Link to Mini Project 3 Description

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddx83npd_23j69whxd6

Thoughts on Podcasting...

Second Life and Language Learning

I am not convinced that Second Life (SL) has a place in language classrooms. After experimenting with SL in class and reading the Stevens and Vickers articles, I view SL as more of an aimless wondering in a second world than a targeted activity that is conducive to learning a language. One question that I have is whether or not there is any advantage to communicating with another avatar in SL (I mean in terms of having a successful SL?). It seemed to me (during class) that the only advantage was social and that you didn't get new tools or start traveling in groups or anything when you interact with another avatar. So, maybe SL is less about social interactions and more about discovering new places and increasing your inventory. I'm not really sure, still, what the point of SL actually is.

However, I do think that virtual reality games could be good for second language learning if the point of the game were something like traveling to all the cities in a country and having to talk with people to get information that could help you pass to the next level (city?). I just think that the virtual reality game would have to be created in such a way to encourage interactions between people.

I also like the idea of using voice in a virtual reality game. However, I don't think that technology is ready to utilize voice recognition to the extent that would be necessary to make voice interactions productive in such a virtual reality.

Overall, I am more convinced about the utility of podcasts, blogs, emails, and chats for language classrooms than I am about the utility of SL.