Language Lab

Two months ago I was checking my twitter account and found a message from Dafne Gonzalez about teaching Spanish in Second Life. I was intrigued by the fact of how could SL de used as a teaching tool. My first experience using this 3D world had not be motivating. As I knew Dafne who is a wonderful webhead I thought that why not give SL a second chance.

I was defenitely on the right track. Training in Language Lab started soon after I sent my CV to Dafne. I spread the word to the people I knew could be interested and fortunately Evelyn Izquierdo and Nelba Quintana applied for the job.


For our traininig Daf create a wiki for us to follow. Here you can find clear instructions on how to teach Spanish in SL. We had to create mini-lessons and share them with the rest of the trainees.
Below you can take a look at some of our SL classes.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.


You can take a look at the wiki I created for my mini-lessons.My first lesson was on Shapes students had to identify the different names of shapes and locate them in the Second Life location they are.

I must confess that my first class was a real disaster!!!! I finished with a circle on my head and could not take it off. The lesson learned was that what I planned was too much for a 10 minute class in Second Life. Time is so different in this environment. It was an excellent experience!!

My first steps in Second Life

My first experience in Second life was last year. Unfortunately I don´t have pictures of my first steps as I didn´t know how to use snapshots.

On Thursday November 2nd 2007 I was invited by Barbara Dieu to attend a talk she was going to give in Second Life. The last time I logged in Second Life was when Graham Stanley took a group of educators in a Balloon ride and it was an incredible experience.
In cooking up a storm in education I had problems with my sound and it is wonderful how SL educators help you without knowing you. It took a while to finally have sound so I only listened to the last part of the presentation. There were a lot participants and the pictures Bee showed were great. I also have to thank Cristina Costa who through Skype also tried to help me solve my sound problems.
Two weeks after I entered another chat Graham was having with a group of Italians. I was late and Graham teletransported me and I landed just in front of the presenter. Somehow the chart with the arrows where you can move did not show up so I couldn´t move. They considered me a “Griefer” and I was ejected from the chat!! I was flying in an unknown place. Should try to find out what happened with the chart.
SL is still a big mystery and you can learn a lot of things in this environment.

Welcome to the MUVEnation programme

Hello from Tamara Ashton,

My dearest friend Evelyn Izquierdo told me about this programme today through google chat. MUVEnation is:

"‘Teaching and learning with MUVEs’ is a one year postgraduate programme, at distance, for future and in-service teachers who want to use innovative methods and tools to address learners motivation and participation issues in compulsory education.

MUVEnation will help teachers acquire the necessary competencies to integrate massively multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) into their teaching practice ; by exploring the links between :

• virtual worlds, learning and motivation, active learning and pedagogical approaches that include socio-constructivism, situated learning, project based learning, learning by doing, game based learning, simulations and role-playing."

I have high expectations for this course and hope to be able to learn a lot from many international participants.

Kind regards

Tamara alias Jennifer