Case Study: Second Life
A million people are living parallel lives. These people go to school, have regular jobs, live out their lives in the real world just like us. They also inhabit a virtual world called Second Life where they embody avatars who socialize with others from around the globe. They create homes, go out to restaurants and concerts or go for a stroll on the beach. They can even fly if they want to. Second Life is a VR platform created by Linden Labs in 2003.
Unlike a video game, there are no tasks to complete, no points, no "leveling up". It's draw is social interaction and living through one's avatar in a virtual world. Very early on educators saw potential in Second Life, language teachers in particular (Carr, 2008). It created a unique opportunity: learners could gather together in synchronously in the same (virtual) space regardless of where they were in the world. Context and situational learning are important aspects of language learning. The space could be customized to suit the task at hand. In a typical classroom, the instructor might say something like, "OK, now we are going to role play. Imagine we are in a restaurant in London and each of you will play the role of server and customer." In Second Life, students from different continents can see each other (avatars) in the London restaurant, and interact with waiter (played by the teacher, or other students). This kind of visualization goes beyond pretending to give the participants are real sense of being there.
A benefit commonly reported is that when some learners express themselves through an avatar, they experience a decrease in performance anxiety - a major difficulty for many students trying to learn a foreign language. When they speak, it is not them speaking, it is their avatar, and this gives a sense of freedom and reduces the fear of making mistakes, which allows for bigger gains in learning (Carr, 2008)
Carr, D. (2008) ‘Learning in Virtual Worlds’ for inclusion in Education 2.0? A commentary
by the Technology Enhanced Learning phase of the Teaching and Learning Research
Programme, N.Selwyn (editor) TLRP, pp 17-22
Unlike a video game, there are no tasks to complete, no points, no "leveling up". It's draw is social interaction and living through one's avatar in a virtual world. Very early on educators saw potential in Second Life, language teachers in particular (Carr, 2008). It created a unique opportunity: learners could gather together in synchronously in the same (virtual) space regardless of where they were in the world. Context and situational learning are important aspects of language learning. The space could be customized to suit the task at hand. In a typical classroom, the instructor might say something like, "OK, now we are going to role play. Imagine we are in a restaurant in London and each of you will play the role of server and customer." In Second Life, students from different continents can see each other (avatars) in the London restaurant, and interact with waiter (played by the teacher, or other students). This kind of visualization goes beyond pretending to give the participants are real sense of being there.
A benefit commonly reported is that when some learners express themselves through an avatar, they experience a decrease in performance anxiety - a major difficulty for many students trying to learn a foreign language. When they speak, it is not them speaking, it is their avatar, and this gives a sense of freedom and reduces the fear of making mistakes, which allows for bigger gains in learning (Carr, 2008)
Carr, D. (2008) ‘Learning in Virtual Worlds’ for inclusion in Education 2.0? A commentary
by the Technology Enhanced Learning phase of the Teaching and Learning Research
Programme, N.Selwyn (editor) TLRP, pp 17-22
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...students suffer less from shyness and self consciousness, and are less afraid of making fools of themselves when no one knows who they are and particularly in role-play situations in virtual worlds . |
Case Study: Learn Immersive
Learn Immersive is a San Francisco based start-up founded by Tony Diepenbrock in 2014. Its goal is to offer a virtual environment for language learning. Tony refers to its platform as "language agnostic" as it is designed to be adapted for learning any language. Learn Immersive doesn't create the content, but provides the framework in which teachers and students can add their own content. The product is still in its development stage, with the company poised to run trials in a number of schools in the fall of 2015. Interested educators are encouraged to try out some its features and create quests for their students using the Blueprint module, a tool for creating interactive lessons for students. Teachers record their voice and can direct students through a number of different tasks. While the tasks, or Quests as they are called in the platform, at this stage focus on relatively simple tasks such as finding and moving an object, memorizing vocabulary and multiple choice quizzes, Tony has has big plans for the product as the technologies involved reach their full potential.
Language learning should be spacial, contextual and cultural ... if you can incorporate anything social, that's even better. |
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We were fortunate to be able to interview Tony for this project. Check out the video in which he shares his vision of VR technology for language learning.