A presentation at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference on the VWLL TESOL EVO. Presented by Graham Stanley, Nick Noakes, Nergiz Kern and Dennis Newson

1. Virtual Worlds and
Language Learning
A six-week expedition from account
creation to peer teaching in a virtual world
Graham Stanley
Nick Noakes
Nergiz Kern
Dennis Newson

5. Met And Got Acquainted ...

6. ... Again ...

7. ... And Again! 

8. Challenged Intelligences

9. Adjusted Perspectives!

10. Fought Techno Daemons

11. Burned Midnight & Midday Oil !

12. Got Outfitted For Travel

13. Explored Unimagined Spaces ...

14. Sometimes Alone ...

15. ... But Mostly Together

16. ... all this while blogging, commenting,
discussing and posting snapshots

17. Got aMAZEd and Lost in Virtual Space

18. At Times, Even Lost Our Heads

19. But Could Always Call For Support

20. Gained Some Mastery Over The Virtual Kingdom

21. And Took Flight For Language Learning

33. Participant Feedback
“I wish I had had more
“Well, I never felt alone in
time to learn from other
this process. There were
people, but I'm happy we
always friendly people
are able to stay in touch”
willing to help”
“The moderators put on “Finally, the team teaching
lots of great events and practice really enabled me
tried hard to include to apply what I've learned
everyone - both by having and more concretely think
repeats of events at about teaching in SL. The
different times and by collaborative environment
encouraging people to as a team also enhanced
join discussions.” my learning”

34. Participant Feedback
“Perhaps improved notes “I couldn't use voice so
and/or more practice on this was quite frustrating
managing own avatar and sometimes. I was using a
the in-world around us.” mini laptop so I couldn't
do much there.”
“Working this course into
a busy schedule is
“Time difference was an issue. If I
difficult, especially
attended the training session during
because events were
my office hour and had to talk to my
offered at times I could
students, I was lost by the time I got
not attend. I know this is
back to my computer. That's why
an inherent difficulty of
weekend sessions were better. You
quot;globalquot; courses, and I
might want to give us the topics and
think the facilitators did
different time slots and go with the
the best they could to
time that got the largest number of
offer multiple sessions.”
votes. ”

35. Advice to Future …
Participants Facilitators
“Get them active early”
“Get active early”
“Keep on giving what they have done
“Have fun and enjoy the ride. Be so far.”
prepared to learn a lot.” “U Rock! Keep up the great work!”
“Jump in!” “Be prepared for hard work and long
hours”
“Just do it”
“Facilitators were excellent. You need
“Go for it... don't be a chicken ... to push and wake up sleeping
open your mind and be participants through
amazed by creativity...” emails/personal emails instead of
group. Personal emails have its
“Spare TIME. Without giving 2 hrs own effect. It seems that
daily, you would learn nothing someone is looking at you as in
from this workshop.” physical class”

36. Plan to Continue in SL?
In what way(s)?
• Yes – 87%
“Sharing ideas, participating in workshops, meeting
• Maybe – 9% with SL mentors, visiting educational places,
• No – 4% attending educational lectures.”
“I would like to participate in continued discussions
about resources and instructional ideas /
experiences. The forums that have already begun are
a great starting point.”
“Will try to take my students for a few tours when I'm
ready; then pursue according to my students'
feedback.”
“Teaching”
“Collaborative way, small experiments on the use of
SL for learning”

38. Activity Trends - During and After the Workshop

39. Virtual Worlds & Language Learning