Interesting Talk on Teaching English in Second Life
Nik Peachey spoke to Dennis Newson about Teaching English in Second Life last night http://blip.tv/file/2482035 Among other things, he spoke about the Strengths , Weaknesses , Opportunities and Threats according to him. Here's a summary of what was talked about: WEAKNESSES * lack of established social norms The talk soon turned into a discussion with different participants agreeing / disagreeing with Nik. Talk mentioned the backchannel of the text chat sometimes interrupting the flow during meetings. * no eye contact * gestures and body language makes it difficult Nik wondered about the effect of the lack of body language, gestures, etc have on students and the Teacher-Student relationship. Participants who have experience teaching online mentioned the fact that the more experience you have teaching online the better: you can pick things up in other ways (tone of voice, etc) One participant, however, stated evidence has found that some students are more forthcoming because of