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Meetings 2013

On this page you can find information about our inworld meetings, along with a list of participants (add yourself!) and a summary of the meetings — if someone volunteers to provide it :-)

SLexperiments teacher meetings have been taken place for many years and happen every 1st Friday of the month and every 3rd Wed of the month.

Note: Meetings are chronologically organised from oldest to latest., the latest being at the top of the page. Comments are at the end of the page.

Check the meeting calendar for 2013:  Calendar of Events (if you wish to add events there, IM me to get access to the SL experiments's calendar)

Next meeting is Wed, 17 April 11am SLT.

Friday 3rd May -6pm GMT - 8pm CET  - 11pm SLT  - Planning 2013 sessions

Meeting Place: EduNation - Webhead's HQ 

Agenda: We need a plan of action for this year. Come and share ideas about

• creating language learning material (lesson plans, notecards, visuals, tools, landmarks, objects), in several languages
• planning workshop contents,
• updates on the viewer for newbies and oldies,
• Events to add to the calendar

Put your hand up to hold sessions and test your ideas with us. 

Attending: 

1. Cybère  
2. DeeSnow 
3. Carol later 

Minutes: 

Poor turnout probably due to the fact that there was a change of schedule from the 1st Friday to the 3rd Friday of the month in favor of the MCC  Machinima Creative Club which meets on every 1st Sunday of the month at 8pm GMT. I hadn't paid attention to the mention below :)

It was a good occasion for DeeSnow and Cybere to catch up and speak of their respective RL activities and French teaching in general. The outcome in the end was to agree on a little questionnaire to send to SLExperiments members to gauge whether or not we continue the group, as there have no activities in the last year. The questionnaire is simple and will be sent to Edunation Members, SLexperiments members and Webheads in-world. Here is the content of the notecard:

Dear everyone, 

SLexperiments group and wiki has remained inactive for almost a year but it does not mean that its members have not been busy. In order to find out whether we keep the group going, please kindly answer the following questions and return your notecard to Cyber Placebo in-world or by email cyberplacebo[at]gmail[dot]com. You can also send her a message/IM off-line.

1. What language activities do you run on SL? or have run recently?
2. We are interested in your list of ideas. What sessions/topic are you interested in participating in?
3. Is the 3rd Friday at 6pm GMT, 11am ST right for you?
4. Would you be ready to lead a session during the year?
5. Any other comments welcome! 

Thank you!

Cybère

Wednesday 17th April -7pm GMT - 8pm CET  - 11am SLT  - open session 

Meeting Place: EduNation - Webhead's HQ 

Agenda: Second meeting

Attending: 

1. Heike aka Gwen
2. Carol  
3. Letty
4. Jens
5. Hazel 

Minutes:

Talked about....

• IATEFL and the 'new' Flipped Classroom idea. 
• changing the 1st Friday of the month to the 3rd Friday of the month in favor of the MCC  Machinima Creative Club which meets on every 1st Sunday of the month at 8pm GMT. 
• deadline for video production for TechSoup -> 30 April 2013

http://www.techsoup.org/community/community-initiatives/techsoup-digital-storytelling?utm_source=sm&utm_medium=sm&utm_campaign=sm

• submissions for VWBPE -> opens 6 May and closes 15 June, conference takes place at 24-27 July 2013

http://www.vwbpe.org/

• deadline for ISTE EduMachinima Festival 7 June http://sigve.iste.wikispaces.net/EduMachinima+Fest+2013 

Friday 5th April -6pm GMT - 8pm CET  - 11pm SLT  - open session

Meeting Place: EduNation - Webhead's HQ 

Agenda: First meeting of the year after Machinevo workshops. Bring ideas, tell us about your projects past and future, let's prepare 2013 with explorations, workshops for newbies and more experienced users, guest speakers. 

