Assisi in SL

In my recent research on foreign language areas in SL, I came across Assisi. It was launched a few days ago and on my initial wanderings amongst different world areas I missed this excellent replica build of the Saint Francis’ Basilica in Assisi.

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To quote from the notes and in-world press release:

“The Basilica, built with original proportions and sizes, is unique in its quality and details, and in its interior churces avatars can enjoy many renaissance paintings of Giotto, Cimabue, Pietro Lorenzetti and many others.

Every painting has a caption explaining the brief details, just by clicking on it. It’s also possible to wear an HUD (Heads Up Display), built by Wedoit too, to have a complete virtual visit, accessing textual and audio informations about the paintings. The device is currently available in italian and english languages only, and it is distributed at the two entrances of the churches.”

The detail and effort that has gone into this particular build is quite impressive. Add to that the use of Audio and HUD and the SL visitor has a unique experience in culture and language not often found.

It’s possibility in structured lessons from; language to architecture to cultural studies to art to history is not to be underestimated and perhaps examples one of the fundamental ways in which SL may be headed in supporting educational RL world.

Further info can be found here.

Check it out in-world

The “Eavesdrop School of Languages” Approach

As indicated on Saturday night’s posting, the interest in the use of voice technology is being canvassed. There has been a recent flurry of activity by educators interested in using the voice and audio ability of SL to enhance lessons in learning a foreign language. The approach to learning languages seems to take the form of eavesdropping in areas and cityscapes from various regions around the world.

This approach could have some interesting ethical and pedagogical issues. It would seem to be university language courses that are utilising the idea of organising field trips to various cityscapes and “eavesdropping” on inhabitants going about their daily business in their native tongue.

What would prove interesting is if private language colleges and teachers started to offer guided experiences in this way.

To this end I paid a visit to one popular area for those interested in learning Italian. That of Mantova – Italia – Italy.

Being in Australia you need to check the relevant timezones so as to encounter people in this area. But, at the time I was there a number of people dropped in and used the SL talk option. The quality and clarity of sound was quite good and I can see how this method could be a major resource for immersing learners in relevant language lessons and experiences.

For those interested in finding out more about language learning in SL you may like to take part in the Festival of European Languages, September 26 on Belle Isle.

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Belle Isle Europe Map with Landmark posts for various cityscapes and areas for “eavesdropping” on native languages for that particular country.

From the information sheet provided by the organisers:

8am SLT (4pm London) Welcoming
9am/5pm Russian/Baltic states/Finnish
10am/6pm Eastern Europe/Greek
11am/7pm Italian/German/Scandinavian
12 noon/8pm French/Belgian/Dutch/
1pm/9pm English/Spanish/Portuguese

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