Hangout.net ~ Home 3D Virtual Worlds for Language Learning – a guide for teachers - AvatarLanguages.com How to use 3D Virtual Environments in Language Lessons 3D virtual worlds offer us places to meet others, spaces to create our own reality and locations for us to simply exist in. Language learners can draw on these social, immersive and creative experiences to practice and improve language skills. What is it? A 3D virtual world looks and feels like an online computer game. Second Life is probably the best known 3D virtual world, but it is not the only one. Generally virtual worlds are relaxed environments where anyone can go to socialize. Why would we be interested? Social learning: students can meet others, whether fellow students from their own institution or students at a partner institute or simply native speakers of their target language. How can we use it for language learning? Virtual worlds lend themselves to location-specific and socially interactive learning opportunities. Virtual Field Trips: students can visit places to see what they look like. Pedagogies for 3D Virtual Worlds
SurReal Language Quests I have been working on a way to take advantage of the unique benefits of Second Life as an educational environment while maintaining the best of what both real life education and education 2.0 have to offer. The resulting approach is a task-based “SurReal” quest that draws on Second Life, web 2.0 tools and conventional use of the internet. Example: Travel Podcast Let’s consider an example SurReal Quest: the student has the task of creating a travel podcast for a location that exists both in real life and in Second Life, such as London, Berlin, Moscow, Krakow, Venice or many tourist destinations. The student is directed by initial guidelines and then assisted throughout the project by the teacher, as is the case with web quests and virtual quests. The quest can be done individually or in a team – either way it will be a social process. The research phase allows the student to use a varied array of sources: Role of Second Life in SurReal Quest Combination of Advantages Key Difference