Sandra Annette Rogers's Posts - Virtual Round Table Web Conference2024-03-29T07:18:52ZSandra Annette Rogershttp://virtual-round-table.ning.com/profile/SandraAnnetteRogershttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1966925327?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://virtual-round-table.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=2lvaz7y2tb13w&xn_auth=noDoctoral Internship: Creating Machinimatag:virtual-round-table.ning.com,2014-04-29:3109966:BlogPost:752502014-04-29T10:16:36.000ZSandra Annette Rogershttp://virtual-round-table.ning.com/profile/SandraAnnetteRogers
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<p>This semester, I participated in the <b>C</b>re<b>A</b>ting <b>M</b>achinima <b>E</b>mpowers <b>L</b>ive <b>O</b>nline language <b>T</b>eaching and learning (CAMELOT) project funded by the European Union’s Lifelong Learning Programme. The purpose of the CAMELOT project is to provide language-teaching resources for English as foreign language instructors, as well as…</p>
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<p>This semester, I participated in the <b>C</b>re<b>A</b>ting <b>M</b>achinima <b>E</b>mpowers <b>L</b>ive <b>O</b>nline language <b>T</b>eaching and learning (CAMELOT) project funded by the European Union’s Lifelong Learning Programme. The purpose of the CAMELOT project is to provide language-teaching resources for English as foreign language instructors, as well as to share the technological and pedagogical expertise on creating and adapting their own machinima for the classroom. Machinima are screencasts of animation in virtual worlds to create movies. I interned for a grantee in the project, Heike Philp of <i>let’s talk online, sprl</i>. My primary goal was to learn the craft of machinima in order to assist with the production of machinima in Second Life™ (SL) utilizing Camtasia Studio video production software, as well as to produce supporting how-to guides. My personal goal was to become adept at producing media for young children.</p>
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<p>I received wonderful guidance from Heike Philp, my intern supervisor. She spent numerous hours with me inworld and in webinars hosted on Adobe Connect. We met in a SL sim she owns called EduNation. Sometimes we sat around a campfire to discuss the various issues I was having in SL. Other times, Heike or her co-moderators led trainings, machinima screenings, or live film shoots. They invited us to collaborate in group projects. The volunteer moderators of the workshop provided ongoing activities beyond the confines of the 5-week training. For example, the sixth week, we were challenged to create a lesson plan to accompany our machinima for a CAMELOT competition in the SLanguages Symposium on February 28th. </p>
<p>To create machinima, you need characters. You can ask others to star in your production or serve as extras in the background. In my case, I decided to become a character in my own simple production. Ms. Philp bestowed upon me a great gift of Linden dollars to purchase a new avatar. Now I am a grey cat that looks lifelike and makes cat sounds. I love it! I wanted to be a cat that had animated features for filming purposes. I had previously selected a tabby cat avatar from the freebies but found that it did not have the same movement capabilities of human avatars. Now with this new Zooby cat skin, I can do several actions like sit, clean myself, nap, run, purr, and meow. I want to use this avatar cat in a machinima about my children's story, <i>Kanimambo, Charlie Makako (Thank you, Charlie Monkey)</i>. This is one of the stories that I hope will be selected for future CAMELOT projects. In the story, one of the things that the cat does is dance. I tried the different gestures provided in SL affordances. I can move his legs from side to side as if he is dancing. I can also change the cat's physical attributes to make it look more like a monkey (e.g. elongate tail), which is one of the characteristics of the cat character. </p>
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<p>Here are two of the machinima I created this semester:</p>
<p><i style="font-size: 13px;">1. Adventures with Charlie</i> <span style="font-size: 13px;">by Sandra Rogers**</span></p>
<p><a href="http://youtu.be/03QhO0Q2zv8">http://youtu.be/03QhO0Q2zv8</a></p>
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<p><i style="font-size: 13px;">2. Cast Party at the Castle</i> <span style="font-size: 13px;">by Sandra Rogers</span></p>
<p><a href="http://youtu.be/tTGkPNJ7NTE">http://youtu.be/tTGkPNJ7NTE</a></p>
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<p></p>Getting Started on My Dissertation: MMORGs for Language Learningtag:virtual-round-table.ning.com,2014-04-22:3109966:BlogPost:738462014-04-22T04:45:51.000ZSandra Annette Rogershttp://virtual-round-table.ning.com/profile/SandraAnnetteRogers
<p>Problem-based learning (PBL) in simulated environments such as massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORGs) offers a variety of language-based scenarios with nonplaying characters providing model language support for cultural, vocabulary, and literacy development. Gaming provides situated learning of content in a PBL format (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989). For example, the U.S. Department of State designed Trace Effects, a video game (also a MMORG), for juvenile English…</p>
<p>Problem-based learning (PBL) in simulated environments such as massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORGs) offers a variety of language-based scenarios with nonplaying characters providing model language support for cultural, vocabulary, and literacy development. Gaming provides situated learning of content in a PBL format (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989). For example, the U.S. Department of State designed Trace Effects, a video game (also a MMORG), for juvenile English language learners (ELLs) in 2012. The levels of the game take you to different American communities for rich situated learning among the varied cultural settings. (See my logic model for <a title="Logic Model of Trace Effects" href="http://teacherrogers.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/logic-model-of-trace-effects/" target="_blank">Trace Effects</a>.)</p>
<p>I plan to investigate the use of a general MMORG as a language-learning vocabulary tool; it was not designed for ELLs. I will extend a study by Rankin, Gold, and Gooch (2006) that only had four college-aged intermediate and advanced level ELL participants. They reported that participants improved their English vocabulary by 40% from playing EverQuest II (EQ2) for four hours a week for four weeks without instructional supports. Nonplaying characters provided support by modeling language; in fact, the more they modeled, the higher the accuracy in vocabulary meaning. The authors acknowledged their small sample size and called for larger investigations of this type given the positive outcomes. I would like to verify and extend their findings using mixed methods to produce a more robust understanding of this phenomenon.</p>
<p><strong>Purpose of the Study</strong></p>
<p>The purpose of the proposed study is to determine whether college-aged intermediate and advanced level ELLs can learn vocabulary in a short amount of time from playing MMORGs. EQ2 provides opportunities for the characters (a student’s avatar) to speak. The nonplaying characters (embedded support system) verbalize the rules and alerts to players. All the components in this game are labeled, which serves as an English language support mechanism. In their study, Rankin et al. (2006) found there was sufficient support for ELLs within the game; however, their findings were based on an extremely small sample. My study will include at least 50 participants with random assignment to control and treatment groups (experimental design). If college-aged ELLs could significantly increase their knowledge of English vocabulary by playing a free MMORG like EQ2, then this could be an important extracurricular activity for language teaching programs or informal learning agendas.</p>
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<p>A special thanks to Dr. Burke Johnson for getting me started on my dissertation in his course this semester (Advanced Research Design).</p>
<p>Note: These are my humble beginnings. I’ve already begun the literature review and written about 22 pages.</p>
<p>See my PowerPoint presentation on <a title="Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games for Language Learning" href="http://teacherrogers.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/massive-multiplayer-online-roleplaying-games-for-language-learning/" target="_blank">MMORGs for Language Learning</a> that I presented at SITE 2014 in Jacksonville, FL.</p>