Virtlantis,%20Facebook%20and%20Second%20Life:%20web2%20scaffolding%20for%20virtual%20world%20language%20learning%20community%20of%20practice

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Virtlantis, Facebook and Second Life web2
scaffolding for virtual world language learning
community of practice

• Wlodzimierz Sobkowiak (FL) Wlodek Barbosa (SL)

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Presentation plan

1. What is Second Life (SL)?
2. What is Virtlantis?
3. Virtlantis on Facebook
4. Community of Practice/Interest definitions
5. Instructional scaffolding definition
6. Web2 scaffolding for SL CoP
7. Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook wall
8. Bibliography

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What is Second Life?

• "Second Life is an online virtual world developed
  by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003.
  A number of free client programs, or Viewers,
  enable Second Life users, to interact with each
  other through avatars (also called Residents).
  Residents can explore the world (...), meet other
  residents, socialize, participate in individual
  and group activities, and create and trade
  virtual property and services with one another."
  (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life)

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What is Virtlantis? (1)

• "VIRTLANTIS is a free language learning resource
  and community of practice in the virtual worlds
  of Second Life and OpenSim. We offer activities
  for a growing number of languages. All of our
  activities are offered free of charge by kind and
  generous volunteers. We have been offering free
  language learning activities since 2006. We are a
  language learning community with members from all
  over the world. You will soon meet friendly
  people from many different countries who, like
  you, are very interested in learning about other
  languages and cultures."
• (http//www.virtlantis.com)

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What is Virtlantis? (2)

• "The VIRTLANTIS Community is not only present in
  the virtual world of Second Life. Community
  members often connect and communicate on other
  social platforms such as Facebook, Google, Skype
  and Twitter. In addition to our in-world
  activities, we are especially active on Facebook.
  We often discuss in-world activities and topics
  related to language learning there. It's also a
  great place to find help if you ever have any
  questions about VIRTLANTIS, language learning,
  etc." (http//www.virtlantis.com)

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Community of Practice/Interest definitions

• CoP - "group of people who share a concern, a set
  of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who
  deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area
  by interacting on an ongoing basis." (Wenger,
  McDermott Snyder 20024)
• "A community of interest is a community of people
  who share a common interest or passion. These
  people exchange ideas and thoughts about the
  given passion (...). Participation in a community
  of interest can be compelling, entertaining and
  create a sticky community where people return
  frequently and remain for extended periods."
• (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_interes
  t)

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Instructional scaffolding definition

• "Scaffolding is the support given during the
  learning process which is tailored to the needs
  of the student with the intention of helping the
  student achieve his/her learning goals (...)
  Reciprocal scaffolding (...) is a method that
  involves a group of two or more collaboratively
  working together (...) The scaffolding is shared
  by each member and changes constantly as the
  group works on a task."
• (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaff
  olding)

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Web2 scaffolding for SL CoP

• "As a virtual world it Second Life - WS/B is
  currently not adequate as a learning environment
  on its own. There is a need to construct an
  additional information space in order to gather
  all information regarding the course and to
  display this information outside the rather
  distracting, graphically rich and socially
  dynamic virtual environment" (Petrakou 20101027).

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Need for Facebook (Fb) scaffolding

• lower hardware/bandwidth requirements of Fb
• portability/ubiquity of Fb (e.g. smartphones,
  tablets)
• ease of access (friendly interface) on Fb
• easy asynchronous communication across time
  zones on Fb
• there is no group 'wall' in Second Life
• group chat can be (re-)entered at any time on Fb
• easy multimedia sharing (pics, audio, vids) on
  Fb
• Fb is given/home SL is new territory (to most
  residents)
• First Life member identities are more common on
  Fb
• all text is more easily legible on Fb

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All text is more easily legible on Fb
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook wallSome
textual statistics (March 2013)

• 1026 posts and comments
• 30574 word tokens
• 4748 word types
• Some top-freq words like, English,
  activity(-ies), comments, language, welcome,
  words, learning, TOEFL, practice, dictionary,
  Scrabble, relaxing
• Some top-freq posters and commenters Kip Boahn
  (626), Martina Zeiner (483), Lynne Hand (103),
  Montse Veyrat (87), Wlodzimierz Sobkowiak (70)

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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook wall Types of
posts

1. Pre-activity announcements
2. Post-activity comments
3. E-teaching/sharing
4. Information requests
5. Social bonding

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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallPre-activity announcements (1)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallPre-activity announcements (2)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallPre-activity announcements (3)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallPre-activity announcements (4)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallPost-activity comments (1)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallPost-activity comments (2)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallPost-activity comments (3)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallPost-activity comments (4)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallE-teaching/sharing (1)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallE-teaching/sharing (2)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallE-teaching/sharing (3)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallE-teaching/sharing (4)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallInformation requests (1)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallInformation requests (2)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook
wallInformation requests (3)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook wallSocial
bonding (1)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook wallSocial
bonding (2)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook wallSocial
bonding (3)
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Scaffolding on Virtlantis Facebook wallSocial
bonding (4)
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Bibliography

• Petrakou, A. (2010). "Interacting through
  avatars Virtual worlds as a context for online
  education". Computers and Education 54.1020-1027.
• Wenger, E., McDermott, R., Snyder, W.M. 2002.
  Cultivating Communities of Practice. Boston
  Harvard Business School Press.
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_interest
  
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffol
  ding
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

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