Second Life Languages Conference May 2008

[Graham Davies]

SLanguages 2008 Online Conference, 23-24 May 2008

The SLanguages 2008 Conference brings together practitioners and researchers in the field of language education in Second Life for a 24-hour event to celebrate languages and cultures within the 3D virtual world.

This second annual event is entirely free and takes place on the EduNation islands within Second Life. Take a tour of the venue:

http://www.slanguages.net/venue.php

Starts 18.00 GMT, 23 May 2008

Ends 18.00 GMT 24 May 2008

Further information and registration form at:

http://www.slanguages.net

The ICT4LT site contains an intro to teaching and learning languages in Second Life, with a brief report and screenshots of the SLanguages 2007 Conference:

http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm#secondlife

I have just started a new thread on the SLanguages 2008 Conference at in the ICT4LT blog:

http://ictforlanguageteachers.blogspot.com

CALICO 2008, 19 March 2008

I made a small contribution to a workshop at the CALICO 2008 conference in San Francisco on 19 March 2008. The workshop was entitled Virtual Worlds and Language Teaching: Real Ideas for a Virtual Classroom.

I made my contribution from my home in the UK via Second Life. I was able introduce myself briefly, using voice chat, to the workshop participants gathered together at "Renoir's Roost" on one of the EduNation islands. A wiki relating to the workshop, with lots of useful links and information has been set up by the workshop leader, Randall Sadler:

http://sl4calico.pbwiki.com

I am becoming more and more impressed by this technology as a means of holding "virtual" meetings. At the same time as the workshop was taking place I was conversing via Skype with a friend in Abu Dhabi - and later we continued our conversation via Second Life.

CMC SIG Conference, Padua, Italy 17-19 April 2008

I shall be giving a short intro to the EUROCALL HQ in Second Life at EUROCALL's forthcoming Computer Mediated Communication conference in Padua, Italy, 18 April 2008, GMT 17.30. Further information can be obtained via the CMC SIG discussion list at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CMC_SIG/