A new book review

Hi Judith and all others ,

According to the agreement previously made with Judith about linking to the pdf of the article, we had to wait till the next issue of the journal would be out. And that came out today! http://digbib.nl
So, I hereby send you the 2 pdf's (article & book review) as attachment. You can now put that out on the blog.
http://www.himolde.no/~molka/SL/BookreviewKamimo.pdf
http://www.himolde.no/~molka/SL/EducationSLNamro.pdf
I also put the article through Google translate and created a Scribd doc with a english translation: http://www.scribd.com/doc/15729296/Education-and-Teaching-in-Second-Life I do not have time to do this translation properly.
Hope to bump into you sometime, in real or virtual life,
best regards,
Guus

Review of our book: Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life

The podcast link is located on the blog ventriloguy: blog-podcast. It states, "The one hundred and sixty-seventh episode of ventriloquy introduces what is likely to be the first education-focussed book on Second Life."

The blog introduces the podcast review, "Edited by Judith Molka-Danielsen (SL: Aklom Haifisch) and Mats Deutschmann, Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life is a collection of academic papers primarily describing the work done in the first Scandinavian project in Second Life to focus on designing platforms for lifelong learning, at Kamimo Island."

Update on the AVALON project

Check out the video 'The AVALON Project (Ignite Presentation)'
This 5-min video is a brief presentation about the AVALON project.

The AVALON Project (Ignite Presentation)
EU funded AVALON is a 2-year project to explore the potential of langugage learning in Second Life. This 5min presentation outlines what...
Video link:

The AVALON Project (Ignite Presentation)

About AVALON-project
EU funded AVALON is a 2-year project (Jan 09-Dec 10) to explore 3D worlds for language learning funded within the Transversal KA 3 Program.

Spring 2009 Business Talking course completed

The Business Talking course at Högskolan i Kalmar finished on Kamimo Island yesterday evening. This photo is one of the visual aids one of the students used in a presentation about her group's experiences of Thailand.

There were 20 active students on the course this time around, of whom 19 have finished with at least a pass grade. The course planning and organisation worked well, although having a 'normal-sized' group required me to organise 5 extra sessions (for people who were working or away when regular meetings were scheduled), which added about 2.5 hours to the course time budget. On the other hand, since everything is working much more smoothly now, I've actually 'saved' those hours elsewhere on the course.

Once again students mentioned (spontaneously) the phenomenon of losing their inhibitions about speaking English in front of other people when it was their avatars doing the talking. The students themselves are of a variety of nationalities - from Mexican to Phillippina, but including plenty of Swedes - and spread out geographically IRL from Umeå to Ho Chi Minh City to upstate New York.

We've already had more than 30 applications for the 24 places on the course in the autumn - without actually advertising it at all. It looks like Business Talking is now a self-supporting course here in Kalmar.

Learning Net in Sweden has written about the book

Learning Net is an on-line resource for teachers at university level in Sweden who use (or are interested in the development of) ICT in higher education. They've just published an article (in Swedish) about the book … which we hope will provide teachers in Sweden with more or an opportunity to follow what's gone in the Kamimo Islands Project.

Here's a link to the article itself:

Learning Net on the new book

New Book

The new book:


"Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life" (2009).
eds. Molka-Danielsen, J. and Deutschmann, M., Tapir Academic Press, Trondheim


was relased by Tapir and is available for purchase at:


http://butikk.tapirforlag.no/en/node/1195

Another course, another term!

The Spring Term 2009 Business Talking course started on Kamimo Island yesterday afternoon, when 22 students from "Sweden" met up with their American buddies from the University of Central Missouri to be whisked off on a tour of Second Life by the Americans. I write "Sweden" because that's where the course is based administratively (at Högskolan i Kalmar in Sweden). The students themselves this term come from all over Sweden, Russia, the Netherlands and Italy. They include a Swedish student at Högskolan i Kalmar who's currently on an exchange to Astoria, New York and a teacher at the Swedish School in London.

The Business Talking course went under the name of Oral Production until this term, and has been offered twice already. This term, though, the student group is up to size (I think that around 20 is probably all you'd want to handle on an interactive - and active - course like this at one time), and it looks as if the course has become a regular part of Kalmar's range of courses.

The Course Launch went very well yesterday. Swedish students came on to Kamimo Island in groups of four at roughly 15-minute intervals, so that they could have an orientation with their teacher in peace and quiet, and then meet up with their American buddies. We start the course in earnest next week, when one of the activities will be for the Business Talking students to share what they've discovered in Second Life so far.

The run-up to the course is also now establishing a routine of its own. Here are some Dutch students using the wireless network outside my office to open Second Life accounts for themselves (and for me to check that their laptops could cope with SL).