“ Good to use for virtual consultation time.”

1. “Good to use for virtual consultation time.” Second Life activities for and beyond the technical writing classroom. Dean A. F. Gui, Lan Li, Dora Wong, Gigi Au Yeung The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

2. Contents • English 317 & the original virtual project • Focus of this study • Student comments • Examples of possible learning opportunities for • English 317 • Other English courses • Cross-curricular activities • Second Life for the first year student • The virtual English Department • Considerations and conclusion • Virtual show-and-tell?

3. English 317: English for Technical and Web-Based WritingLearning Outcomes • Understanding discourse features of technical documents and online writing and their communicative functions • Building up confidence and competence in human computer interaction • Enhance linguistic and computer literacy • Building up problem solving and teamwork skills

4. The Virtual Poster Project • Joint work with the PolyU Virtual Campus team • Building up the site in the virtual Exhibition Hall • Setting up evaluation mechanism in SL • Orientation by PolyU Virtual Campus Team • Virtual note card comments, iFeedback, focus group

5. Goals of Present Study To show the creative abilities of students from a technical writing course to think beyond the technical writing classroom (Fox, Arena, and Bailenson, 2009) Showing the quick adaptability of first year university students—many of whom have little to no knowledge of Second Life, and who tend to view virtual worlds simply as another “game” (De Lucia et al, 2009)—in creative thinking and learning (Craft et al, 2007) Consider the relationships between learning activities and the in-class poster task, and the implications of these activities for a potential virtual English department

6. Comments Relevant to Creative-Learning “What suggestions do you have on using Second Life in our learning?” “Apart from displaying posters, voting and commenting on others’ work, what other ways could use Second Life for the subject E317?” “For what other types of learning activities do you think SL could be potentially helpful regarding your future university studies and career goals?”

7. “What suggestions do you have on using Second Life in our learning?” “Apart from displaying posters, voting and commenting on others’ work, what other ways could use Second Life for the subject E317?” “For what other types of learning activities do you think SL could be potentially helpful regarding your future university studies and career goals?” Student Comments on Learning Possibilities in Second Life

8. newspaper reading • reading e-books/e-articles • see how people write • consultation time • online discussion (text and oral) • evaluate others' works • comment on peers' work privately without any pressure or hassle • showing video/films in a TV/theatre format • an archive of relevant artefactsin English 317 information resources • an archive of resources for all English subjects, where students can give comments and share their own findings and experiences • virtual tutorial session • virtual lectures/seminars/presentations Learning for the TWBW classroom

9. reading e-books/e-articles • see how people write • consultation time • online discussion (text and oral) • evaluate others' works • comment on peers' work privately without any pressure or hassle • showing video/films in a TV/theatre format • an archive of resources for all English subjects, where students can give comments and share their own findings and experiences • virtual tutorial session • virtual lectures/seminars/presentations Learning possibilities for other English Courses English 407: Introduction to Intercultural Communicative Competence

10. college fairs (other unis do it) • find fashion information • meet each other online in RPG way Learning Beyond the English Classroom

11. English 317 group user guides 3D, interactive Communal Constructivism and Knowledge-Building (Girvan & Savage, 2010) The TWBW Classroom: an archive of resources, where students can share their findings and experiences

12. English 407 group film Requires appropriate permissions The use of SMoodle, via a navigation panel to broadcast a lecture in Quicktime (De Lucia et al, 2009) Intra-Department Possibilities: showing video/films in a TV/theatre format

13. PolyU Virtual Campus opening / SLActions 2009 Postgraduate Research Symposium 2010: Language and Cultural Studies in the Pearl River Delta Department fairs for sister schools in the Delta Inter-Department Possibilities: college fairs 1 2

14. Student First-Year Acclimation • Second Life is therefore a potential platform to acclimate first year students to the university environment and to test-drive student-generated creative learning possibilities (Carr et al, 2007)

15. The Larger Picture • So what have we done since these studies? • Create a virtual English department • Exhibition area • Interactive/3D “Van Gough” student work (Ward & Sonneborn, 2009) • Work labs (?) • Information kiosk • Drama lab • Stage manipulation • Dancing AIs • Meeting and classroom area • Moodle available for participating courses • Language labs (?)

16. Considerations & Conclusions • Student-centered creative learning • First year acclimation • Future learners learning from comments/experiences/artefacts of previous learners (communal constructivism and knowledge-building) (Girvan & Savage, 2010) • Better preparation for Second Life might induce more creative learning possibilities from students

17. Virtual show and tell

18. References • De Lucia et al. (2009) “Development and evaluation of a virtual campus on Second Life: The case of SecondDMI.” Computers & Education. 52: 220 – 233. • Carr, Tonny et al. (2007) “Weathering wikis: Net-based learning meets political science in a South African university.” Computers and Composition. 24: 266 – 284. • Craft, A., Cremin, T. Burnard, P. and Chappell, K. 2007. “Teacher stance in creative learning: A study of progression.” Thinking Skills and Creativity. 2: 136 - 147. • Fox Jesse, Arena Dylan and Bailenson Jeremy N. (2009) “Virtual Reality: A survival guide for the social scientist.” Journal of Media Psychology. 21 (3): 95 – 113. • Girvan, Carina and Savage, Timothy. (2010) “Identifying and appropriate pedagogy for virtual worlds: A communal Constructivism case study.” (in press) Computers & Education. • Herold, D.K. 2010. “Mediating Media Studies – Stimulating critical awareness in a virtual environment.” Computers & Education, 54 (3):791-798. • Ward, Thomas B., and Sonneborn, Marcene S. (2009) “Creative expression in virtual worlds: Imitations, imagination, and individualized collaboration.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. 3 (4): 211 – 221. • 1. Image courtesy of HK PolyU Media Relases • 2. Image courtesy of Yahoo.com Images

19. Thank You