Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Week 7: Second Life




What is Second Life?
According to Wikipedia, Second Life was launched in 2003, and it is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab, whose company’s founder is Philip Rosedale, and its headquarters are based on San Francisco, California, but there are offices in the UK, Singapore and other American cities.

Educational uses
As students, Second Life gives us the opportunity to meet native speakers of English in order to interact with them to practice and improve our English.
As English teachers, Second Life offers us the great opportunity to meet teachers of other English-speaking countries, and to organize and participate in discussions with them. It also gives us the great chance to give online lessons!
As students of the Master’s the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language, we have experienced having three online lessons with our teacher. She has taught us little by little how to use the tools to create boxes and to sit on them, and how to create cards to write short assignments when in class.

Drawbacks
The first time I heard about Second Life was a year ago on the radio, namely, some educators were discussing about their advantages and disadvantages. I have just named some advantages in the area of English learning and teaching. On the other hand, the drawbacks I have experienced myself are that it takes time for users to know the tools well and to use them correctly to profit from the experience of learning and/or teaching. I felt frustrated many times because I did not know how to walk, talk, change my clothes or my appearance, among others.
However, I can happily say now that I have sorted out some obstacles, and I have even managed to take a picture of myself in Second Life. You can see it below!
This is a picture of me in Second Life!




References

6 comments:

  1. Dear Jackeline,
    I really love your blog post. Congratulations!!! I am so happy you are developing your SL skills. Way to go!
    I'd love to see you inworld again soon.
    My best wishes to you,
    Evelyn

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  2. Hi dear Jackie,
    I like your blog, it has many interesting articles. I find this one in particular very interesting and informative, because I have heard about Second Life before but I did not have any information about it.
    Kisses,
    Caryna

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  3. Thanks Evelyn, thanks Cary for visiting my blog and leaving comments about my posts!

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  4. Wow! I had never heard about second life... this is so interesting!
    Very nice blog Jackie. And I love the cartoons ;-)

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  5. Thanks Kathy! Thanks for visiting my blog and leave your comments! Love, Jackie

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  6. Hi Jackie, I see that you are developing your skills in Second Life. However, I will laugh forever with your first appearance without hair and you screaming like crazy!! That was hilarious!! Kisses,
    Ayleen

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