ESOL courses
Second Life is an integral part of ESOL 4010 and 6010 through the use of inworld projects. Dr. Ocasio has created a private space with slide-show viewers to which only ESOL students have access.
First, students prepare a 5-7 slide PowerPoint presentation to introduce themselves through pictures and sometimes video. In the past, students have talked about where they went to school, where they have traveled around the world, their family and pets, future plans in ESOL, and one student even showcased a video of their musical talents on the recorder! It doesn’t end there! Students are instructed to return to the discussion forum in BlazeVIEW where they must comment on the presentation of two classmates. They can ask a question, comment on the fact that they shared a middle school or a class in the past, and some even have questions about the countries to where others have traveled.
At the end of the semester before students have finished their final project, they are required to create a brief PowerPoint that summarizes their project. Similar to an academic conference, students view each other’s presentation, return to the BlazeVIEW discussion forum and ask specific questions or comment to their classmates about their final project.
To this end, Dr. Ocasio has created documents and videos to guide the students in these projects. The first documents are emailed to students one month before the course begins so that students can take the time to obtain an avatar and get to know the virtual world before actually diving in!