VRT1 Virtual Worlds I

Saturday, 21 April 2012 3:30pm GMT | 0:30am Tokyo (Sun) | 8:30am LA 

For World Time click here http://tinyurl.com/21Apr330pmGMT

Adobe ConnectPro (Enter as guest)

http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/vrt1

Parallel Sessions (90 min)

Dr. Doris Molero

@doris3m

Fireworks in Virtual Worlds: An ESP Blended Experience
ESP classes have traditionally focus on providing students tools to read and understand different kind of texts related to their field of study. Also, ESP course design has been based on the use of paper and pencil. Now, thanks to computers, mobile phones and internet, a whole set of new tools and approaches have emerged that can be integrated into the face to face class turning it into a blended experience that incorporate digital literacies and skills needed for  future jobs.
In this webinar, we look at the story of an ESP Class for Graphic Design Students that integrate technology based on the use of blogs, social networks, and virtual worlds. Assesment is done throught a project that allows students to read texts with a pourpose and learn by creating artifacts and experiencing new worlds.

Bio

Dr. Doris Molero
EFL university Professor at Rafael Belloso University in Maracaibo, Venezuela. (More in comment box below)

Angela Rizzo

Be Epic: Learn how to make machinimas from scratch in five weeks

The author describes her experience in learning how to make machinimas which took place during the five weeks of the 2012 MachinEVO, an EVO sessions workshop for video productions of language learning conversations in Second Life.

Bio

Angela Rizzo, Second Life Avatar’s Name Rosavioletta. An EFL teacher to adults in Company courses in Italy, she is currently working independently on designing a module to teach Italian online. She holds a Bachelor (Honours – cum laude) degree in Educational Sciences with the University of Genoa (Italy) and a Post Graduate Certificate in Online and Distance Education with the Open University (U.K.).

David Parrot

Kiski Boys School Virtual Worlds

Teaching Boys in Virtual Worlds Experiment
Can social learning take place in a virtual reality environment? Do boys in this environment exhibit the peculiar styles of interacting and learning that education theorists believe are clearly related to their gender? These are the two questions which this qualitative experiment which was conducted with boys who were enrolled in the Kiski School in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania attempted to answer. In order to address these research questions high school age boys were taught in both a real world and a virtual world classroom. Through observation and analysis of the interviews, the authors of his study hoped to find what improvements might need to be made in the virtual world system and how problems with student performance and behavior (including those related to gender) might need to be addressed for this to be a viable learning platform for future research and possible future implementation.
Bio 

David L. Parrott is a doctoral candidate at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (more in comment box below)