Language Learning and Teaching with the aid of Technology

Graham Davies 77, Male Berkshire United Kingdom

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BBC News Magazine: What happened to Second Life?
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According to this article at the BBC News Magazine website, Second Life is on the way out:What happened to Second…Continue

Started this discussion. Last reply by Beatriz Lupiano Jun 14, 2010.

The Virtual Worlds SIG: Where are we going?

We are completely open to suggestions regarding the direction that the EUROCALL/CALICO Virtual Worlds SIG should take. It will be possible, for example, to offer training courses in using virtual…Continue

Started Sep 27, 2009

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Champagne Toast From Marisa Constantinides

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Your avatar name in SL: Groovy Winkler

A brief bio

I began my career as a teacher of German and French in secondary education in the 1960s. I moved into higher education in 1972 and taught German at Ealing College (which later became part of Thames Valley University) until 1990, when I became Director of the Language Centre.

I have lectured and run ICT training courses for language teachers in 22 different countries and I have sat on numerous national and international advisory boards. In 1982 I wrote one of the first introductory books on computers in language learning and I have continued publishing on this topic ever since. I was the founder president of EUROCALL from 1993-2000, and I am still a member of the EUROCALL Executive Committee.

I retired from full-time employment in 1993 and I am now an Emeritus Professor of Computer Assisted Language Learning. I occasionally do external examining of MPhil and PhD students. I keeps myself busy by editing the ICT for Language Teachers Website (ICT4LT) and managing the EUROCALL HQ in Second Life.

You can find out more about me on my Personal Wiki Page.

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Shared Media at the EUROCALL/CALICO HQ in Second Life

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Holodecks at the CALICO/EUROCALL HQ in Second Life

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Tour of the EUROCALL HQ in Second Life

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Graham Davies's Blog

Conference on Virtual Worlds, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain

I have recently returned from Spain, where I contributed to a two-day conference on virtual worlds at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), 16-17 December 2011. The conference was organised under the auspices of the CAMILLE Project in the Department of Applied Linguistics at the Polytechnic University of Valencia within the framework of EUROCALL’s programme of regional events, in collaboration with the Inter-University Institute of Applied Modern Languages, supported by the Vice…

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Posted on December 21, 2011 at 5:18am

New tutorial materials SL Viewer Version 3

OK, so we now have SL Viewer 3 - which you will still find stored in the Second Life Viewer 2 folder on your computer. And people are still referring to the latest version as Viewer 2. Confusing, eh? There are quite few differences from the earlier versions, which I have now incorporated into my tutorial materials that you can download from Section 14.2.1 (i) of Module 1.5 at the ICT4LT site:…

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Posted on November 29, 2011 at 11:51am

The CALICO/EUROCALL Art Gallery

Have you visited the Art Gallery at the CALICO/EUROCALL HQ? If not, please have a look. It contains a great collection of repro paintings and a grand piano that actually plays. Something for your students to talk about! Access is via the teleporter at the top of the stair well in the HQ.

Posted on October 9, 2011 at 8:30am

SLanguages 2011 - countdown!

Not long to go now until the SLanguages 2011 conference, 16-18 September 2011!

This is the link for SLanguages 2011 - which is the fifth in this annual series of conferences, dating back to 2007:
http://avalon-project.ning.com/page/slanguages-2011

I shall be presenting at 11am GMT (= 12 noon BST) on Sunday 18 September. I am conducting a tour of the EUROCALL/CALICO HQ.

All the best
Graham

Posted on September 12, 2011 at 11:30am — 1 Comment

Comment Wall (31 comments)

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At 1:03pm on November 29, 2011, Juan Mateu said…: Hi Graham, I am computer teacher and I am interested in virtual worlds applied to education and I will start a PhD related to this issue. I use the OpenSim in secondary education as it fits better than Second Life because no restrictions for minors and have no cost. But I'm still learning Second Life for educational use. I would like in the future to participate in some educational projects or research papers on virtual worlds in education to help me in my doctoral research.
I also hope to collaborate in the training of teachers of foreign languages and other subjects.
I will be at the conference about language learning to be held in December in Valencia.
It's a pleasure meeting you and hope to collaborate in the near future.
Thanks and regards.

