Baldric's Trousers » Uncategorized http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org An exploration of the Educational Possibilities of Second Life Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:22:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Building in SL – language learning in context? http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2007/01/25/building-in-sl-language-learning-in-context/ http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2007/01/25/building-in-sl-language-learning-in-context/#comments Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:22:30 +0000 baldricstrousers http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2007/01/25/building-in-sl-language-learning-in-context/ One of the things I love doing in Second Life is attending the Second Life Academy group’s building classes . I haven’t been to many, but all the ones I’ve been to have been highly entertaining and educational. You can also learn a lot about how best to teach people in SL, and it’s a great way to meet avatrs who are serious about SL, rather than those who are just there to waste time or looking for ways to make easy money.
The last class I attended was on building a  fountain, an intermediate building class. In the picture below, you can see the whole group with their fountains, at the end of the class:

It struck me during the class that this was a great way of teaching language – you take a group of students, especially if they have an interest in SL, and you teach them how to build something. You can easily see if they understand : if they do, then they’ll end up building what you ask them to.

I think this should definitely be a feature of our Teen Grid island project as it’s highly motivating. I had the opportunity to try it out two Mondays ago (Monday night, btw is ‘SL Fun night’ for me – I’ve been regularly meeting a friend there at 22.00 GMT, and we explore SL together – come and join us if you like). I showed a friend how to build a lamp, which really helped me understand the best way of giving text instructions.

Of course, an easy way of doing this, and one that some of the SLA instructors use is to utilise a device that lets you pre-load lines of text – you write the instructions beforehand, and wear this HUD device. Then by clicking one of the buttons, you deliver the instructions step-by-step. It also allows you to keep an eye on what’s going on (if you don’t do this, then you spend a lot of time typoing and thinking what to type next), and you can better respond to people’s comments and help out those with difficulties.

]]> http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2007/01/25/building-in-sl-language-learning-in-context/feed/ 0 Virtual Morocco – I’m at the official opening of this sim – today marks the last day of building http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/12/21/virtual-morocco-im-at-the-official-opening-of-this-sim-today-marks-the-last-day-of-building/ http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/12/21/virtual-morocco-im-at-the-official-opening-of-this-sim-today-marks-the-last-day-of-building/#comments Fri, 22 Dec 2006 01:08:48 +0000 baldricstrousers http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/12/21/virtual-morocco-im-at-the-official-opening-of-this-sim-today-marks-the-last-day-of-building/ posted by Baldric Commons on Casablanca using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

]]> http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/12/21/virtual-morocco-im-at-the-official-opening-of-this-sim-today-marks-the-last-day-of-building/feed/ 0 Blog Hud http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/08/23/blog-hud/ http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/08/23/blog-hud/#comments Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:27:05 +0000 baldricstrousers http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/08/23/blog-hud/ Blog Hud allows Second Life users to blog easily from within the virtual world.

The avatar-wearable Blog Hud allows you to post an entry to the bloghud web page in the form of a blog and includes a “map location of where you posted from in Second Life, along with RSS feeds to subscribe to for your favourite people or places in Second Life.”

You can search the bloghud page by person or place.

]]> http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/08/23/blog-hud/feed/ 0 E-commerce evolving http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/e-commerce-evolving/ http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/e-commerce-evolving/#comments Fri, 12 May 2006 22:56:04 +0000 baldricstrousers http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/e-commerce-evolving/

How e-commerce is evolving:

Web 1.0 = static web-pages, product photos
Web 2.0 = user-reviews, blogs, podcasts about products, services
Web 3.0 (perhaps better described as Web 3D) = walk in 3D shopping experience. You can chat to avatars in the aisles, to avatar sales consultants, etc.

]]> http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/05/12/e-commerce-evolving/feed/ 0 Welcome to my blog http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/05/07/welcome-to-my-blog/ http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/05/07/welcome-to-my-blog/#comments Sun, 07 May 2006 08:46:20 +0000 baldricstrousers http://baldricstrousers.edublogs.org/2006/05/07/welcome-to-my-blog/ Baldric Commons lives at the English Garden in Second Life. He is very interested in the educational possibilities of Second Life, especially for language learning.

He is going to use this edublog to document his investigations within the virtual world, and hopes that you will share your observations and comments with him as he settles in.

You can see his photo album at Flickr, and also hear what his alter ego has written about him at blog-efl

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