Our students Chantelle and Nisreen at the Master of Arts in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching collaboratively reflect on their experience on doing activities on an online Virtual World. Read their thoughts:
When we entered Small worlds, we had a lot of questions about its nature and application as an educational tool in language classrooms. In the beginning we were confused with the so many avatars appearing and disappearing, and then we got engaged creating our own avatars. Our 3D lifelike avatars were reflecting our own identities, their looks, style; even the nicknames were very similar to us in real world.
During the session, we were thinking about our students all the time, about the affordances and shortcomings of Small Worlds. We started realizing how the anonymity related to avatars could really help reluctant students to reduce their language related anxiety. Although there is no opportunity for expressing emotions and reactions properly, yet there is some sense of real immersion and tempting engagement in these worlds. Moreover, Small Worlds can be effective in creating a community of people sharing ideas collaboratively. As for us as students in Small Worlds, we were relaxed, happy, and most importantly did not feel the time. It was so real and engaging!
When we entered Small worlds, we had a lot of questions about its nature and application as an educational tool in language classrooms. In the beginning we were confused with the so many avatars appearing and disappearing, and then we got engaged creating our own avatars. Our 3D lifelike avatars were reflecting our own identities, their looks, style; even the nicknames were very similar to us in real world.
During the session, we were thinking about our students all the time, about the affordances and shortcomings of Small Worlds. We started realizing how the anonymity related to avatars could really help reluctant students to reduce their language related anxiety. Although there is no opportunity for expressing emotions and reactions properly, yet there is some sense of real immersion and tempting engagement in these worlds. Moreover, Small Worlds can be effective in creating a community of people sharing ideas collaboratively. As for us as students in Small Worlds, we were relaxed, happy, and most importantly did not feel the time. It was so real and engaging!
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