Killer Apps in Second Life

Well anyone who keeps up with this blog on a regular basis will know that last Sunday (26th Oct 08) was my debut as a chat show host in Second Life.

Firstly I have to thank Gavin Dudeney from The Consultants-E for being my first guest and of course for sponsoring the series which will be taking place on his Edunation Island. Here's a quick clip of Gavin telling me about his 'Killer app' in Second Life and how he got pulled into working in Second Life.



The experience of being the show host was actually very enjoyable, even if somewhat surreal, with a native American appearing in loin cloth in the middle of the coffee table and at one point a young girl avatar running through the wall and into the audience!

Gavin was a very informative guest and talked about some of the difficulties and challenges of teaching language in Second Life as well as some of the amazing potential that virtual worlds offer for education.

We hope over the coming few days to be able to make the complete audio available for anyone who missed the event and wants to hear what Gavin had to say. Here are just some of the questions that Gavin answered:

• What goes on at Edunation Islands 1 - 3 and what kind of people / institution are setting up business here?
• Who comes on your TT courses? What’s thee typical profile?
• The course uses Moodle with SL. Why the combination and will SL make Moodle redundant?
• Could you tell us about the free teaching tools you’ve created?
• Do you think SL is a viable place to for commercial language schools to make money from teaching?
• Is communication in virtual worlds a new ‘genre’ of communication? Are the skills needed different?
• It's often said that online learning isn’t suitable for beginners. Can beginners learn languages online in SL?
• How can you over come the sense of coldness and lack of reaction while teaching in SL?
• How should languages be taught in SL? Should schools be replicating classrooms?
• What future developments would you like to see? What would you ask Linden Lab to develop to make language teaching more effective?
• Is there a ‘killer app’ or characteristic that made you want to dedicate so much time to SL?
• Have you thought about SL competitors and which ones would you consider shifting to?

For anyone thinking about getting involved in Second Life Education then check out the information on The Consultants-E website where you can find out about their training courses for teachers. Also worth checking out is Gavin's Blog That'SLife.

Hope you enjoy the clip. More later.

Related links:

• Teaching Speaking in Second Life
• Building in Second Life
• More Second Life Tutorials
• Lip Sync for Second Life
• Photo Assignments for EFL ESL Students in Second Life
• Materials design for Virtual Worlds
• Teaching English in Second Life

Best

Nik Peachey