate reality game.

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs)

One of the most successful of ARGs was ILoveBees, which was used to promote the XBox game Halo2. A very clever marketing campaign, this game ignited the enthusiasm of a large community on the web, who worked together to solve the cross-media puzzles contained in the game.

There are useful lessons here for educators: For example, Lingualgamers mentions "the levels of teamwork required for the massively social tasks presented in ILoveBees provided one of the most fertile grounds for peer learning possible."

Ligualgamers goes on to suggest that by "studying the learning that takes place in alternate reality games we can gain valuable insights into how to create engaging experiences around web content from other languages and cultures."

to be continued...

Computer Games & Language Learning

2007-05-23T20:14:00.000+02:00

Kyle Mawer, my colleague and co-presenter at WiAOC2007 has started a wiki where he has been adding more ideas about the exploitation of computer games (especially free online games) for language learning and teaching.

The URL is http://kylemawer.wikispaces.com

Why give a Power Point Presentation in Second Life?

2007-05-23T13:23:00.000+02:00

There's an interesting discussion going on in the Webheads list about replicating Real Life (RL) features in Second Life (SL) .

There are lots of interesting points here (why put roofs on buildings, add stairs, etc?) and whilst I agree totally that SL becomes more interesting when you don't try to replicate the limitations of RL, I do think there are occasions when showing a Power Point presentation, for example, is valid.

I've been thinking about this recently, especially as I'm presenting at the SL Best Practice in Education conference this Friday:

ESL, Second Life and Teenagers : Learner Autonomy for the Digital Natives
Friday 25th May @ 11.00 GMT
http://slbestpractices2007.wikispaces.com/PresentationSchedule
I'm hoping to stream the presentation (it'll be a Skype conference call) through World Bridges on Sandbox A

All the presenters have been encouraged to give a Power Point type presentation, or at least start with one. This makes sense for various reasons:

Organisation - it's easier for the organisers to set up. We are giving the organisers our images in advance, and they'll be loaded into the Slideshow presentation (not only makes it easy, but also means the organisers don't have to worry about giving certain people building permissions, etc)

Crowd control - when you have a lot of people together in the same sim, moving about, running animations, etc you get something called 'lag' in SL, which means that things slow down. That's why there are seats too - you can have more people on a sim if those people aren't walking around and moving. Essentially what this means is that you're using SL as a visual chat room (a bit like a 3D version of Alado or Elluminate), but I like this, and it's particularly appealing when you turn on the 'Show Chat Bubbles' feature (from the Edit->Preferences->Chat menu). This feature makes for some interesting snapshots too, if you include the chat bubbles in the snapshots.

Speed / Chaos - the point to most of the presentations at this conference is essentially 'show and tell', and people will be (with audio) presenting ideas that for the most part will be complemented by a picture. The same is true here as in a RL conference - why do we usually ask people to sit and show people slides there? Becuase it's often the best way of getting a point across. Could be the same in SL (depends on what you're presenting I suppose).

Of course, once you've started, you could always give people a landmark and take them on a tour, and I'm sure many people will do this, using the presentation area as a meeting point.

In our case, however, we can't take people on a tour (a great idea, that I would do if I could) as our project is not accessible to non-teenagers (it being on the Second Life Teen Grid) so we have to show people still images or video.

Now, take a look at this photo above to get an idea of how the space has been organised (this is a snapshot of the NMC Outreach Sim, one of the conference venues)

You'll see that apart from the screen / seating area, there is also a vendor/booths area that looks just like a similar space in a RL conference! This I found very interesting, but once again - with so many people due to participate, making it this way does have its logic.

I suppose it's all been set up this way because it's the first such conference - I do think that similar events in the future will look very different to RL conferences, but this one doesn't...and I'll definitely be asking people at the conference why (watch this space - I'll report back with comments!)

I'd love to hear what other people think about this...

Playing with Presentations #2

2007-05-22T09:17:00.000+02:00

Slideshare is a great tool for sharing presentations too. It's easy to embed the resulting slideshow on your blog, etc., and the site has social software/community tools too (you can send other users messages, post comments, choose slideshows as favourites, add slideshows to your library). It does have one problem though - once uploaded, it doesn't seem like you can delete a slideshow (or at least I tried to find out how to do it and failed miserably - I uploaded the wrong version of a presentation and wanted to replace it with another one) - so, be sure that what you upload is something you don't mind being there forever.

