7. Second Life

It is exactly what its name proposes: a Second Life. It is a virtual world. You can be yourself or you can be somebody (or something) else. It starts with the election of an avatar, which is a kind of character, you give it a name and a last name, and it can resemble a human being, an animal or even just smoke. Then, you can choose your physical appearance, that goes from muscles and body fat, character's height, hair color or facial features to clothing. It is similar to that PC game called "The Sims", in which you choose your physical appearance, clothing and who you want to be. Nevetheless, in this game you can communicate and interact with other characters using the keyboard or a microphone and speakers. Once you are inside Second Life, you choose the place where you want to be. Our professor invited us to an island where we learned the basics of the game: how to walk, fly, interact with objects, talk to people, take snapshots and so on.

What is interesting about this game is that you have people from all around the world just next to you. This can be of great advantage for English learners since they can meet native English speakers or people from other languages (that use English as lingua franca)and practice the four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. They are completely immersed in another country where they have to communicate using the English language. Another significant advantage, this time for teachers, is that you can actually teach inside the game. Teachers can create their own avatars and virtual classrooms and give their lessons using this tool. Children, adolescents and even adults will be thrilled to have class inside a virtual world, since they will feel that they are not learning, but just playing a game.

According to Nik Peachey, writer and learning technology consultant, one of the strengths of Second Life is that "it can give teachers from any part of the world with internet access the opportunity to be in the same virtual room as some of the most respected experts in our field. Also the ability to easily record these interviews means that they can be archived and shared with people who weren't able to be at the live event."

If you want to experience Second Life, just join this virtual community at Secondlife.com. If you want to know more about this topic, click on the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/nik-peachey/

I am still learning how to use this promising tool; however, here are some pictures from my SL experience: