Week 6 - Yulia (article review)

The article highlights the potential of 3D MUVEs, particularly SL, from the perspective of future developments in higher education. The author, Gilly Salmon, notes 3 perspectives, such as trends and emerging issues, the power of pedagogical imagination and the potential impact of humans as learning avatars.

The trends identified are the following:

·       Awareness from teachers of the potential of virtual worlds, especially in the teaching of history and science

·       Transfer of pedagogical concepts from other e-environments to frame group development and group working

·       Creation of artefacts for educational purposes, sometimes by the learners themselves

·       ‘Immersion’ in cultures otherwise inaccessible

·       Creation of realistic environments for practice

·       Awareness of virtual worlds and interest from internet users

·       Integration with other learning technologies with a view to creating 3D virtual classrooms

·       Predictions of interest from commerce and industry for skills development

(Salmon, 2009, p. 530).

In terms of pedagogical imagination, Salmon (2009) argues that creativity can be one of the ways to see things outside the square and explore both learning and teaching approaches we haven’t had the chance to do before. Furthermore, as she notes, if “we look back too much, we risk inventing the future based on outdated models of teaching and learning” (Salmon, 2009, p. 531). Perhaps, Salmon is being a bit critical of the research based solely on literature reviews and inferences from the past studies, or secondary analyses. Or she is trying to signal that some teachers and academics are not progressing in terms of their contribution to the knowledge and practice. Indeed, it is the new elements – be it experiments, alternative research methods or new technology trials and implementations - that make pedagogy and academic research progressive and innovative. She suggests that SL provides an opportunity to experiment and discover possibilities that could have positive contribution to the practice. For example, virtual artefacts can be manipulated in ways that are impossible in the real life or they can be used as a spark to start a dialogue. For the language teachers it could be seen as a trigger to motivate learners to communicate with each other and practice what they have learned.

Speaking of avatars, it should be noted that avatars aren’t independent creatures; they are visual representations of their ‘operators’ (Hew & Cheung, 2008 as cited in Salmon, 2009). For Salmon (2009), they are a personification of the individual who drives the avatar. However, the functionality of an avatar in SL allows users to change appearance, physical features, clothes, etc. whenever a user feels like, which is not possible in the real life. Given such opportunities to create various identities and position oneself accordingly, Salmon suggests we need to focus on how avatar-learner and avatar-teacher can work together in this environment and examine how relationships and interactions are embodied. Examples include: greeting, playing signaling group affiliation, conveying opinions or feelings, creating a strong sense of presence or ‘being there’ with others, etc. I guess these examples fall under the group of factors that affect both teaching and learning processes and examining them will help us have a better understanding of interactions and relationships that are built in SL.

Salmon’s (2009) article is written in the genre of an academic essay and provides a strong advocacy for being creative as a way to contribute to the knowledge and practice. Although the focus of the article is quite generic, as suggested by its name - the future for (second) life and learning - it can be quite helpful for those who plan on committing themselves to the research on SL and its potential.

Reference:

Salmon, G. (2009). The future for (second) life and learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(3), 526-526. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00967.x

Week 5 - Yulia (article review)

Blasing’s (2010) research aims at identifying evidence of language acquisition through interaction and negotiation of meaning, examining questions of L2 identity choices and exploring the presence of TL culture in SL. Her study is based on the Russian language teaching to the American college students from Midwest, who participated in the project.

Before outlining the details of procedure (study design, data collection methods and participants’ profiles), Blasing (2010) provides an overview of the benefits using SL as an educational platform and associated challenges, and also explains what SL is. The latter suggests that she seems to be aware of the diverse readership that may not be familiar with this platform. I suppose the main idea in that part of the article is that SL should not be seen as a replacement of the traditional classroom (Blasing, 2010). She argues that it should rather be used as a complementary tool that may help language learners “develop particular skills by creating a more contextualized language use experience” (Blasing, 2010, p. 96).

