SECOND LIFE ACTIVITIES FOR AND BEYOND THE TECHNICAL

WRITING CLASSROOM.

“Good to use for virtual consultation

time.”1

Dean A. F. Gui, Lan Li, Dora Wong, Gigi Au Yeung

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Contents2

English 317 & the original virtual projectFocus of this study

Student comments Examples of possible learning opportunities for

English 317 Other English courses Cross-curricular activities

Second Life for the first year studentThe virtual English DepartmentConsiderations and conclusionVirtual show-and-tell?

English 317: English for Technical and Web-Based Writing

Learning Outcomes3

Understanding discourse features of technical documents and online writing and their communicative functions

Building up confidence and competence in human computer interaction

Enhance linguistic and computer literacy Building up problem solving and teamwork

skills

The Virtual Poster Project4

• Joint work with the PolyU Virtual Campus team

• Building up the site in the virtual Exhibition Hall

• Setting up evaluation mechanism in SL

• Orientation by PolyU Virtual Campus Team

• Virtual note card comments, iFeedback, focus group

Goals of Present Study

To show the creative abilities of students from a technical writing course to think beyond the technical writing classroom (Fox, Arena, and Bailenson, 2009)

Showing the quick adaptability of first year university students—many of whom have little to no knowledge of Second Life, and who tend to view virtual worlds simply as another “game” (De Lucia et al, 2009)—in creative thinking and learning (Craft et al, 2007)

Consider the relationships between learning activities and the in-class poster task, and the implications of these activities for a potential virtual English department

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Comments Relevant to Creative-Learning

Overall student participation

Comments relevant to creative-learning

iFeedback 66 10

Focus Group

29 6

Virtual note cards

47 0

“What suggestions do you have on using Second Life in our learning?”

“Apart from displaying posters, voting and commenting on others’ work, what other ways could use Second Life for the subject E317?”

“For what other types of learning activities do you think SL could be potentially helpful regarding your future university studies and career goals?”

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Student Comments on Learning Possibilities in Second Life

“What suggestions do you have on using Second Life in our learning?”

“Apart from displaying posters, voting and commenting on others’ work, what other ways could use Second Life for the subject E317?”

“For what other types of learning activities do you think SL could be potentially helpful regarding your future university studies and career goals?”

7Reading/writing

Feedback

Visual media

Inter-dept/institution

Library Teaching

newspaper reading

extra consultation time

showing video/films in a TV/theatre format

college fairs (other unis do it)

an archive of relevant in English 317 information resources

virtual tutorial session

reading e-books/e-articles

online discussion

find fashion information

an archive of resources for all English subjects, where students can give comments and share their own findings and experiences

see how people write

evaluate others' works

meet each other online in RPG way

virtual lectures/seminars

comment on peers' work privately without any pressure or hassle

Learning for the TWBW classroom

newspaper reading reading e-books/e-articles see how people write consultation time online discussion (text and oral) evaluate others' works comment on peers' work privately

without any pressure or hassle showing video/films in a TV/theatre

format an archive of relevant artefacts in

English 317 information resources an archive of resources for all English

subjects, where students can give comments and share their own findings and experiences

virtual tutorial session virtual lectures/seminars/presentations

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Learning possibilities for other English CoursesEnglish 407: Introduction to Intercultural Communicative Competence

reading e-books/e-articles see how people write consultation time online discussion (text and oral) evaluate others' works comment on peers' work privately

without any pressure or hassle showing video/films in a TV/theatre

format an archive of resources for all English

subjects, where students can give comments and share their own findings and experiences

virtual tutorial session virtual lectures/seminars/presentations

9

Learning Beyond the English Classroom

college fairs (other unis do it) find fashion information meet each other online in RPG way

10

The TWBW Classroom: an archive of resources, where students can share their findings and

experiences

English 317 group user guides

3D, interactive

Communal Constructivism and Knowledge-Building (Girvan & Savage, 2010)

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Intra-Department Possibilities: showing video/films in a TV/theatre format

English 407 group filmRequires appropriate

permissions

The use of SMoodle, via a navigation panel to broadcast a lecture in Quicktime (De Lucia et al, 2009)

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Inter-Department Possibilities: college fairs

PolyU Virtual Campus opening / SLActions 2009

Postgraduate Research Symposium 2010: Language and Cultural Studies in the Pearl River Delta

Department fairs for sister schools in the Delta

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1

2

Student First-Year Acclimation14

Second Life is therefore a potential platform to acclimate first year students to the university environment and to test-drive student-generated creative learning possibilities (Carr et al, 2007)

The Larger Picture15

So what have we done since these studies? Create a virtual English department

Exhibition area Interactive/3D “Van Gough” student work (Ward &

Sonneborn, 2009) Work labs (?)

Information kiosk Drama lab

Stage manipulation Dancing AIs

Meeting and classroom area Moodle available for participating courses Language labs (?)

Considerations & Conclusions16

Student-centered creative learningFirst year acclimationFuture learners learning from

comments/experiences/artefacts of previous learners (communal constructivism and knowledge-building) (Girvan & Savage, 2010)

Better preparation for Second Life might induce more creative learning possibilities from students

Virtual show and tell17

References

De Lucia et al. (2009) “Development and evaluation of a virtual campus on Second Life: The case of SecondDMI.” Computers & Education. 52: 220 – 233.

Carr, Tonny et al. (2007) “Weathering wikis: Net-based learning meets political science in a South African university.” Computers and Composition. 24: 266 – 284.

Craft, A., Cremin, T. Burnard, P. and Chappell, K. 2007. “Teacher stance in creative learning: A study of progression.” Thinking Skills and Creativity. 2: 136 - 147.

Fox Jesse, Arena Dylan and Bailenson Jeremy N. (2009) “Virtual Reality: A survival guide for the social scientist.” Journal of Media Psychology. 21 (3): 95 – 113.

Girvan, Carina and Savage, Timothy. (2010) “Identifying and appropriate pedagogy for virtual worlds: A communal Constructivism case study.” (in press) Computers & Education.

Herold, D.K. 2010. “Mediating Media Studies – Stimulating critical awareness in a virtual environment.” Computers & Education, 54 (3): 791-798.

Ward, Thomas B., and Sonneborn, Marcene S. (2009) “Creative expression in virtual worlds: Imitations, imagination, and individualized collaboration.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. 3 (4): 211 – 221.

1. Image courtesy of HK PolyU Media Relases 2. Image courtesy of Yahoo.com Images

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Thank You

Q & A

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