Attending: 

1. Heike aka Gwen
2. Cybère  
3. Heike 

Apologies:

Minutes:

Karelia's update:- 5 years old in SL, came back from New York in RL, meeting someone whom she met in SL first time, visiting a real New Yorker, an English(woman) in New York.- was in American National museum, created a little video- 2 regular commitments in SL as an Englishteachera) every Tue, 12:30pm SLT (8:30pm GMT) 1h of singing lesson for pronunciation, some 9-10 people a week join, mostly Italians

Blog: http://kareliakondor.wordpress.com/

b) every Wed, Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice, we read a chapter - some recordings on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=plcp&list=PL8yeypFtjWdq4HmyKT4fm4-WKdXidAPxQc) Twice a week during school hours, Cathy in Arcachon joins her French lessonsd) helps BCS (British Computer Society),James Anderson island, UK time 3:30-5:00pm SL Club  for building thigs in SL

Cyber suggested to go to the 1st World War trenches Link : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//219/198/647

Letty's update: Letty Pienaar is Christel Schneider in RL who used to the head of ICC Europe The International Language Network, now retired and working for her own training companyBadly got the machinima 'bug', has been producing lots of machinimas since JanuaryTeaches German in Virtlantis from next weekhas been mainly in teacher trainingIdea: to produce machinima to motivate people to get into SLIs fascinated with teaching a language in SL, one of the teachers didnt Experience of learning Italian - needed common language of instruction (English in this case)Interested in possibility of learning as a total beginner - experience of Italian class where they learnt how to carry out basic functions in SL (eg. to fly - volare)

Hazel's update: Interested in machinima and observing what teachers do, Hazel has been an animator with pencil and paper,  working for many studios, amongst others Walt Disney, "Who framed Roger Rabbit" was one of the films she worked on  

Oronoque's update "I am not a language teacher, but I have learned good facilitation practices from SL language teachers. I teach Caribbean studies fully and partially online, depending on the course. I have had some health challenges for the past several months so have used the time to gather ideas to improve my virtual teaching, but do not yet have enough energy to implement the ideas. I feel like a squirrel, gathering nuts for the coming season."

Carol's update: Teaching conversation and games in Language Lab for over a year.In autumn ran an Avalon project - teacher trainingMade machinimahttp://machinevo.pbworks.com/w/page/63642403/Film%20Festival%20MachinEVO%202013Received 7 awards!

Marius' update: Teacher of German in France.  Hopes to have more time to use SL in teaching

Wynshel Heir's update. Working with 40 Chinese students - Business MBA students - but in RL not speaking!Aim: oral skills developmentSet up SL activities - Groups of 6 maximum - 45 monutes twice a group for each group - talking and listeningWhen 'hidden behind avatars'  they will speak!  (Contrast with RL environment) - made a breakthroughGraduate course starts end of the monthWorks 2 days a week in Language LabContact Wynshel for any more information

Cybere's update: Has not been around much since last the course with French, Spanish and Italian last Octoberhad Vietnamese teachers visit SL briefly but htey claimed not being ready for that technologyArcahcon project- had developed course for all levels of French language and teacher training in Virtual environments - not happening currentlyHas brought a variety of groups of language learners into SL Funding for graphics cards in the labs allowed learners to be in worldMuch support from SL friends: Susanna, Anette (Italian), DevLink (French)Too difficult for beginners - overwhelmed by the environment and native speakers.  B1 upwards the best levelContact Cyber for any more informationDiscussion about the use of native speakers - can be daunting (level of language, length of speech)Need to prepare those helping e.g. 'knowing where to stop' - need to be able to 'manage blanks' - give students time to thinkIn fact, environment sufficient as a stimulus even without native speaker

Heike's update: MachinEVO - wonderful experience -51 inworldb) CAMELOT - CreAting Machinima Empowers Live Online Language Teaching and LearningJustification for EU funding (half a million euros) - creating assets / teaching material - promoting use of SL- need for digital material- low production costs- autonomy of teachers and learners- live video concept: 

Info by Ornonoque: LL has been offering educational discounts to selected groups. Hope that we will be candidates for this. Randall Renoir will put in official request as an American educational institution.

Current recommendations: UWA exhibition - art displayBryn Oh

Future meetings:Wednesday - HeikeFriday - Cybère

Next meeting: Wednesday 17th April 7 pm GMT+1 ; 11am SLTACTION: Make suggestions cyberplacebo@gmail.com

If you know of great places to visit, pls approach Cyber.