At 1:01pm on November 29, 2011, Juan Mateu said…: Hi Graham, I am computer teacher and I am interested in virtual worlds applied to education and I will start a PhD related to this issue.

I use the OpenSim in secondary education as it fits better than Second Life because no restrictions for minors and have no cost. But I'm still learning Second Life for educational use.

I would like in the future to participate in some educational projects or research papers on virtual worlds in education to help me in my doctoral research.

I also hope to collaborate in the training of teachers of foreign languages and other subjects.

I will be at the conference about language learning to be held in December inValencia.

It's a pleasure meeting you and hope to collaborate in the near future.

Thanks and regards.

At 12:34am on September 8, 2011, Olga Georgiadou said…: Thank you, I'm teaching French as a foreign language at a university level and I'm interested in introducing Second Life in my courses. Second Life allows students to travel, so if we can arrange a class in France, it would be exciting!

At 4:13am on May 10, 2011, Claire Rowcroft said…: Hi Graham, thanks so much for your help. I've been checking out those links and they are really interesting. Scott says 'hi'! He gave us a talk on VEs yesterday and mentioned your website. I also gave a presentation on the use of World of Warcraft for SLA, which went well, and he suggested he could maybe fund some research into that :)

At 11:14am on May 7, 2011, Claire Rowcroft said…: Hi Graham, thanks for the message. I'm afraid I haven't joined Second Life, so I don't have an avatar there yet. The lecturer (Scott Windeatt) from my CALL module on my MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL course at Newcastle University suggested I check out your site as I am researching the use of MMORPGs in language learning for a presentation and essay I will be writing soon. Having myself played World of Warcraft as a past time for the past four years or so, I am particularly interested in this game and it's application to language learning. Does this particular game also interest you or the other members? I will start by checking out the forum and blogs to try and find out :)

At 10:42am on April 29, 2011, Panos Arvanitis said…: Thank you for the approval.

I'm interesting in language teaching and learning in virtual worlds. I' m ass. prof. at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. I have not been very active in Second Life for the last few months, cause im trying to develop in opensim.

At 3:49am on March 25, 2011, Akeya Zeleke said…: how can i get the link for Facabook.

At 9:48am on February 3, 2011, Cecilia Goria said…: Hi Graham,

yes, I know Helen/Karelia. Helen is not only a keen learner of Italian, but also an excellent SLer and a great colleague, in a sense, as she has helped me out wih some research on SL for my MSc in eLearning dissertation. Anyway, thank you for the link !

Cecilia

At 6:04am on February 3, 2011, Cecilia Goria said…: Thank you Graham for your welcome message. I am a Lecturer of Italian at the University of Nottingham and I am particularily interested in the effects of SL language education on affective variables, especially language anxiety.

Nice to share interests !

Cecilia

At 6:30am on January 19, 2011, HELEN IAKOVAKI said…: Hallo Graham

Thank you for welcoming me in what I admit I am a sort of interloper...

I am afraid I am really a rookie concerning virtual worlds. The extent of my involvement sofar is the fact that my University has undertaken a Leonardo da Vinci Project in Maritime Education, under the name of Captain's http://www.captains.pro/. However, being a strong believer in the principle "do not aks someone to learn to do sth unless you make sure you can do it yourself" I am now the proud owner/inhabitant/animator (?????) of an avatar in Second Life the name of which is LinaPlatina (don't laugh!). As soon as I know how to put my clothes on (God, what a wayward pupil am I! my students would have a fit if they could see me struggling with the basics!) I intend to visit the Island where all Education takes place. As for any other useful data, I am trilingual in Greek, English and French, I have taught various flavours of ESP mostly by improvising through the difficult spots and it is my profound conviction that ALL specialists should sit around the biggest table on planet earth to discuss how to teach languages (I am talking subject matter specialists, linguists, applied or not, teachers from all strata and learners of course!).

Also, I am a regular chatterbox, but you must have figured this out by now!