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GE JALTCALL 2008 Pre-conference Workshop (PCW)

This year's pre-conference workshop will be held on the NUCB Nisshin Campus (the conference
venue for Saturday, 31st May — Sunday, 1st June).


An Introduction to Second Life for Language Teachers
Date: Friday, 30th May
Venue: Language Centre, NUCB Nisshin Campus, Room 621
Time: Start ca. 18:00 — 19:45
Presenter: Gavin Dudeney — Honorary Secretary of the IATEFL / Project Director theConsultantsE
Title: An introduction to Second Life for Language Teachers


Topic of the Workshop
Second Life is a 3D virtual world which teachers and students can access from their computer. With over ten million users, it is a vibrant microcosm of the real world, featuring continents and countries, and private island spaces. Users of Second Life build the world around them by creating buildings, gadgets, clothes and tools to enrich the user experience. In Second Life you can dress snappily and then take your avatar out shopping, sailing, driving, playing and learning, especially language learning  — the options are limited only by your imagination. Add to this various communication options including text and voice chat, and you have a vibrant educational community from around the world which is growing rapidly every day.

Why should language teachers be interested in Second Life? The online world is changing — it is more than likely that the Internet will look more like Second Life than the Internet we know within the next five years. Indeed, Gartner predict that 80% of Internet users will have a virtual life by 2011. More than anything, Second Life is a social world where people talk, compare and recommend  and with the average user being in their late twenties and early thirties (and with high acquisitional power), this is an audience which should interest you, and one you should be mining, especially if you're a language educator. This session will look at getting started in Second Life, and getting started with teaching via a variety of tools and approaches which have been tried and tested over the past two years. Towards the end of the session we will consider language learning in SL and examine some of the resources and locations currently available.

Please ensure that you have signed up for a free SL account before coming to the workshop, and that you have logged in at least once. No other prior knowledge of SL is necessary.


Presenter Biography
Gavin has worked in education since 1988, as a teacher, materials developer, IT manager and web/user interface designer. His blend of pedagogical and technical skills has taken him around the world — primarily for the International House World Organisation, but also for the British Council and other entities - helping them to bridge the gap between their training and teaching portfolio and their technical needs.

Until the end of 2003 he held two posts: the first as Head of the New Technologies Department at International House Barcelona, and the second as Lead Developer for the online training centre Net Languages. In 2003 he left to set up the Consultants-E and has worked as the Project Director since then. His work involves project planning and delivery, as well as the EduNation presence in Second Life.

Apart from his work with the Consultants-E, he is the web manager for a  wide range of educational organisations and is a past Cooordinator of the IATEFL Learning Teachnologies Special Interest Group, as well as editor of its newsletter — The CALL Journal. His other work for IATEFL includes the management of the Associates website and discussion form (PAL). In 2007 he was elected Honorary Secretary.

Gavin has published The Internet and the Language Classroom (Cambridge University Press 2000, Second Edition 2007) and — with Nicky Hockly — How to Teach English with Technology (Longman, 2007). He is also the author of numerous print and online articles.


Traveling to the Pre-conferece Workshop

Take a subway train (Higashiyama Line) from Nagoya Train Station to Fushimi (direction Fujigaoka) (5 mins).

Change at Fushimi and take the Tsurumai Line to Komenoki Station (25 mins).

There are usually four trains every hour in a regular weekday service.

Take the bus from stop number 2 to the NUCB Nisshin Campus (15 mins).

Hours
 Minutes past each hour
12
 20


13
 20


14
 12
 57

15
 18
 33
 50
16
 00
 18
 39
 54
17
 08
 20
 47
 52
18
 06
 32



Returning to Komenoki from the Pre-conferece Workshop

Buses from NUCB Nisshin Campus to Komenoki (Weekdays)
Hours
 Minutes past each hour
19
 32
20
 15
 53 (from main gate)


Timetables for the weekend trip to the NUCB Campus with prices an be found here.














Last modified: Saturday, 24 May 2008, 10:04 AM