1. Mercedes Coca, Tamy Zupan Athina Chatzigavriil Readiness to implementing Second Life in the language curriculum; Spanish Club in Second Life

2. Session Overview  LSE Spanish Club in Second Life Pilot project overview  Findings: Strengths – Challenges & lessons learnt  Q & A  Debate discussion

3. Castors Retreat – The LSE island

4. The idea: an enthusiastic teacher  Experience as student Digital Game Based Learning Final Year party  Research interest Readiness to Adopting Second Life by Language Teachers in British Higher Education Design Issues

5. The pilot: Spanish Club in SL Pilot period: January-March 2009 Teachers: Tammy & Mercedes Support: CLT

6. Decisions taken Which course? Compulsory v. Optional Degree v. Certificate Open to all students v. Limited number How many students? 12 students (max) Recruitment: Flyer/ppt Pedagogical model? Informal (Games/Conversation) v. formal academic activities (Simulations) Frequency? Length: 20 hours (10x2h) Training Who/How/When/Where

7.  Informal model: Conversation / games  Self-contained tasks Not building across sessions  Tasks: Treasure hunt, karaoke, acting, role playing etc  Formal academic model: Global simulation  Progressive tasks Building across sessions  Tasks: Una ONG en Latinomérica Initial modelFinal model

8. Tasks of simulation NGO in LatinoAmerica  Choosing the NGO  Deciding the name  Mission statement  Press release/interview  Advertising a new post  Person specification  Job description  Job interview  Fund rising event

9. Support and Training  Development of the island  Documentation wiki http://castorsretreat.wetpaint.com/http://castorsretreat.wetpaint.com/  SL at LSE computer room  Face-to-face student training  CLT support during sessions

10. Findings: Strengths  Offered an immersive and “relaxed” environment  Enhanced creativity (i.e. creating avatars)  Students perceived attention of teacher much higher  Provided extensive and meaningful interaction enhancing student involvement in the tasks  Allowed students to focus on the means rather than the form (forgot that they were learning a language)  Offered participants the opportunity to explore topics meaningful and relevant to the curriculum  Reinforced peer relations, group cohesion and group dynamics  The use of collaborative tasks enhanced communication  Developed emotional learning  Wealth of media in one spot

11. Findings: Challenges - Lessons learnt  Multitasking and flexibility  Requirement of highly structured sessions  Management of activities and students (incl. time)  Liaise with many people  Simulations not fully explored  Technical, accessibility and usability issues (platform/institution/individual)  Identity in virtual world and how to cope technically  Immersive environment (not for all)  Emotional challenges  Appropriate use of platform: reconcile the school priorities with perceived ludic activities  Individual perceptions: attitude to fun and digital games

12. Thank you Questions Contacts: Mercedes Coca: m.coca@lse.ac.ukm.coca@lse.ac.uk Tamy Zupan: zupant@regents.ac.ukzupant@regents.ac.uk Athina Chatzigavriil: a.chatzigavriil@lse.ac.uka.chatzigavriil@lse.ac.uk