SIMiLLE

1. SIMiLLE • fgfg …investigation of virtual world technologies to create meaningful contexts for learning a foreign language by addressing the students’ lack of cultural and social context….

2. SIMiLLE The team: Dr. Michael Gardner – Project Management & Best Practice John Scott – Design and Build Dr. Joy van Helvert – User needs Dr. Adela Ganem – Trials and evaluation Prof. Chris Fowler – Pedagogical consultant fgfg

3. Language learning domain • Distance learning students unable to experience the cultural and social immersion when learning a language • Enrich and control the cultural content for students already located in the host environment • Non-verbal communication in the form of voice tone, facial expression, body language and spatial positioning accounts for the majority (97%), of information exchanged in any social interaction • Need to support: • High Quality, synchronous, communication. • Realistic settings and behaviours which provide contextual cues and sign posts for meaningful discourse and interactions, and to support a ‘sense of presence and self’ • Reflection, Imitation and Practice where the learner has an opportunity to reflect on what is learnt and to take remedial action through further imitation and practice • Personalised to support learners of different abilities, styles, and learning pace • Transparent teaching so learners become less distracted by the mechanics of the teaching and more focussed on the learning process and content. • Motivating through greater realism, autonomous interactions, and compelling scenarios.

4. Application scenario • A multi faceted world/environment containing multiple resources for teachers to develop and refine their teaching scenarios to fit the needs of their students • The emphasis is on supporting both teachers, in developing their learning scenarios, and students in navigating the tasks set by them • Tools required: • Construction tools (activity templates, role templates, object archives, examples, etc.) • Observation tools (visible/invisible presence, record and playback) • Tools to allow the development of signposts, cues, etc. • Assessment and diagnostic tools • Formative evaluation/development: -> Dec 09 • Summative trial/evaluation: Jan – Mar 10

5. SIMiLLE overview Virtual Worlds Object Library Teacher 2. may enhance world to support plan 1. generates or reuses existing Activity Plan observes student activity COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SIMiLLE PLATFORM Teacher generated reusable Activity Plans Role and task descriptions enhance contains Student evidence: VW recordings, written reports etc. assesses gathers accesses carries out activity Student

6. SIMiLLE Implementation ENVIRONMENT A virtual environment with various pre defined attributes that provide a backdrop for teachers to develop interaction SCENARIOS that meet the learning needs of their students. SCENARIO A learning activity defined by teachers that takes place within/utilises a SIMiLLE ENVIRONMENT RESOURCES The objects and functionality available to teachers for developing scenarios (e.g. cues & signposts) ACTIVITY TYPE One of three kinds of learning orientation: 1) Information gathering; 2) Role play; 3) Reflection and discussion

7. Learning activity: Information gathering • For example: • Pairs of students exploring a 3D world together, making and discussing observations or gathering clues. • The learning objectives and the details of the activity, such as clues, objects to be found or phenomena to be observed will be defined by the teacher.

8. Learning activity: Role Play • For example: • The opportunity to explore one or more everyday life roles within the community, such as a customer (restaurant/ shop etc), waiter, shop keeper, shopper, librarian etc. • Scenarios and roles will be defined by teachers for students in accordance with the appropriate learning objectives. • Teachers may take part in the scenario assuming roles that challenge students to develop their language skills. • Alternatively students may take turns in playing various roles within the teacher defined scenario or students with higher levels of competence may assume roles that facilitate both their own and lower level students’ language skills.

9. Learning activity: Reflection & Discussion • For example: • The opportunity to replay interactions within the world stimulating a critical evaluation of performance either personally or with others (peers and/or teacher). • Such evaluations could be either spoken or written. • The details of the activity (i.e what should be recorded and played back and the form of the evaluation) will be defined by the teacher.

10. SIMiLLE video (formative evaluation)

11. Implementation: Wonderland 0.5 • Cultural settings: University campus

12. SIMiLLE evaluation (1) Evaluation criteria and questions Practicality & acceptability Does SIMiLLE allow the implementation of the tasks satisfactorily? Are the identified benefits of SIMiLLE greater than the identified drawbacks?

13. SIMiLLE evaluation (1) Evaluation criteria and questions Practicality & acceptability Does SIMiLLE allow the implementation of the tasks satisfactorily? Are the identified benefits of SIMiLLE greater than the identified drawbacks? Authenticity Is there a strong correspondence between the SIMiLLE tasks and the type of tasks learners carry out in non-pedagogical contexts? Are learners able to see the connection between the SIMiLLE tasks and tasks they need to perform as part of their life in the UK?

14. SIMiLLE evaluation (1) Evaluation criteria and questions Practicality & acceptability Does SIMiLLE allow the implementation of the tasks satisfactorily? Are the identified benefits of SIMiLLE greater than the identified drawbacks? Authenticity Is there a strong correspondence between the SIMiLLE tasks and the type of tasks learners carry out in non-pedagogical contexts? Are learners able to see the connection between the SIMiLLE tasks and tasks they need to perform as part of their life in the UK? Learner fit Are the SIMiLLE tasks appropriate for the learners, e.g. in relation to age, computer experience, needs? Is the difficulty level of the SIMiLLE tasks appropriate for the learners to increase their L2 ability?

15. SIMiLLE evaluation (2) Evaluation criteria and questions L2 learning potential Do the SIMiLLE tasks provide opportunities for learners to achieve the target tasks and L2 learning objectives, e.g. in relation to interaction, collaboration, co-construction of knowledge, focus on form and meaning? • Collaboration, co-construction of cultural and linguistic knowledge, cultural awareness; • Motivation; • Listening, speaking, reading and writing in the L2; • Negotiation of meaning: they had opportunities to pose questions, make requests, ask for information, clarification, and practice functions such as agreeing and disagreeing; • Vocabulary Impact Do the learners have a positive learning experience with SIMiLLE? Does SIMiLLE support / foster learner autonomy, e.g. learners are able to carry out the tasks independently, learners have control over resources, language, etc.? Are there any distinctive characteristics of SIMiLLE which contribute to the positive – or otherwise – learning experience?

16. Institutional and Practitioner Issues • Management support • Information Systems Support • Integration into existing curriculum • Staff/student training and support • Client requirements eg. headsets, graphics, etc • Teaching templates eg. activity plan, role descriptions • Access to in-world content eg. 3D models, interactive activity tools, etc • Integration with LMS eg. Moodle • Recording sessions, replay and reflection

17. Wonderland (0.5) implementation • Make use of Google Warehouse resources • Server deployment infrastructure (one world per server) • 15-20 concurrent users • Teacher configuration of SIMiLLE environment • Jumping between worlds (portal) • Recording and playback • Limited/no learner personalisation • In-world access privileges • Group collaboration tools • Good quality audio communication

18. SIMiLLE deliverables • Wonderland implementation (Open Source) • Requirements document • Evaluation reports • Best practice guides • Papers and reports • Ends April 2010

19. End mgardner@essex.ac.uk