Here's our presentation on Slideshare:

Playing with Presentations #1

2007-05-20T10:47:00.000+02:00

So, my question is, 'What's the best way of displaying a presentation online?' Not only if you want to give people access to your presentation after the event, but also when you are giving the presentation live.

There are now so many different ways of doing this, that it's difficult to choose which one to use.

For example, we used the Elluminate virtual classroom for our live presentation on Gaming & Language Learning last Friday, using Learning Times. But, it might not have been the best way of showing people our slides (see post below). Of course, there are advantages to using this type of platform - the recording is done automatically, and the images are shown at the same time as the audio.

However, you cannot access the recording or attend live unless you are a member (it is free to join, and an easy process, but, even so, it is another barrier), and you cannot simply download the audio only to listen to when on the move (i.e. a podcast)

During the WiAOC, this virtual classroom option seems to be the most popular option, but there have been various alternatives used. For instance, Leigh Blackall's excellent keynote used a Flickr slideshow. The audio was provided by a World Bridges webcast & Skypecast, and it seemed to go very well.

Barbara Dieu (Bee), later today is also going to be using a Worldbridges webcast/Skypecast option, but she's going to use a tool called Zoho Show for her slides. The difference with this is that Barbara can control who sees what because the show is invitation only (by email) and she chooses which slides the participants see at which time from her end. It's a very interesting way of doing it, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it works in practice (I had a trial run with her a few days ago)

Apart from this, there's Bubbleshare and Slideshare too, and I'm sure many other tools (you can provide the slides as a video, with a voiceover).

So, I'm going to upload our presentation to a few different tools to compare them. I want to see how easy it is to upload the files, and look at the quality and feel of the presentation when using them. This will make it easier to decide the next time I have to do a presentation.

Here's the Flickr Slideshow:

Obviously, what's missing from this is an audio recording (I'll add this soon)

WiAOC 2007 Webcastathon

2007-05-19T11:38:00.000+02:00

The Webheads in Action Online Convergence (WiAOC 2007) is now well underway, with so much activity going on it's impossible to keep up.

Fortunately, most of it, if not all, is being recorded, so we can go back and listen and watch to the presentations that we missed becuase we were too busy to attend them live, or because time zone factors made them impractical to attend.

Details of the presentations to come are here : http://schedule.wiaoc.org/

I really do encourage everyone to go along to some of them

I gave a presentation yesterday, with my British Council colleague Kyle Mawer. It was essentially a repeat of the presentation that we gave at APAC and IATEFL, on 'Computer Games & Language Learning: From Space Invaders to Second Life', although
we end up changing the format every time we do it: adding or removing slides, etc.

It's also been interesting to see how we have decided to change the pitch depending on the audience and how the experience has differed because of the participants and the venue.

Of course, yesterday was the first time we presented it online, and that in itself led to additional challenges and a totally different dynamic. One thing that was very different was not actually showing the games themselves, which we normally do when we've presented this f2f.

We also had some annoying hiccups to yesterday's presentation. Here's a copy of an email that I've just sent to the Webheads list that detils what happened:

Thanks to everyone who attended our presentation at Learning Times
yesterday.

We had a few problems with Elluminate, which I thought I'd share with
you all in case it helps others - it all went to show you that you can
prepare as much as you like, but you can never prepare for the unexpected!

- We used jpgs for our presentation, and when we'd uploaded the images
for the presentation, we found that if you use anything other than
Safari, they are huge. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to do
anything about this.

- We had 80 slides, and exceeded the Elluminate maximum. So, as we got
near the end of the uploaded slides, we had to delete some to make
space. You can delete slides by right-clicking over the slide (you'll
find the erase slide option if you are a moderator)

- We were able to view the slides fine when they were uploaded, but
just as we started, the screen section of Elluminate went blank for us
and we couldn't see any of the slides. Fortunately our audience could!

It did make it difficult speaking about the slides without being able
to see them, and I had to switch between my Powerpoint and the
Elluminate interface, which made things a little awkward.

- Kyle Mawer, my co-presenter's headphones stopped working just before
we were going to start (we were physically in the same space, so we
decided to share headphones). Then, just after Vance introduced us, my
(bluetooth) headphones cut out, so I had to scramble for another pair.

What a combination of gremlins! We were exhausted when it was finally
over, but it was a lot of fun.

Details of this presentation and the other WiAOC recordings are here: http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=1563545

The direct link to the elluminate recording is here

You'll need to create an account (free) to access the Learning Times recording, but this is well worth it - the community has lots of very interesting resources, and you'll meet some great people there.