The study consists of 2 major parts: pilot and case study. The pilot study enabled the researcher to draw a few lessons. The first lesson is the learners should possess strong typing skills in the TL. It is indeed a worthwhile consideration, because people’s typing skills may vary depending on a language. Russian is based on Cyrillic alphabet, and although students may have strong typing skills in English or any other language that is based on Latin alphabet, their typing speed and accuracy in Russian could be much lower and poorer than, for example, in English. Another lesson drawn from the pilot study is that the learners must be aware of the presence of social norms within online cultural communities. For instructors it is critical to explore and understand these norms and social culture of SL in general before recommending their students to visit various sites. And finally, instructors should be aware that interaction with native speakers is not the only possible use for SL. Blasing (2010) argues that “groups of learners can effectively interact with one another and practice their language skills in contextualised, content-rich environments even without native speakers” (Blasing, 2010, p. 104). These environments can be created by means of simulated literary tours. For example, learners can be given the task to trace Mikhail Raskol’nikov’s (the main character) journey in St Petersburg based on Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. Student can also collect information on different locales, read or listen to excerpts from the novel, perform scenes from the novel in the virtual space, answer questions about theme, plot and characters in certain online forums (Blasing, 2010). In my view, it’s an excellent suggestion that could motivate language learners to read the TL literature and familiarize themselves with the TL culture.

The findings of the case study were quite insightful, too. Results indicated that typed chat in SL might help the learners develop lexicon, improve writing skills, and encourage focus on form, private speech and self-correction in learners (Blasing, 2010). When the author examined L2 anxiety among the learners, it was found that SL’s visual component actually “increases anxiety to a level that mimics face-to-face interaction in the target culture” (Blasing, 2010, p. 109). This contrasts with what other authors had reported (see e.g. Wang, Song, Xia & Yan 2009, also in Peterson, 2012).  Blasing (2010) inferred that the students had experienced a strong degree of social anxiety in their interactions with native speakers in SL. She suggested that students transferred their anxiety about meeting new people in real life into SL context and some of them felt an emotional pressure when operating in the target culture. With regards to the L2 identity, most participants used their non-native speaker status as a way of connecting on a comfortable level with the natives. Although there was one participant who had the highest proficiency of all chose to modify his national and sexual identity. He did it by means of choosing Russian first name and surname in order to seem Russian to others and presented himself a bisexual. Would he do this in his real life? I very much doubt it. But this suggests that SL gives language learners an opportunity to experiment with their imagination and thus challenge their language skills.

It wasn’t surprising that the findings concerning anxiety levels differed from the ones in previous articles that I had reviewed. Having learned both English and Spanish as foreign languages and being familiar with the Russian social culture, I can understand why people’s anxiety levels might vary both in SL and real classrooms. All three languages reflect different cultures and the learners’ cultural identities might either facilitate or hinder the process. For example, Americans and Russians have a long history of rivalry, which affected both people’s attitudes to each other’s cultures and languages. Furthermore, the American and Russian social cultures and the way people interact with each other differ substantially. Another reason for contrasting findings, as mentioned in the previous reviews, could be a small sample size and examination of different languages. The good thing about it is it leaves plenty of room for further investigation at a larger scale and comparative analysis between anxiety levels in learning, for example, Spanish and Russian in SL.

References:

Blasing, M.T. (2010). Second language in Second Life: Exploring interaction, identity and pedagogical practice in a virtual world. Slavic and East European Journal, 54(1), 96-117

Peterson, M. (2012). EFL learner collaborative interaction in second life. ReCALL: The Journal of EUROCALL, 24(1), 20-39. doi: 10.1017/S0958344011000279

Wang, C., Song, H., Xia, F. & Yan, Q. (2009). Integrating Second Life into an EFL

program: Students' perspectives. Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange, 2(1), 1-16

photoblog week 3 - wendy

I wonder what Chinese places look like in SL, so I type in "chinese" to search for.Then I teleport myself to a land called "The Great Wall". After arriving, I find that there is no great wall and it looks like I was in the south of China: the paddy field, farm cattle and cottage rooms. 

The sunset is very beautiful, especially seeing the dynamic diagram. I stay here for a moment and enjoy the peace the scene gives to me.

The I move on to a house built on the water, but because of the narrow path, I fail to go into it but just look around in the water... The house's structure and decoration are not Chinese style, which makes me suspicious.

I see a picture on the pillar when going through a bridge, there are two samurai in it, which makes me pretty sure that I have come into a Japanese world.

Cross the bridge, I move to a bigger place. There are several seats, drums and deadmen, so I guess this is a traditional drill ground. However, it makes me a little confused that I cannot see any weapon.

After walking out the gate and seeing the posters, I realize I'm wrong. This place really has a long history, but not for fight. People get together in old days to enjoy the kabuki here.

Then I find another traditional Japanese thing. I see it many times in Japanese cartoons. This is a watering place, people use the spindly tool to drink. I wonder why it appears, but after a while I know the answer.

The reason is I come to a traditional Japanese indoor hot spring! From the pictures, you can see kimono, drapes, clogs, futon and Wooden Casks. I jump into the water and try to image how comfortable if I really in such a place: sit in the pool, drink the saki, talk with my friend at times and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

At last, I arrive at a large courtyard. I guess this must be a rich family in ancient. Once inside, there is an entire column of bungalows. After checking, I'm sure it's the stable, although there is only one horse there... The main building's decoration is very exquisite. The wall painting describes the scenes of ancient wars and only the Chinese calligraphy will cost thousands of dollars, let alone the golden fan and bonsai. The katana (samurai sword) in another room makes me think of the film "The last samurai". I appreciate their spirit for persistence and bravery.

Week 6 - Danny's Photoblog

Today, I tried to download Debabbler, the Machine Translator, through the page in Delicious. I followed the instruction, went to the destination, and got access to the link by touching the object. But the link was proved invalid and there was no other means to download Debabbler. So I searched Google and found another SL translator called “Ferd’s free translator”.

The translator, which was based on Google translation, worked well when translating English texts into Chinese. It could meet the basic need of inter-language communication as long as the typing of texts was in complete and strict form (shown in tips below). Some slangs and colloquial words in common use such as “awesome”, “cool” could be perfectly translated into Chinese. 

Yet there were still several disturbing errors. For instance, it translated the sentence “I am a kiwi.” into “I am a kiwifruit.” in Chinese, for the probable reason that it had not included into its database the idiomatic word “kiwi” to indicate “New Zealand native”. Besides, unnecessary attention was paid to trifles. Some abbreviation like “IBM” remained its English form while being translated (which conformed to Chinese convention on foreign expressions), but was attached label to elaborate the detailed information of the company. The software seemed to lack of recognition of daily abbreviations such as “C U tmr.” or “R U alright?” which reduced the translating efficiency and hindered the popularization of this MT software.

I mean, the label to IBM seems redundant as over 99% of Chinese people who log on Internet know what it represents while the lack of recognition of daily abbreviations is indeed a barrier for communication. My suggestion is that more efforts should be made to better off the recognition of daily abbreviations and buzzwords so that language barriers can be lessened.

Here are the tips for using Ferd’s free translator:

Machine translation has stricter rules than the general language. Machine translation requires you to write texts that are easily comprehensible. It is an undeniable fact: Texts that are easily comprehensible are also easily translatable. Machine translation systems produce much better results if you  write carefully.   This is a list of ten rules to get the best results from your translator.  Write sentences that are short and direct.       The translator asks Google to detect the language of the text.     The translator displays the quality score of the translation.     The translator sends the text to the Google Translate engine.     The translator displays the translated text. Do not write:     The translator will ask Google to detect the language, then it will graph it, translate it, and print the result.  Write sentences that express only one idea.     Writing a sentence for easy comprehension simplifies the translation process.  This enables machine translation systems to produce better results. Do not write:     Better result are made by writing in a easy to comprehend style, that enables machine translation to produce better results.  Write the same sentence if you want to express the same content.     Type /1 to translator a private IM to you.     Type /2 to translate a private IM to others. Do not write:     Type /1 and /2 to translate text to and from other people.  Write sentences that are grammatically complete      Do you wish to continue into the main grid of Second Life? Do not write:      Want to go now?  Write sentences that have a simple grammatical structure.     Show that you can organize your thoughts by using a simple sentence structure in your texts. Do not write:     You, in your texts, to show that you can organize your thoughts, should use a simple sentence structure.  Write sentences in the active form     I will send a list of questions to the staff. Do not write:     A list of questions will be sent to the staff.  Write sentences that repeat the noun instead of using a pronoun.  Avoid 'it'.     You must check the spelling of your text before you press the enter key. Do not write:     You must check the spelling of your text before sending it.  Write sentences that use articles to identify nouns.     We need to test the translator. Do not write:     Test translation.  Write sentences that use words from a general dictionary.     Avoid ambiguity. Do not write:     Eschew obfuscation.  Write sentences that use only words with correct spelling.     Texts that contain spelling mistakes complicate the translation process. Do not write:     Texts that contein speling misstakes complicate the translation procces.   

I also tried the voice interpreter Ferd’s chat to speech but failed to work it out. I could hear the instruction through my headset yet could not get my voice translated. I was wondering whether it was the glitch of microphone or that of software setting. I am to try the software again on Tuesday afternoon! Wish there will be some luck for me!