Second Life is an online virtual world in three dimensions. It is quickly becoming very popular and has millions of users throughout the world. What makes Second Life different is that it is not an online game, rather it is an online inversive environment. Second Life allows you to travel through an entirely imaginary world with buildings, people, cafes, streets, mountains, etc. Second Life has also created an intriguing new space for virtual classrooms that act very much like 'real-life' classrooms. Students attend presentations, teachers help students communicate, etc.
If you are interested in learning more about Second Life then visit and create your own avatar. I'll admit the learning curve is steep, and I have some doubts about whether students might become more confused by all the technology than by the English they are learning. Still, Second Life is attracting more and more attention as an ideal learning environment and I can well imagine that it will eventually become an alternative for many students who want to study English online.
To get started, here are some resources provided by some of the most active English teaching associations in Second Life:
Second Life English Blog
A video showcasing English Village in Second Life
A TESOL Spain Presentation: Learn English Second Life for Teens by Graham Stanley for the British Council.
This new teaching environment is still very young, but is already attracting a number of companies to establish schools in Second Life. I've spent some time wandering around Second Life and reviewing it for teaching / learning possibilities. Here are some of the possible uses I would imagine could be effective in Second Life. The second page of this article provides five short lesson ideas that you might want to try out if you decide to establish a virtual classroom in Second Life.
Topic Intro
These are ideas that could be used to introduce topics within Second life.
- Begin with streamed media to help introduce subject. It would be nice to have YouTube videos of interactions with key phrases available to watch as a group.
- Elicit student input on key phrases ('Which phrases did they use to …?")
- Use bullet points with key phrases projected onto screen. Have short teacher-led discussion of key 'chunks' or grammar.
- Provide virtual notes to be passed around for more intensive reading purposes / easily available reference for students to model their own discussions on.
- Provide teacher - student modeling with students based on notes. Perhaps a YouTube streamed video chopped into pieces would be nice for this.
Interaction Phase
These activities might be used for a more interactive phase of the lesson where students work together in the virtual space of Second Life.
- Students break into small groups (or pairs) to practice key points based on handout (once again a note passed to all, also projected to front of room)
- Exercise warm ups: gap fills / multiple choice / other written (quick) assignments can be performed by groups and pasted into a 'group' note which an be passed to teacher for assessment purposes
- Chatting via text: use chat as a means of inductively teaching "chunking" and / or grammar. IOW when student first 'chat' through the key areas they anchor knowledge through kinetic use of keyboard
- Students take passive knowledge and begin to apply knowledge. Depending on situation students might teleport to place to practice
Follow-up
These activities might be used after a period of exploring in Second Life.
- Reassemble class for a discussion of how things went. This could be in an informal setting, or in the classroom.
- Some sort of class game / activity to review key phrases, language 'chunks' and / or grammar
- Homework - provide homework at website (more traditional, syllabus based exercise permitting students to have a 'take-away' such as a score, measurement of some sort)
- In world projects - projects that focus on activities which should elicit key lesson points in Second Life should be given at the end of each lesson.
- If time permits: discussion of last week's projects that have taken place in Second Life.
